Growth Newsletter

Have you ever stopped to consider the true cost of delaying your invoicing by one day in your business? Not from Friday to the following Monday but the cost of not invoicing at the end of the month and leaving it to the first day of the next month?

There’s an old saying “why put off to tomorrow what you can do today”? People say it yet they don’t embrace it. In actual fact, amongst the many family businesses I see, I believe the saying is inverted — why do it today when there’s always tomorrow?

Last week I attended the 2016 Family Business Australia conference in Melbourne. It was a fantastic three days of learning and connecting with other family business owners and advisors from all over Australia.

I have had the good fortune of working with many great family businesses over the years. The industries may differ. The personalities certainly differ. For me, the part I really like is working with business owners who consider an issue, gather the facts, make a decision and then implement it immediately. No committees. No politics. Just get on and do it.

One of my big criticisms around modern Australian politics is that we no don’t have a clear vision for where Australia is heading as a country. For me, the Hawke, Keating and Howard Governments were all clear on vision.

One of the great joys of working with family business is observing what works and what doesn’t in different businesses. It’s interesting that, irrespective of industry, geography or size, there are issues that apply across a range of family businesses.

Sometimes, the subtlest changes can have the most significant impact in your family business. Let me explain.

Most family business owners and managers have heard of the term lending covenants, but don’t necessarily understand what it means.

When I was a young boy, our family never went on a holiday together, ever. I don’t know what the reason was. It just never happened. Even at that young age, I was determined to ensure that, when I grew up, I would take my family on holidays at least once per year.

At the time of writing, there was no clear winner from last Saturday’s Federal Election. Whilst the betting money might be on Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal-National Coalition just holding on, the chances are it will be the second time in six years the Australian people have voted for a minority government.