Ever considered running your own business? Head along to the Business & Franchise Expo in Auckland this weekend to find out more!

The Business Opportunities and Franchise Expo will have something for everyone considering buying their own business-whether they are in the serious stage of investing large capital, adding to an existing business or just exploring the idea of a lifestyle change like working from home.

Not only is it an important forum for people considering buying their own business – visitors are also in a position to meet experts and talk to business owners face to face , information that could take days to collect like interview appointments ,meetings and discussions can be researched all under one roof

•     Mature business systems with available opportunities
•     New Business opportunities launching for the first time
•     Talk to the experts and learn to minimize Risk
•     Free seminars run daily

August 12th, 13th and 14th. Open 10am to 4 pm daily. Hall one ASB Showground,

Admission $15, registration on entry or see the attached for a free pass!

Seminars start at 10.30am and are repeated daily.

We’d like to share part of James Griffins column from Saturday – we think he hit the nail on the head!

In Auckland, we’re in the middle of an Arts Festival. All over town there are actors, musicians, dancers and pornographic puppets doing their artistic business at myriad venues. We are embracing art in all its many and varied forms, which is, obviously, the point of an Arts Festival.

On top of that, as we hit festival overload here in festive Auckland, this week is the Pasifika Festival, where we celebrate our Pacific Island neighbours and peoples. This weekend, Auckland’s fickle weather permitting, thousands upon thousands of Palagis and Polynesians will descend upon Western Springs to bathe in the cultures of many countries and eat icecream out of a coconut.

All of which leads me to wonder what you have to be to earn the right to have your own festival. Given that the word “festival” is most commonly associated with words and phrases like “music”, “wine and food”, “film”, “readers and writers”, “religious” and, in this case, “arts”, it would seem that a festival generally celebrates the finer, more ethereal, more spiritual things in life. But who say this has to be the rule? How come we don’t have, for example, the Auckland Accounting Festival? Why can’t we have a week (or probably only a weekend, given how notoriously efficient accountants are) where we, as a community, celebrate the joys of book-keeping? Just because something is inherently boring to normal people doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be celebrated festively.

And, if the accountants I know are anything to go by, if you turned it into a Wine and Accounting Festival then it would truly go off – and would also, undoubtedly, come in on budget.

Let us know what you think – would you attend an Accounting Festival is there was one?

IRD issued a list of taxpayers they are holding money for – $55 million in total!

The IRD is providing “a service for the true owners of unclaimed money which has been left untouched for six or more years in companies such as financial institutions and insurance companies”. Most of the money is apparently not tax refunds, but for example a forgotten bank account or financial credit, handed over to Inland Revenue for safekeeping.

We don’t expect that clients of our firm will be owed any tax refunds, but you never know what else is out there! And human nature being what it is – who wouldn’t have a look?! We did!

Attached is the link and instuructions to see if you (or anyone you know) has any unclaimed money.

http://www.ird.govt.nz/unclaimed-money/unclaimed-money-0.html

1 October is here!

Remember to update your sales system, invoices or charges for the increase of to 15% GST.

If you employ staff, and you work out pays using the PAYE tables or calculations from the IRD website, remember you have to use the updated table or re-calculate the amounts from the website; or if you use MYOB payroll or another payroll system, remember to install the updates.

We are here for any queries you have over this time of change.

The team at Oborn & Johnson

When one describes the current economic climate we are in, it is certainly not business as usual. I think the Australians got the name right when they termed the events of mid-2008 the Global Financial Crisis.

The debate continues as to whether we are in recession or recovery – one attitude seeming pessimistic and the other optimistic. A colleague described the world economy to me the other day as being in transition. I think this is a great term, as we truly are transitioning from the world as we knew it, to something that not even the bravest economists will predict. Whatever it may be, I believe the Global Financial Crisis was the first leg of a three-ring circus – with its follow up acts being the Global Spending Crisis and the Global Technology Crisis.

The Global Financial Crisis was of course centred on the world’s banks – and finance companies. What we all need to remember is that a downturn is actually a correction – the bigger the excesses that precede it, the greater the correction. We all saw worldwide property prices going out of control, spending out of control, and the swing of the pendulum back has certainly had a significant impact on us all.

Currently we are in the second phase – Global Spending Crisis. The consumer driven economies of the world have taken a severe battering and people’s spending habits are changing significantly, probably forever. While we are not quite back to the days when my mother and her contemporaries washed and re-used plastic bread bags, we are certainly all learning what is important in our lives and where we really want to spend that money. Spending for spending sake is well and truly a thing of the past.

Once the spending crisis ends (and remember that is only a short term correction) eventually the world markets will get used to the new spending philosophy.

The third leg of this will be the Global Technology Crisis. Technology is changing at a huge rate and it is impacting on every business, whether we are aware of it or not. All business people should be looking constantly at their business to see what the impact of technology is – social media, new developments, processes which will become redundant, and, most exciting of all, where new opportunities for businesses exist. In five years time, virtually no business will be operating in an identical way to how it is now.

The thing to remember of course is that this is a transition economy and that this three legged driver of change will bring huge opportunity for businesses along with challenges.

Barbara asks…..

Time for a cup of Tea ?

As Accountants, we are aware that our clients support us, and we also like to support them.

Yesterday I went to the Tea Lady in Birkenhead. A meeting had gone over time, and I wasn’t due back in the office for a while, and hadn’t had lunch. So I stepped into the Tea Lady in Hinemoa Street, and went back in time, sat down, had a lovely bowl of Nanette’s homemade mushroom soup and a soothing cup of tea. I walked out of the Tea Lady half an hour later feeling like I had had a virtual hug.

As well as beautiful homemade food and exquisite teas, the Tea Lady also sells a huge range of teas, tea pots and beautiful china, not to mention old fashioned English sweets in paper bags!

We love the Tea Lady (and recommend that if you are in the Birkenhead Point area, you pop in for a cuppa and a chance to unwind.)

Alex says…..

Recently Ann and I attended a Banklink Regional Training Clinic to hone our Banklink skills.

This was a refresher course so we can get the most out of Banklink for our clients and learn about the new updates happening.

We are now able to get prior transactions into Banklink from internet banking, or enter transactions manually if you have been thinking about a new system from 1 April this year, we can get have the whole year on this system.

If you want to look at using software for your business, contact us BEFORE you sign up or buy anything so we can match the software to your needs.

Alex says…….

There is mention approx every six weeks about the Official Cash Rate or OCR – have you ever thought, “What does this impact and how does it impact me?”

The monetary policy of New Zealand is controlled by the Reserve Bank through the OCR and the amount of money the Reserve Bank allows into the New Zealand Economy. A Full overview is available at http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monpol/about/0072140.html.

Firstly the OCR is used (with other monetary policy) to keep annual inflation between 1 and 3 per cent.

Secondly the OCR states the base interest rate of borrowing between two parties. Banks add their own margin on top of the OCR as they have to borrow money from the Reserve Bank and Offshore borrowers. Obviously there is also an element of risk and the length of borrowing built into interest rates.
This explains why there is a difference between the interest you receive on money held in the bank and the interest rate you pay on your mortgage or personal loan.

Finally the OCR is also influenced by the amount of money we spend and how we fund that spending. If we are using borrowed funds – Visa Cards, GE Accounts, Hire Purchase Agreements, or Debt Consolidation Loans to spend, then the banks and financial institutions have to borrow more and the cycle continues.