Swings + Roundabouts Winter 2021

About the author Phil Sales is specialist business coach, interested in 'cool stuff' in the business development sector. For more about Phil, see https://iact15.wixsite.com/iactltd/ who-we-are opportunities, whenever you can. Think of your business as a new start-up, operating on very little cash. Can you beg or borrow the things you need? Can you wrangle, barter, substitute, or recycle the things you need? Can you get donated goods in return for advertising services? Can you clip-the-ticket on bulk orders through your organsiation, such goods such as firewood sales, or Xmas hampers? Use your own resources (and free resources!), as much as possible. If your first impulse, when solving a problem, is to reach for the credit card, then lock it away somewhere inaccessible. Reach instead for quality volunteers, interns, work-experience seekers, and portfolio groups. Look for free training, seminars, workshops, and networks. Reinvent and rejuvenate traditional funding mainstays, such as raffles, barbecues, fashion shows, and car washes. If traditional working bees at your early childhood centre are becoming a bit stale, then jazz them up as a fun competition day, with competing teams, and maybe a local celebrity awarding donated prizes for the cleanest windows, or the best fence mural by an emerging local artist! Turn mundane tasks into enjoyable win-win situations for those involved. Think about leveraging your inputs to create value-added outputs (sometimes referred to as “buying more than the dollar value”). This is more than buying sausages at 50 cents each and then selling them off the barbecue at $2 each (although that also works!) Anything which is donated to your early childcare centre also has a re-sale value, which can be redeemed to your advantage. Also leverage your staff. Essentially, you hire staff in the expectation that the benefits they bring will exceed the cost of paying them to be part of your organisation. So, ask your new hires what they bring in terms of adding measurable value to your business. Do they have fundraising experience, or a knack for attracting sponsors, or maybe a flair for organising small-scale events? If so, then build this into their respective job descriptions, and hold them responsible for managing a specific funding project. Finally, track your financial performance, and measure your return-on-investment (ROI) on everything that you do! Work out the things which bring the best ROI to your organisation and then do more of them. Some of this might be core business activity, and some might be discretionary (such as events, community, or promotion-related activity). By knowing your ROIs, you will have better control over the predictability of business activity. This is important because it gives you better certainty and control, while reducing risk. Without ROI analysis, you are just speculating on your expected business performance, with very limited certainty of achieving your expected results. With ROI analysis, you are taking more of an investment approach to your business, with a clearer understanding of the financial return on any given activity. So, there you have it. Several practical ideas to help you beat the odds, and survive! Preferred supplier to the Early Childhood Council As a Rubiix client, your financial management moves up to the next level. You’ll master Xero, save time and money on audits and reviews, meet MOE and IRD requirements easily, and have EOFY accounts completed accurately and on time, every time. Plus you get benchmarking data that shows how your centre is doing compared to similar centres. To find out more, Call Mark Salmon at Rubiix Accountants on (09) 302 2268 or 0800 733 255, or email msalmon@rubiix.co.nz End-of- nancial-year is the best time to switch to Rubiix, NZ’s number one accounting provider for ECEs. We’re the only accounting rm endorsed by the Early Childhood Council and more than 350 centres trust us with their accounting. THE BEST TIME TO UPGRADE YOUR ACCOUNTANT IS NOW! “Switching to Rubiix has been like finding a savvy CFO or strategic business partner.” Dr Darius Singh, co-founder Chrysalis Group of ECE Centres June 2021 { 23 }