How business owners can leverage their assets during uncertain times

As part of the audit of your businesses' major assets, evaluate your tools of the trade to identify whether you can generate some efficiency gains. 

One of the best announcements by the Federal Government to help businesses when the pandemic first struck was the extension of the Instant Asset Write-Off (IAWO). This allows businesses to acquire capital assets such as IT equipment, vehicles, office equipment, and any tools of the trade and obtain an immediate tax deduction. 

During the pandemic, the write-off threshold increased from $30,000 to $150,000. The concession then morphed into a measure dubbed 'Temporary Full Expensing' to cover the period from 6 October 2020 until 30 June 2023, which was extended in the 2021-22 Federal Budget.

The ATO explains that temporary full expensing allows eligible businesses to claim an immediate deduction for the business portion of the cost of a new asset in the year it is first used or installed ready for use for a taxable purpose. Companies with an aggregated turnover under $50 million can immediately deduct eligible second-hand purchases too. 

If you're unsure about what you can and can't claim concerning temporary full expensing, be sure to get in touch with Brentnalls SA.

If you're considering a business expansion or a move to a commercial location with more foot traffic or curb appeal, you might want to consider whether it's better to lease or buy your new commercial digs. 

With today's still relatively low interest rates, it could work out cheaper for a business to own rather than lease commercial premises – but you’ll need to do your sums after the recent increases to the official cash rate by the Reserve Bank. Across Australia's capital cities, research from Raine & Horne Commercial2 found that commercial property is generating yields of 3.5% to 7.5% depending on location. These lease costs can be higher than the interest rate a business will pay to own the premises. 

Consequently, buying a shop, warehouse or office may mean valuable savings in cashflow and having the backing of a quality, growth asset. 

At the time of writing, commercial property loans with a minimum loan size of $500,000, and a minimum deposit of 30%, interest rates under 4% are available3. Moreover, the tenant pays all the outgoings with a commercial lease, such as rates and maintenance, so buying a premises doesn't mean the business will automatically wear additional costs as it would with a residential tenancy.

Also, if you're in the retail trade, the temporary full expensing is excellent for tax effectively creating a new retail environment that will prove a knockout with your customers. Among the items you could claim would be new cash registers and other POS devices, store fitting and fixtures, delivery vans and other equipment. 

If you have no plans to move and have some spare capacity in your office or factory, you could consider ways to reuse the extra space, sublease it to another business or even talk to the landlord about renegotiating the lease.

Another by-product of the pandemic is a widespread skills shortage across Australia4. So, to ensure you keep staff turnover to a minimum, it’s essential to keep your existing staff happy and well-trained.

When reviewing your staff, look at repurposing roles and positions. Managers and owners shouldn't be afraid to delegate more tasks to free up management time to develop new products and win new business. At the same time, take stock of the skill sets within your team and work out where the gaps lie. 

Part of this research could involve a competitor analysis of what your competitors are doing well to give them an edge. Then you can consider how to enhance your existing products/services and what can be done more efficiently.

Once you've determined the gaps, consider upskilling your team. There are thousands of affordable courses covering everything from financial management to marketing, sales and customer service, leadership, project management and planning, delegation and time management, problem solving and networking. 

Better still, the fees for these courses are tax-deductible, while many face-to-face training businesses have pivoted their studies online at a reduced price. By using these uncertain times to upskill your staff and yourself, you'll have additional qualifications to further your business.

Most marketing experts recommend that businesses that thrive post-COVID-19 will be strategic in the short term and stay in touch with their customers.

Staying in touch doesn't just help your brand stay top of mind during challenging times. It also offers reassurance that your business will be there with your doors wide open when the uncertainty starts to lift.

Effective business marketing can be cost-effective. For example, a single blog can be the basis of a social media post, a client email or part of a newsletter - and if it's newsworthy, a media release for your local newspaper. So, from one piece of content, you can get plenty of bang for your buck.

Importantly, your business communications and marketing shouldn't be a hard sell: "Hey you, buy this widget".

You can demonstrate that you value your customers' relationships by staying in touch, especially if they're doing it tough. If you can offer tips to support customers at this time, all the better. For example, a builder can share some cost-effective home renovation tips or a landscaper can provide an overview of how tidying and greening around your home can increase property value. More importantly, the customer experience should be consistent and ongoing, therefore a timely review of what your competitors are doing different can be a step in the right direction.

The key is regular contact. Having spent time building your customer base, now is not the time to drop the ball. Moreover, if you were unsure about the best way forward with your marketing, there's sure to be several marketers running businesses in your local area who will be happy to help you polish up your branding and marketing as we return to normal transmission.