The number 1 complaint from small business owners that I hear is -”I can’t get good people”. Hiring the wrong person can cause immense stress and be very costly both in time & money. Here are some key tips in employment to help you find the right person for you.

1. Set expectations

Your relationship with your team member is just the same as the other relationships in your life. You have to be upfront and set the expectations right from the start.

As the employer, you have to be transparent on what you want, what you expect on the quality of work, and on the limitations of the job. It is important to set the tone and the realities of the job right from the start to avoid misunderstandings and false hopes on the new employee’s end. As the employer, you must also encourage the new team member to voice their expectations. This way, you’ll be able to communicate openly together.

If expectations are different from the very beginning - then don’t offer the job.

2. Determine your work culture

Each business or work environment has their own “workplace culture”. This culture is what developed with the existing team members through the years; the shared values, the familiarity with each one’s work style, the respect, and even their own work lingo. Make sure that the new team member will fit in this existing work culture. As long as he/she shares the same values with the existing employees, the adjustment will be seamless and cohesive. It’s just a matter of finding the perfect fit.

3. Hire proactively rather than re-actively

The most common mistake of an employer is hiring re-actively rather than proactively. Just because a position needs to be filled in, some employers would hire the next best thing rather than wait for the best candidate that can adapt to the work culture. Remember that hiring the wrong person can cause the business a lot of money so it is best to be patient and think hard on your hiring decisions.

4. Hire someone you actually like

In interviewing employees, make sure not to only ask them about work or about the job. Be sure to ask them about their own personal story and spend actual time getting to know them and their personality. Your new employee will be part of your life and it's best that you actually like each other. A simple personality test or discussing a common interest can help you determine this like-ability factor.

You might to check out our podcast interview with Tony Scott of Employsure where we explore this topic deeper at:

Where are you spending your money? Are you spending it on pointless, routinely things or are you actually spending them on things that make you happy? Here are a few tips to make sure you are spending money wisely and happily:

1. Spend money on experiences

Which caused you more happiness: the latest gadget that you bought or the most recent vacation with people you love? Most people would say the latter and for good reason: Experiences are memories you can keep for a lifetime. Profound experiences, such as travels experiencing new cultures, will leave a mark in your life that will stay with you, while the latest gadget can keep you entertained for a week or two. Experiences allow us to grow & impact on the person we become.

2. Buy time

Time is a non-renewable resource. More time spent with things that you actually love translates into happiness. So, how do you buy time? One is to focus on things that you are good at and enjoy doing. For the work that you feel can be efficiently handled by a professional or even an app that specializes on the task at hand, it’s best to invest on these to buy you more time in doing what you actually like doing. Forego the hassle of work that you don’t enjoy that may take 10 hours, when a professional can do it in 1/10th the time at a better quality.

Time is valuable - yet too many of us don’t value it. Spend it wisely.

3. Spend on others

Money can change things. Money can change other people’s lives. Spending money on others like a charity you truly care for or investing money on education of a prized employee can give you happiness like no other. Knowing that you’ve helped in the improvement of the lives of another person is a joy that a few has the privilege to experience.

4. Have a “happiness budget”

Review your monthly expenses and see if the things you spend on actually serve you happiness or just money going down the drain. Make sure that the things you spend money on have purpose. If they do, keep these in your budget and add some more if need be. Keep in mind that budgeting is not to limit your happiness but it helps you to be mindful and spend the money on the things that really do matter.

5. Stop keeping up with the Jones'

Too often, we are occupied with material things that are not necessary. With the advent of social media, some people feel that they need to get the latest phones or take that expensive trip.

Work out what makes you happy & prioritise that. A common example I see is with cars. if you are into cars & they give you a significant amount of pleasure, then go for it. If you are not into cars & just want something to get you from A to B that is reliable, an exotic car won’t deliver much happiness. Save some money & put it towards living a life that is true to your values - not someone else’s.

You might like to checkout our recent podcast where we discuss this subject at https://www.gettothecontest.com/single-post/2018/05/09/Money-CAN-buy-you-happiness

We also can recommend the book “ Happy Money - The Science of Happier Spending” by Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton.

Is your company doing eligible research and development (R&D) activities? Your company may just be eligible for a government grant such as a tax offset. The offset may vary from 43.5% or 38.5% for costs incurred on eligible R&D activities depending on the company’s annual aggregated turnover.

