Posted: 17 August 2020

Tradies' Charge Out Rates Review And Corporate Governance

Empowering SMEs (Issue 071)

Greetings from ESS Small Business – Tradies' Charge Out Rates Review And Corporate Governance.

In our next ESS Small Business COVID-19 Survival Panel webinar for small businesses and medium-sized enterprises, Kevin Thiele an experienced Management Accountant will discuss the concepts of establishing charge out rates for tradies so as to ensure that the:

business activities involving various tradesmen producing products and services; and the
business purchasing materials for installation into clients' projects; and the
business’ overhead costs

when all this is taken into account, will the business achieve the targeted net profit for the year?

This is a review that we recommend is conducted early in a financial year and then rechecked on a regular basis - monthly or quarterly - to ensure that the productivity of the tradesmen is at a sufficient level to generate the revenue that the business has budgeted, that the markup on materials purchased for installation into clients' projects is in line with the amount included in the budgets and that the overhead expenses that the business is incurring is also within the budget estimate so that, when all these items are put together, the business will achieve a result that is very close to the budget profitability estimate.

Kevin Thiele will explain that it’s very easy for a tradie's business to get off track relative to achieving targeted profits if the productivity of individual team members is only slightly lower than what was originally forecast, the markup on materials purchased is not as high as originally estimated or there is a change in the overhead expenses for the business – all of this can cause a significant variation in the profitability for the tradies' business.

Corporate governance is a concept that is very important for virtually every business person, but unfortunately is not widely understood. Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business will discuss the concept of corporate governance and how it can be implemented into businesses, primarily those conducting their business operations as a company. However, understanding the various concepts of corporate governance is also very important for business people not utilising companies.

If a company has decided that, as part of its corporate strategies, it wishes to explore the possibility of raising capital direct from the public, it is very desirable that the directors and leadership team members have a clear understanding of the role and importance of corporate governance in commercial business operations.

An understanding of the methodology involved in establishing charge out rates for tradies and how small and medium-sized companies should have a better understanding of corporate governance, could all be factored into a company’s Strategic Plan for 2020/21.

The recent events in Victoria have clearly identified the desirability of businesses preparing a number of strategic strategy calculations so that the business is in a position to be able to promptly react to changes in the marketplace.

If you would like to register for the live free webinar on Wednesday, 19th August 2020 at 12-noon AEST, please go to the ESS Small Business website > Webinars.

In last week’s webinar Priscilla Bea Smith, Director, Cloud Nine Associates presented an update on the government’s support packages for businesses relative to COVID-19 Coronavirus including changes to the JobKeeper program, instant asset right off, employee eligibility for JobKeeper now determined at 1st July 2020, the revised Coronavirus SME Guarantee Loan, which is 50% guaranteed by the Australian government, which commences from 1st October 2020, with applications able to be made until 30th June 2021.

Peter Towers outlined the concept of Enterprise Mentoring Workshops and the benefits that can be obtained for members of the leadership team having an experienced mentor guiding the leadership team through a wide range of business concepts so as to improve the leadership team's ability to react to changing circumstances, very similar to what has been occurring because of COVID-19.

You can view a recording of this webinar by clicking here.

You can view the PowerPoint slides that were utilised by Priscilla and Peter by clicking here.

We would like to invite you to visit the ESS Small Business website > Survival in Difficult Times > Learn More where you will find details of the products ESS Small Business has developed to assist small businesses and medium-sized enterprises to gain a better understanding of strategies which will assist you to survive in your business during 2020/21.

If you are interested in gaining an in-depth understanding of the concept of raising capital direct from the public, as a Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Company or an Early Stage Innovation Company, you are invited to contact us for a short overview discussion – please contact me: