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Autumn 2015
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MAGAZINE
Richmond
Valley
Where Business Happens
Legal Corner
Treasure or tragedy?
Your business DA
Biz Tips
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Now up to 58
flights per week.
Ballina Byron Gateway Airport offers up to 7 flights a day, with up to
58 flights per week travelling to Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne.
There are daily services to Sydney and Newcastle and 5 or more
direct flights to Melbourne every week. So whether your trip is for
fun or for business, make Ballina Byron Gateway Airport your first
choice and support your local airport.
* the above times are subject to change and should be confirmed with the airline partner.
www.ballinabyronairport.com.au
Gateway Airport
NORTHERN RIVERS
MAGAZINE
Publisher
Ashley Burke-Smith
Editor
Editor's Note
W
elcome to your Autumn issue of NRBM. Well it feels like a never ending
Summer for 2015 with temperatures still in the 30s well into March, which
is good news for those in the tourism sector as it has extended the season.
This issue we feature Richmond Valley where council is taking an active role in the regions
economic development. Find out more about their plans to ensure the Richmond Valley
community continues to thrive well into the future.
Our State Election Special this issue looks at the regions Electorates of Tweed, Lismore,
Ballina and Clarence.
Business Matters this issue we address business issues and provide information to help
you through the maze and on the road to working smarter not harder. Including Employment
& Training, Legal Corner, tips to make your business more profitable, Banking & Finance and
Health & Safety.
We welcome Kate Cameron from Rochdale Accounting and Business Advisory who joins
our Financial team of experts. Also Greg Arnold from Effective Workplace Solutions, who is
an expert in workplace relations and employee management. All our experts are available
to answer your questions on our website: www.nrbm.com.au.
All our regular columnists are there to help readers to get the most from their businesses.
Check out the website and see how our experts can help your business.
Happy Easter and have a successful Autumn.
Moyra Burke-Smith
Editor
NRBM
NRBM is and always has been proud to only use local suppliers.
Moyra Burke-Smith
Design
www.aguawebs.com
info@aguawebs.com
02 6676 2980
Contacts
Editorial Contributions:
editor@nrbm.com.au
Advertising Enquiries/Media Kit:
sales@nrbm.com.au
Subscriptions & General Enquiries:
admin@nrbm.com.au
NRBM
T: 02 6685 4516
F: 02 6685 4518
W: www.nrbm.com.au
P: PO Box 130, Suffolk Park, NSW, 2481
Special Contributors
Jamie Cunningham has worked with 300+ business
owners around the world. One key result of his work
is helping owners to attract and hire top talent, saving
them time and stress in their businesses and their lives.
Clayton Oates, QA Business, our Channel 7 business
efficiency guru cuts through the red tape and helps
you streamline your business to make things happen.
Recognised as one of the Top 25 Global Accounting
Technology Thought Leaders, the only Australian-based
professional to to be recognised with this honour.
Greg Arnold, Effective Workplace Solutions
has been involved in workplace relations for over
30 years as a workplace relations practitioner and
manager. With experience in a broad range of
industries ranging from building and construction,
engineering, publishing, and hospitality he can help
businesses with strategic advice on employment law
and workplace relations reducing the risk and exposure
The paper used to produce this magazine is manufactured by an ISO 14001 environmentally rated mill.
www.nrbm.com.au
Autumn 2015
NORTHERN RIVERS
MAGAZINE
O N LY
of retailers total advertising budgets are still spent on printed catalogues. So it makes
sense to use this value for money method to generate sales via PrintPackPost.
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www.nrbm.com.au
Contents
10
12
14
25
Regulars
16-19
Cover Feature
News 6-7
Keeping you up to date with news from the region, including
The Round Up news from the regions chambers.
Richmond Valley,
Where Business Happens
16-19
Business Matters
Business Matters
27-29
8-10
Legal Corner
12
Biz Tips
14
23-25
Reduce your costs and find out how accounting is getting techy.
www.nrbm.com.au
Autumn 2015
Two solar farms and a bio-gas plant will be built in the Lismore area
while a study will be carried out on how to take the entire Tyalgum
village off the grid.
The energy saving projects are being funded as part of the NSW
Governments Growing Community Energy (GCE) grants.
NSW parliamentary secretary for Renewable Energy Leslie Williams
yesterday announced that Lismore community groups would receive
$95,000 for the three projects
06
Autumn 2015
Mrs Williams said that two GCE grants of $40,000 would be used
to develop solar farms and a bio-gas plant, as well as a $15,000
GCE grant for a feasibility and technical study of how to increase
Tyalgum villages energy resilience through innovative technologies
and solutions.
A $40,000 GCE grant from the NSW Government will
allow Starfish Initiatives to build two 100kW solar farms in
partnership with Lismore City Council and community investment
which will produce enough energy to power the equivalent of 30
average NSW homes.
This will be the first Council-community partnership in Australia
to build a community owned and run solarfarm, with the GCE seed
funding helping to raise investment from community financiers,
who will manage the project with Lismore City Council and partner
organisations.