To learn more about this, I recently interviewed Ben Cusack of Bulletpoint, the R&D grant experts who help business owners access government grants.

WARWICK: What is the main goal of an R&D grant?

BEN: The Australian government wants Australia to be more competitive and to do that is to grow the IP in Australia and then export that. So that's their main agenda and they want to encourage R&D rather than just making a commodity product, they're actually investing in making something different that they can charge a premium for. So there's a grant program called the R&D Tax Incentive and in simple terms, if you are an expert developing something new, novel, and unique and you are spending money on that, then you can get up to 43.5% back from the government.

WARWICK: Who is eligible for the R&D grant?

BEN: The main criteria they have you hit must be a company structure as opposed to trusts, partnership, or sole traders. You need to be an expert in developing something that’s new, novel and unique. If you could already predict the outcome of your project, then it may not be eligible for R&D.

WARWICK: Is there a required revenue turnover to be qualified for the grant?

BEN: There is no limit at this stage on what sort of turnover. I guess we're more in the start-up market so a lot of the confusion is that you don't need to have any revenue in order to access. You just need to have costs and cost is what triggers the eligibility for the program. Also, it's a refundable offset. It's not just a reduction of your tax. Some people will think, "Well, I'm not paying any tax this year so it's no point to me," but in actual fact, the government will put cash into your bank account if you spend money on eligible expenditure.

Warwick: What are some of the mistakes people make in applying for an R&D Grant?

Ben: People assume that their time automatically has a value and that's if they're working for free and not charging the company a lot of money or if they're paid a hundred thousand dollars in their previous job, but, for this new company, you can't believe they're not earning the same amount of money. You can't claim opportunity costs.

Common mistakes are that I've seen when people have come to me in the past and they've done it themselves previously is that they assume all their activities are R&D.

So, I've seen people ... if you were sitting there and you know, doing, literature search or Googling to find what others have done or applying for a patent or getting IP protection, that doesn't always necessarily qualify as R&D. You need to have a core activity, which is where the experiment takes places and you have supporting activities that could be eligible but they need to form the core activity.

Warwick: What about if you were paid a salary from the company? Right so the percentage of your time that's spent on R&D you may actually be eligible to include in your submission.

Ben : Correct.

Warwick: What are some the type of expenses that are often overlooked in an R&D Claim?

Ben: Whilst you You can't claim opportunity costs, other things we can look to include are overhead costs so, you have electricity, Internet, rent.

WARWICK: Does money have to be spent locally in Australia? Does overseas investment qualify?

BEN: It has to be Australian based expenditure and activities. So developers overseas don't count toward that. It needs to be Australian based developers and you also can't just rely on employing an Australian development company to satisfy 100 percent.

WARWICK: If a small business owner identifies himself as R&D eligible, how can they start the process of applying for one?

BEN: What you need to do is submit an R&D Tax Incentive Activity Registration, where you document what your business does and other important information. You then lodge that with the body, called AusIndustry, and then once it is registered, you get a registration number and then you need to include the expenditure in an R&D schedule of the tax return. That's what triggers the R&D payment.

R&D grants are a really attractive option for growing, innovative companies. If you think you might be eligible or you would like to hear more about how R&D might be applicable for your business, then please give our office a call.

To know more about R&D grants and assistance on your tax inquiries, feel free to call us at (02) 4353 3889 or leave a message on the comment box below.

23 years ago, the iconic The Shawshank Redemption movie was released. I don’t have any spoiler alerts in here. If you have yet to see it, stop what you are doing, go and watch it. Every minute of this film is worth it. Trust me.

This is one of the movies that have had a great impact on me, specially with regards to my business and work ethic. I’m glad to share some of the important lessons from the movie that you can use in your professional life:

“Chess. Now there's a game of kings. Civilized...strategic... “

Play Chess Not Checkers in Business. From the moment he arrived in prison, Andy (played by Tim Robbins) did not give up hope. Instead, he kept hope alive by developing a plan... a big audacious plan. Andy had a long term, strategic plan. Despite his predicament, he was laser focused on what he needed to achieve. Andy spent 19 years in prison, but he never altered from his focus despite dozens of setbacks and horrific challenges.

Are you playing chess (long term, strategic planning) or checkers (short term, simplistic & instead of planning, being reactive) in your business? Step back, form a plan & implement! Get your plan out of your head and onto paper and make sure this is front of mind in everything you do.