Published by Credit Matters Pty Ltd.
Welcome to Credit Matters Newsletter for September 2017. Our monthly newsletter contains information about financial risk management issues, blogs, advice of new business listings and free advice from organisations such as ASIC.
You can always view past copies of our newsletters via our website at www.creditmatters.com.au
What's New At Credit Matters? Monthly Business Conundrum Monthly Business Observation Word of the Month 
First, unfortunately, as we were testing our new back office systems, an incomplete September newsletter was sent out earlier in the month by mistake. We apologise for any inconvenience.
We are now hopeful that our office number of 03 9886 6707 is fully restored.
You will find another new feature, "The Theory Was Well Intentioned" in our Members area.
The intention of governments to protect borrowers from unscrupulous financiers through Legislation, has added layers of costs to genuine creditors and gradually eroded their rights. As a result, we see increasingly, debtors are using Government legislation to avoid their responsibilities. As you can imagine, this erosion of creditor rights has ramifications for all businesses extending B2B credit.
It is not our normal practice to promote old blogs or changes to Legislation once we have highlighted them in a previous newsletter. There have been a spat of data breaches lately and Australia's new mandatory data breach notification laws come in to effect in February 2018. It seems timely therefore to highlight Thomson Geer's recent blog again on this occasion. The link to their blog is below.
Advertising via Credit Matters
If you are interested in reaching business prospects who need your services or products, contact Kim to see what he can do for you. There are many different opportunities to advertise your business via Credit Matters and it may not be as expensive as you might imagine.
This month, you will find attached brochures for A.I.C.M., IBAC and GCS. ReConnect Finance would like to advertise they can assist you with more than housing loans. They can also help you with business finance.
Which sales figure is a true measure of success? Is it the sales budget set by management, or the sales that are paid within terms?
The truth is, both sales figures are valid. The business needs a certain amount of sales to be cashflow positive and profitable. However, we also know; a sale is not a sale until the money is in the bank.
The conundrum is, are the sales budget realistic or are the sales paid, cashflow positive and profitable?
The problems start with the sales budget. Is the sales budget calculated correctly and achievable? If not, the sales which were paid, may have been late, or not profitable. In such situations, the business is in trouble.
At the end of the day, unrealistic sales budgets have an influence on what sales are made and whether they are cashflow positive and profitable.
This is an ongoing conundrum for many businesses and needs to be resolved if the business is to survive and then grow.
In business, we need to have the stamina to keep trying different strategies as we look for what works for our business. Frequently however, business people give up too early or do not keep trying to find a way forward. The best course of action for success is to try and keep going until you succeed.
In line with our quote for this month, an acquaintance once said, "Every NO for him was being one step closer to a YES" He was the ever-optimistic salesperson, and we know the very best salespeople never give up. They are always approaching their customers with a positive attitude trying for a YES.
Fraudsters are another group of business people who never give up. The average person may not like to think of fraudsters as businesspeople. The fact is, whether you like it or not, fraud is their business. The main difference between fraudsters and other businesspeople, is the fraudster's job description includes the possibility of going to jail.
Most businesspeople do not want to do anything illegal that might involve going to jail. Apart from the fact the genuine businessperson would rather not go to jail, there is a lot businesspeople can learn from fraudsters. One of the key aspects of business which we can all learn from fraudsters; is the value of perseverance.
Fraudsters and criminals need very little encouragement when looking for the next customer. Any person or any business that has money and assets is a potential customer. All they need to succeed are consumers which lack discipline when it comes to clicking on emails, or a business with poor operational disciplines and employees who do not care.
Fraudsters also look at other business opportunities such as with crypto-currencies. Have you noticed how many bitcoin specialists there are lately? These specialists are sending endless emails to prospective customers offering to help them make thousands, if not millions, and all from only $250!
Who hasn't got just a few dollars ready to make millions? Therein lies the problem, if it only takes a few dollars to make a million and if it was that easy, why is anybody targeting for prospective customers? The fact is that there are greedy and gullible people who still believe in "fairytales." At the end of the day, the only people likely to make a pot of gold from these scams are the fraudsters.
There are many more examples of how fraudsters persevere until the gullible, the lazy, the greedy or the undisciplined make a mistake.
Business is like that as well. We have all heard the stories about how it took "x" months or even years to get that customer to start buying. The fact is, that not all businesses are the equivalent of an overnight success. If you were study the development of many businesses operating today, you would find their success was built on perseverance.
In business, perseverance in the face of adversity and disappointment, is just one of the key requirements for all businesspeople. Stay strong and there is every likelihood you will be successful at the end of the day.
Word of the Month - The aim of Word of the Month is to share those many words used in Australian English which cause confusion. The confusion arises because there's often two spelling variations.
Fathers Day, Father’s Day, or Fathers’ Day.
There are three variations that can be used for Father’s Day and all to a degree make sense, but only one is correct.
Modern usage of the apostrophe means that when there is a tenuous link between ownership, the apostrophe is no longer used. E.g. visitors book, which has no apostrophe as no particular visitor owns the book. Since Father’s Day is not owned by anyone, it could be Fathers Day with no apostrophe. There are many fathers so it makes sense to use the plural version and place the apostrophe after the s, as in Fathers’ Day. However, Father’s Day is an officially declared day with the apostrophe before the s, which follows the convention used for Mother’s Day.
Trying to work out logically where the apostrophe should appear in the case of Father’s Day doesn’t work. The placement of the apostrophe is a result of how the day was officially declared.
Some of you may have noticed recently shops using the apostrophe incorrectly in their Father’s Day promotions, if you didn’t, you probably will next year.
For more information on the Preferred Australian English spelling visit www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au .
CONSTRUCTION Alert: Commercial arbitrations: what if a non-party is partially liable?
Commercial arbitrations are held between parties to a contract exclusively, meaning non-parties cannot be joined to arbitration proceedings. This article considers the circumstances that may arise where a contract has an arbitration clause, and a party outside of the contract is partially liable for a claimant’s loss. There are a number of questions that arise […]
This week the Queensland government introduced the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Bill 2017 (the Bill). The Bill contains the most controversial, radical and wide-reaching amendments to legislation governing the building and construction industry since the initial introduction of the Building and Construction Industry Payments Act 2004 (BCIPA) in 2004. The maximum penalties facing […]
TAX Alert: Do SMSF deeds need to be amended?
A common question recently is whether trust deeds of self managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) need to be amended following commencement of the new superannuation/tax regime on 1 July 2017. Our answer is below. Necessity to amend deeds Most SMSF deeds do not need to be amended. It is unlikely that failing to amend a deed would […]
Every year an untold number of organisations are affected by data breaches. These can be accidental or inadvertent (eg leaving an external hard drive of sensitive information on the train), but are more frequently malicious attempts by external parties to obtain sensitive information (eg hacking). From 22 February 2018, organisations affected by an “eligible data […]
A recent case warns of the dangers of filing for a trade mark in the name of the wrong entity, particularly given the defect cannot subsequently be cured by an assignment.
When is an “image right” not a right? And how has the ATO found a way of dealing with this dilemma? Image rights for sports stars are very big business in Australia, as recent ATO rulings and guidelines have recognised1. Names, images and likenesses are becoming more and more valuable, so likewise managing rights, licensing […]
Employers and franchisors need to be aware of the significant changes they will need to make in the short term after the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017 passed this week. These amendments are scheduled to commence in the next couple of weeks. What are the changes? Once these changes to the Fair […]
Would you like to know more?
Peter Mills | Special Counsel | +61 7 3338 7921 | pmills@tglaw.com.au
Credit Matters provides access to blogs written by Kim Radok. Just go to www.creditmatters.com.au to read these and previous blogs.
Since our last newsletter, we presented the following blogs.
Since our last newsletter, the following posts have been added to the Invaluable Reading From Australia and Around The World section.
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