Mrs Williams said the second grant of $40,000 would assist
Nimbin Neighbourhood and Information Centre to build a smallscale bio-gas project in a local milk and cheese producing dairy farm.
The project will be used as a business model for further
development of two community-owned bio-gas hubs in
Murwillumbah and Casino.
www.nrbm.com.au
the round up
Love Lennox 2015
Love Lennox Festival will be on Saturday 6 June 2015, and its
expanding! It will be bigger and better this year, with the addition
of the Love Lennox Music Festival, with music continuing into the
evening.
Love Lennox Festival is a celebration of everything we love about
Lennox Head beautiful beaches, family ambience, superb quality
food and drink, great music and exciting entertainment for all, with
special events for kids. Were also planning a colourful street parade
down the centre of the village.
Planning is underway and organiser, Lennox Chamber, is delighted to
announce that North Coast Holiday Parks have already signed up as
major sponsor.
The Love Lennox Festival committee is calling for businesses and
community to support the event through sponsorship and/or in-kind
assistance such as graphic design, printing, provision of traffic control
barriers and traffic control, security, IT and social media, entertainment
and events management, coordinators of sports events, and people
to assist on the day.
There will be opportunities for entertainers, buskers and stallholders. Expressions of interest will be requested in the next couple
of months. Local businesses up and down the main street are being
encouraged to participate in the Festival, with stalls, specials, and
displays. There will also be a main street market, with over 30 stalls.
To register your interest in sponsoring the event or assisting with
the event, please contact Paul Button on 0418 909203 or email:
info@lennoxchamber.com.au
Byron Masterplan
Our Business After Hours in February aimed to start some
conversation on the proposed Town Masterplan. Local businesses
Lease Boutique, North Coast Events, Architect Fin and Suzie Deyris
presented ideas which could generate and benefit business in Byron
Bay. A broad cross section of the business community came along
to share their ideas too. Feedback from this event will be submitted
to the Masterplan consultants.
1st August 2015 will see the Byron Shire Business and Tourism
awards Gala evening at the Sports & Cultural Centre at Ewingsdale.
The date is set - the Saturday between Splendour and Writer's
Festival = perfect timing for a huge shire wide event. All the local
chambers, Byron Shire Council as well as Destination Byron will be
involved in the staging of the event. The awards themselves will feed
into the NSW State Business Awards. Fine wine, music, food and
entertainment - all sourced from our own glorious region.
www.nrbm.com.au
Autumn 2015
07
business matters
Fifth, separate your cash flow plans for short-term items from your
plans for long-term items - like capital expenditure. The best way to
sensibly service long-term cash requirements is securing financing
when your track-record is at its best and when you dont actually
require itas many business people are aware, banks are more
positive about lending to you when the balance sheet is healthy.
Lastly, try not to do it all yourself. Pay a competent bookkeeper to
come in every month, because it will be more efficient for you and
add another brain to the business. If you decide to go it alone, at
least get some high quality training in these six essentials.
If any of these essentials are gobbledegook to you, then you
need some training. You can either acquire the knowledge of these
financial must haves yourself, or you might have someone on staff
who would be perfect. Or you could need to recruit.
Whichever way you go, you can discuss customised accredited
training with TAFE or we may be able to identify a recent TAFE
graduate who would solve your immediate need.
www.nrbm.com.au
business matters
business matters
Employment Contracts
Prompt service
Policy Formulation
Staff Handbooks
Dispute Mediation and Resolution
Workplace Health and Safety - Advice and
Auditing
Seminars and Training (including Bullying
and Harassment Training)
10
business matters
real estate
www.nrbm.com.au
11
business matters
legal corner
Expertise matters.
BUSINESS LAW PROPERTY LAW PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT FUTURE PLANNING
Tel: 02 6683 5566 info@my-lawyers.com.au Level 1, 31 Cherry Street, Ballina www.my-lawyers.com.au
12
MCL001_PlanningAndDevelopment_ADNorRivBizMag.indd 1
www.nrbm.com.au
27/08/2014 11:10 am
business matters
COMPLETE UNIFORM
SOLUTIONS
DESIGN MEETS FUNCTION,
INNOVATION MEETS STYLE
13
business matters
biz tips
'm guessing if I asked you if you'd like more time and better
profitability you'd nod your head and answer with a resounding 'of
course'! I mean who wouldn't right? Well what if I told you there is
one foundational ingredient that is the basis of achieving that, and it is
the one ingredient great companies know about and use ... would you
like to know what that is?
OK enough with the suspense...
It is choosing your customer. Now before you rush off and say ... 'yeh
I know that', let me ask you to write out, in detail, a description of your
ideal customer. Write it out as a single avatar for each customer segment
you believe you serve. How clear are you really? You see great companies
know in explicit detail, who their Ideal Customers are. They think about
them as individuals not groups of people.
Let me give you an example. Meet Rob. Rob is an ex-Proctor and
Gamble MBA executive who decided he wanted to work for himself
vs 'the-man' and now owns and operates a very successful Business
Brokerage firm. Rob is a driven guy, he's smart, educated and brings
credibility to his role as a broker and as a result had some quick success
in building his firm.
