In case you haven’t heard by now, Tilda Virtual Services has just opened its “actual” doors at Suite 1.13, 202 Jells Road in Wheelers Hill. These are real actual doors to our office which is open to the public where we provide binding, copying and faxing services in addition to our regular bookkeeping and virtual assistance services. And what would be the sense of a bunch of virtual assistants working out of an office suite if we didn’t offer virtual office space to home-based business owners?

Not many VAs actually take the leap and secure an office space outside the home. Truth be told, there’s not really much need of doing so. However, I felt strongly that I could further serve local home-based business owners by offering reception services and mail redirection; services much easier to provide from an “actual” office. Lincoln (code monkey) also wouldn’t have liked me renting meeting rooms before I secured the new office space outside of our home. “I don’t care if there’s a game on, Mr. Smith needs the family room. He booked it last week!”

But I digress. Was it easy for me to take such a big step into the unknown that is 202 Jells Road? No. Was it scary? Yes. Then again, it wasn’t easy for me to start this business when I was preparing to give birth to my third baby! You see, I don’t want to live my life in fear. I don’t believe it does one bit of good. I prefer to live my life in opportunity.

Fear crushes dreams. It stunts business growth and prevents us from reaching our full potential. It’s a nasty beast, isn’t it?

Being an entrepreneur, the very nature of it, means you’re always faced with another risk or a scary decision to make. But the way I see it, if you never feel that fear and go ahead and do it anyway, you’re never going to grow. You won’t really get anywhere if you just keep going with what feels comfortable.

I’d like to challenge you this month to do something that you fear. Go ahead and experience the fear but do it anyway and see how empowering it is. You will hopefully get used to it. After all, at the end of your days would you rather tell your grandchildren you lived your life in opportunity or in fear?

1. They ask questions
2. They refer back to GST legislation for verification
3. They’re experienced
4. They know double entry accounting and can troubleshoot anything in your software program of choice
5. They ask questions (yes this is a deliberate double up)
6. They’re happy to liaise with your accountant on your behalf
7. They give you all the reports you want and need in a timely fashion
8. They give you regular backups of your datafile and have an OCD approach to backing up their own network/computer
9. They’re a member of a bookkeeper association
10. They’re continually looking to improve their skills and knowledge

Unfortunately, not all business owners will find a great bookkeeper on their first try because not all bookkeepers are great. There are some who are ok, good even, but not great. In any industry you’ll find people marketing themselves when they don’t have the skills to back it up. and bookkeeping is no different. Fortunately for business owners, the new Tax Agent Services Act will help them to weed out the bad from the great.

For more information about the new Tax Agent Services Act, please visit the Tax Practitioners Board.

Melinda, the girls and I are madly getting ready for the Australian VA Conference. As a major sponsor via Tilda Hosting, we are able to do inserts in the goody bags and have an expo table too. We’ve got the DL flyers ready, business cards ready and we haven’t forgotten the chocolate frogs either!!

The conference is only next week but it isn’t too late to register. Please go to the website and register. You won’t regret it!

Don’t worry, we haven’t moved interstate like last time but rather we’ve moved into office space. You can now find us at Suite 113, 202 Jells Road, Wheelers Hill, Vic 3150. Our office hours are now 9am to 5pm.

Our phone number has stayed the same at 03 9013 8389.

Thanks for all your support!!

As published in the BAS Service Provider Edition 33 – February 2010

From the 2010-11 income year the Tax Office’s record-keeping product, e-Record will no longer be available.

The product has been reviewed and found to no longer be compatible with current commercial record-keeping systems. It would also need to be redeveloped to keep up with technology and new business directions.

Version 6.2 is the final version of e-Record and is available for download until 30 June 2010.

For more information, see E-Record withdrawal.

Of course, if you’re looking for an alternative, we recommend the following software packages:

QuickBooks Easy Start Lite 2009/10 QBi

Designed for start-up businesses needing a simple accounting solution, who don’t have a large customer and supplier base. Straightforward and practical tools make it easy to manage all essential business tasks.

