These Small Business Week’s Tips’n’Tricks are bought to you by: Tourism Port Douglas Daintree, MGI, Douglas Shire Council and HR Dynamics.

1. Buying and Selling Business: When purchasing a business careful attention should be given to the business structure in which the business is to be carried on. Whether the business operates as a sole trader or in a partnership, trust or company it is easier to get it right from the beginning rather than having to make costly changes at a later date. 

2. Record Keeping: Sound record keeping doesn’t just help you measure your small business performance and maximise business profits it is also important in meeting your legal and tax requirements. Ineffective, inaccurate record keeping will not generate meaningful reports and will not be beneficial in business planning and improving efficiencies. 

3. Tax Planning: Tax planning for small business involves reviewing and implementing strategies which minimise the tax payable for a given period. Tax planning is an important part of any business strategy, without it you may end up paying more tax than you need to. 

4. Love thy Industry Award: Virtually all employees (including salary staff) are now covered by the Federal Fairwork Act. What award covers your industry? What are the base rates, penalties and allowances you must pay? Fairwork.gov.au is an excellent resource of information. 

5. What is your return on your staffing investment? Wage cost is likely to be a major expenses in your business. Are you getting the return on investment that you should be? If not why? Start with making sure you have a structured recruitment process and provide clarity of job expectations. Then  regular training and  feedback are essential to create a skilled and consistent workforce.

6. Compliance Documentation: Don't get caught out by not having your employment terms and key policies in writing and signed off on by the employee. We recommend letters of employment, induction checklists and a good employee handbook covering policies such as workplace health and safety, bullying and harassment, phone and internet policies, restraint of trade  etc . These documents should be reviewed on an annual basis, signed by all new employees and where appropriate reissued on an annual basis. 

7. Get social: There are so many social networking platforms available to consumers; it can be difficult to choose a social network for your business to use. Before you randomly log on to Twitter or Facebook to start your small business marketing campaign, research to find out where your customers already congregate online. 

8. Budgeting: Nearly every business has both high and low periods of revenue/sales activity over any given 12 month period. This is known as seasonality.It is easy to overspend and create an inflated budget which does not coincide with the seasonality of the income flowing in from sales.

Quick, low cost marketing tips from TPDD

• Establish a digital presence with a website featuring your key product information which is optimised, features a booking facility and has Free Google Analytics to help you easily analyse online customers and tailor marketing campaigns.

• Messages on hold, use the time your callers are on hold to tell them about your product and services

• Respond to email and voicemail requests promptly, you are much more likely to secure a sale and impress your client if you respond quickly and personally.

• Visit competitors, know as much as possible about your competitors and learn from what they are and aren’t doing well

• Team up with local operators, develop packages and benefit from all of the partners promoting the package and in turn your product

• Referrals and recommendations, refer your customers to other tourism buddies. Both parties will benefit from you knowledgeable referral and your network partner will be happy to return the favour.

The Douglas Chamber of Commerce welcomes new and existing members to our Facebook page where small business tips, networking events and business workshops are posted. For more information from the Chamber contact secretary@pdcc.com.au. And don’t forget BUY LOCAL SATURDAY … see you at the Markets.