Credit Matters Newsletter
In This Issue
- What's New At Credit Matters?
- Quote Of The Month
- Monthly Business Observation
- Monthly Business Conundrum
- This Month's Business Inconvenient Truth
- Latest Blogs & Readings
- Special Topic
- THE LATEST ASIC UPDATES
- IBAC UPDATES
- ACCC UPDATES
What's New At Credit Matters?
Due to ongoing work with our clients, our next feature has been delayed. Hopefully it will be available shortly.
One of the benefits provided by our newsletters is that we provide updates to various organisations which provide valuable information for the business community and consumers. Too often in hurley burley of business, we forget to check these organisations, e.g., ASIC, ACCC, AUSTRAC etc. Yet, these organisations, and others, provide valuable information to find out if our businesses are operating correctly within legislation and / or to find out about various individuals or organisations that have acted illegally or unethically.
May I suggest a visit to these organisations occasionally may be of value to your business and helpful in avoiding any damaging and costly problems. After all, we can only include a small number of listings and you may miss other valuable information fot you and your businesses.
The attachment with this newsletter is from Enable Workplace Consulting advertising their upcoming online training Crisis Response in the Workplace.
Kim is available to help with your questions and concerns if you need any assistance, and as always, the first chat is always free of charge or obligation.
Quote Of The Month
“It is unfortunate that in most cases when the sins of the father fall on the son it is because unlike God, people refuse to forgive and forget and heap past wrongs upon innocent generations. E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,
Monthly Business Observation
When a business changes its name, it generally does so for one of two reasons. The first is due to a change of business direction and/or focus. In this situation, the name change is a valid reason and usually well accepted.
The second reason for a name change is because its previous name has been damaged beyond repair due to illegal or unethical behaviour by its management and employees. As a result, the business has attracted unwanted and adverse attention which just does not go away. Changing the name of the business is deemed therefore one way forward to avoid the negative stigma associated with the previous bad name.
There are times when this strategy works and other times when it doesn’t especially when the business is ASX listed, or where the business name was badly damaged by the former management and employees. In these situations, stakeholders such as investors, suppliers and potential customers etc. refuse to “forget” the damage caused to their businesses.
Another reason why a name change should be a warning to future stakeholders, concerns the likely future financial status and behaviour of the business and its employees. It may be that these factors have changed, however change rarely occurs quickly in any organisation once it is entrenched. On the other hand, with a proactive and new management which have positive reputations, perhaps the situation has changed noticeably for the better.
If nothing seems to have changed substantially from the previous poor behaviour, care needs to be taken when deciding to continue trading with this business. After all, you do not want to continue to be disadvantaged by a dysfunctional business which shows no change of moving forward to correct its previous bad behaviour.
On the other hand, it may be there have been demonstrative efforts to change initiated by the new management team which has made the business more financially viable. It may therefore impact negatively on your own business if you do not also change your previous poor perceptions of that business and investigate whether it is time to trade with them again.
When a business changes its name, it generally does so for one of two reasons. The first can be due to a change of business direction and/or focus. The second may be to try and escape a history of bad behaviour which damaged the business’s former name and the business irreversibly. In either case, it is important to correctly evaluate the state of the current business after its change of name. Failure to do so properly, may result in continued poor performance and costs to your own business, or an opportunity is lost to increased benefits by trading with them.
Monthly Business Conundrum
One of the ongoing issues which management can be faced with, is whether to stay within a previously defined business model or to expand. The truth is that whichever decision is made, there will be consequences, both good and others less so. There will also be times when a level of conservatism is warranted and other times, a failure to take an opportunity will impact negatively on the future viability of your business.
When in tough times, such as is the current state of affairs, positive business opportunities will still occur periodically. As part of any decision-making process on whether to take up these options, business owners and management must carefully evaluate how to proceed.
There are so many issues to consider these days, including the following.
- The current financial and operational state of your existing business.
- Understanding whether your current business has enough resources, e.g., people, buildings, IT facilities etc., to create the new business model required and to make it fully operational and efficient.
- if you decide to take over another business, identifying the true state of financial and operational health of that business.
- If you need to borrow, whether you have the ongoing income to pay for the cashflow to pay for this new facility as interest rates are likely to keep rising.
- Understanding the state of the overall current business environment and how that may impact on the new business’s potential success.
- Understanding that a new set of regulations and legislation may dictate the way your new business needs to operate if it is in a new or different marketplace,
- to identity and the nature of any future issues which may validate your decision to proceed or not, etc.
There are many reasons to consider when an opportunity arises because one of the quickest ways for your business to become insolvent is to expand too quickly. On the other hand, if you truly understand and can afford to expand based on a realistic and common sense basis, not expanding my also result in a lost opportunity to create a more viable and substantial business.
This Month's Business Inconvenient Truth
The most important thing to understand about business is that it is not just a financial contract between two parties, it is also a social contract. It is those businesses which fail to understand the social contract factor which suffer the most negative issues in the long term.
The fact that a social contract exists in the business world is reflected by the emphasis in networking, building relationships and having the right type of employees which understand how to sell to customers. This selling aspect also applies when following up for payment of unpaid invoices or if debt collection is required.
This factor sounds strange to management and business professionals who have not worked in these roles previously. As a consequence, they often dictate how employees should operate as a result. The reality is that if the customer (who is usually just thought of as a debtor) doesn’t like your business, or have any other issues with your business, they just don’t pay as quickly as management would like.
How quickly the customers pay and how much, is usually dictated by the relationship which exists between your accounts or debt collection employee and the other party. In reality, the same principle applies in the same way as it does when you are trying to sell your business’s products and services. It is all about the relationship.
Relationships are not always built on management’s perspectives and directions of five or ten minute time blocks when dealing with customers. There are times when it can take an occasional 15, 30 or 60 minutes to create a good interactive relationship and a positive rapport between your employee and customer. This understanding is particularly important in tough times, such as currently when customers may have negative pressures acting against them. Often these situations which are stressful, it takes a bit of extra time for the customer to open up and articulate all their concerns. It is only when your employee understands all the factors, can they act reasonably and responsibly for the benefit of both parties.
At the end of the day, management and business professionals need to understand that the social contract is just as important as the financial contract in all business transactions. The social side of business is recognised when selling a product, but not always understood or respected when follow up is required for the money.
The failure to understand the social contract in accounts and debt collection, often means the efforts to sell the product or service in the first place are wasted when your employee and customer do not have a positive social connection. It also goes without saying, a sale is not a sale until the money involved in unpaid invoices or in the outstanding debt are repaid and in your business’s bank account.
Latest Blogs & Readings
Initials reused – ESG is such a set of initials which was meant to indicate one line of thought. It has been used successfully however by others to mean something entirely new.
Updates courtesy of www.asic.gov.au
Media Updates
Speeches and Articles
Media Releases
Media Releases
Credit Matters is a financial risk management resource centre for the Australian business community. If you are in business, Credit Matters is your ideal source of financial risk management solutions.
Future Opportunities & Possibilities
Credit Matters is continuing to grow and provide marketing and knowledge about financial risks to the Australia business community.
Futhermore, we invite marketing and knowledge ideas from our readers and contributors on how we can assist our respective firms grow. If you have any ideas, please contact me at info@creditmatters.com.au.
If you are interested in finding new ways to reach your marketplace, why not try Credit Matters. Our prices for advertising are very reasonable and advertising packages are on offer to make any cost, even more affordable. So if you are interested in reaching your customers at the right price, please contact Kim at info@creditmatters.com.au for options.