Quantity:

$29.95Price:
$20.00P&P:

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MYOB Business Basics

Manage all your basic business tasks from the one easy program, designed specifically for small or home-based Australian businesses. Streamline the data entry and reconciliation side of managing your business and free up your time to focus on running it.

Quantity:

$199.00Price:
$20.00P&P:

Updating cart...

I’ve been using Get Shopped’s WP Ecommerce Plugin for myself and clients for over a year now and as I discover more plugin’s I tend to install them, have a play and see how it goes. Only thing is that when I tried to reactive my store, I got a fatal error. Not enough PHP memory.

Google, boys and girls is your best friend!

I found this post on the forums at GetShopped.org and it worked like a charm!!

Turns out everyone loves us and raves about my team and the high quality of services provided (yay) and so I’ve decided to conduct some market research to see what else small business owners need from Tilda Virtual Services. After all, if you don’t tell me, I won’t know you need it!

For those of your who do complete the survey I will be offering a coupon to use across any of our services offered. (Coupon excludes bookkeeping software, hosting or domain name registration.)

Click here to complete the survey.

A few months ago, I found and fell in love with Thesis. Totally head over heals and today I taught myself something new.

I wanted to find out how to put a ’signature’ after each post and found this fabulous website. Needless to say that if you are using Thesis and want to do the same, go check it out.

No matter what the nature of your business, you use technology every single day. From sending email to entering receipts into accounting software, even a successful lemonade stand today would need some sort of computerisation behind it to help it run smoothly.

This need for technology makes it very difficult for the business owner without IT knowledge to determine what they need to ensure their business will run well. And with everything available on the market today, we could all be streamlining areas of our businesses with better technology.

If you’re not technologically savvy, the best way to get what you need and to spare yourself a very daunting experience, is to write a brief, create a matrix and then test drive it.

Start by brainstorming what you need. What do you need this item to do for your business? What are the goals you have for the hardware or software? How will you track whether or not it’s pulling its weight and doing its job? For example, if you’re looking for bookkeeping software, a sure sign that you’re using the right program is when your accounts are all up to date and reconciled. Another example is if you use your printer for hours out of the day and it doesn’t overheat by lunchtime then it’s doing its job.

Even if you’re not sure whether this item you’re in the market for is able to perform a certain function, write it down anyway. When you’re brainstorming your needs and your tech wish list, everything goes.

Take your brainstorm notes and turn them into a brief to describe to your IT consultant, website designer or Virtual Assistant what it is you want them to quote you on.

If you have a brief then each person you go to will be quoting you on the same thing. You’re going to be able to compare apples to apples.

Once you’ve discussed your needs with a few different service providers who can help you, create a matrix in a spreadsheet or on a piece of paper. To do this, list the key functions you need from your new piece of technology across the top. Down the side, write the names of the consultants who will be providing the quote. If their quote meets a key function, add a check mark and if not then add a cross. It’s simple, really, but it will give you a visual aid and help you to see who is quoting what.

At the bottom of your matrix, include the service providers’ price and leave room for your notes or comments. Now, find out if you can have a test drive of the software you’re looking for and use it actively in your business for two weeks. In that amount of time you’ll know if it’s right for you. It will be trickier to be permitted a test drive of certain hardware, so make sure you take plenty of time to play with it in the showroom and be sure the consultant guides you through how to use it at that time.

After testing the product you’re looking for, with matrix in hand you’ll be in great shape to make a sound decision and a smart purchase.

I did something for the first time since starting my business, I took vacation time and didn’t touch my computer for a whole two weeks. And while it was much needed veg-out time, It was also really hard for me to step back from the computer. I realised just how much time I actually spend on the computer each week.

Because I want to embrace the new year I decided to revisit my goals and my sale forecasts for the rest of the financial year. While I seem to be on track for reaching my goals I’ve decided to set some new ones. I’ve broken these goals down into baby steps to make more achievable.

I have a fantastic team in place and we’re working with some great clients. I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings my way.