After some time though, he found himself working harder and
harder, and yes the income was also increasing but the effort to get it
seemed to be getting out of balance.
When Rob engaged me, one of the first activities I had him do was
write out a description of his ideal customer. He did it and it was one
sentence long. I asked him to go back and think about the best client
he has had to date and write as detailed a description about that person
as possible.
The result was remarkably different. The second description included
the clients values, his interests, family profile, things he likes and the
things he fears. It described his experience in business, and what was
important to him after the sale of his business. Once we understood his
ideal client it was very easy to start designing his business to more closely
14
www.nrbm.com.au
business matters
business efficiency
Your Business
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cover feature
Richmond Valley,
Where Business
Happens
16
Autumn 2015
cover feature
www.nrbm.com.au
Autumn 2015
17
cover feature
18
www.nrbm.com.au
WELCOME TO THE
RICHMOND VALLEY!
The entire team at Richmond
Valley Council welcomes you and
your family to our beautiful region
The Richmond Valley has untapped potential and
we want to share it with you! To be successful, a
region needs:
Good road, rail and air connections
Good digital connectivity
Competitively priced land and infrastructure
Land which is able and ready to be developed
A solid, well-trained and reliable workforce
A great place to live
business matters
marketing
SEO Reliability
www.nrbm.com.au
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business matters
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business matters
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business matters
People are getting with the program. I now work with clients
in real time, looking at their business with them every month, with
accurate up to date data, assisting to make decisions when they need,
improving business efficiencies and monitoring against plans with ease.
Just today, I sat in a business, analysed the last 3 months results by
division and it was clear one business division wasnt working and
was draining business profits from the more profitable divisions
their comments were, wow we always thought that was a great
division and things were going well with it it comes back to
tracking the numbers, and folks real and up to date numbers
simply do not lie! Its clear if this division continues unchecked, it will
suck the life out of the entire business, one dollar at a time. Hard to
know what to do or change when you cant track up to date results.
One of the exciting areas we are also working on with clients is
in the Xero Add-On space. These are cloud based software solutions
designed to improve other areas of your business. The client I worked
with today has 2 add on solutions integrating with Xero, a cloud
Point of Sale system called Vend and a fabulous rostering program
called Deputy, which allows the effortless roster management of 35
staff. Deputy integrates with Xero payroll so casual shift times are
made easy in the weekly payroll. They are also using it to see real
time shift costs against sales and monitor staff for shift efficiencies
sending casuals home when they are not needed. Again, it comes
back to knowing the real time numbers and using them to make better
business decisions.
To find out more, come to one of the Northern Rivers Xero Day
events on March 31st in Lismore, Ballina & Byron Bay. See how Xero
can work better for your business.
www.nrbm.com.au
RSVP
02 6620 0300
25
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NORTEC Training is a division of NORTEC Employment and Training LTD, a not-for-profit organisation that
reinvests back into our community through provision of youth services, community program delivery,
social enterprise initiatives and local grants and sponsorships.
*** ELECTION SPECIAL *** ELECTION SPECIAL *** ELECTION SPECIAL ***
Tweed
t the top end of the North Coast, Tweed is the state's most
northerly electorate and covers the coastal strip of Tweed Shire
along the new route of the Pacific Highway from near Mooball to
the Queensland Border. It covers an area of 507 square km and
the seat is dominated by Tweed Heads, including Banora Point,
Chinderah, Terranora and Kingscliff, but also includes Tumbulgum,
Bogangar, Pottsville and Burringbar.
In the 2011 Census, there were 70,404 persons usually resident
in Tweed Electorate. Out of this 17.4% were children aged
between 0-14 years, and 37.4% were persons aged 55 years and
over. The median age was 45 years, compared with 37 years for
persons in Australia.
Median weekly individual income $449, Australian ave: $577.
Median weekly household income $856, Australian ave: $1,234.
Median weekly family income $1070, Australian ave: $1,481.
In the 2011 Census, the most common responses for occupation
for employed persons usually resident in Tweed were: Professionals
16.5%, Technicians and Trades Workers 15.9%, Clerical and
Administrative Workers 12.9%, Community and Personal Service
Workers 12.6%, Sales Workers 12.1%, Labourers 11.9%,
Managers 10.9% and Machinery Operators and Drivers 5.7%.
In the 2011 Census, the most common industries of employment
for persons aged 15 years and over usually resident in Tweed
Electorate were: Cafes, Restaurants and Takeaway Food Services
5.4%, School Education 5.1%, Hospitals 3.8%, Residential Care
Services 3.8% and Supermarket and Grocery Stores 3%.
Clarence
Lismore
www.nrbm.com.au
Autumn 2015
27
*** ELECTION SPECIAL *** ELECTION SPECIAL *** ELECTION SPECIAL ***
Kris Beavis
since coming to government in 2011. We will not issue any new licences
on the North Coast if elected on March 28.
Instead, weve spent the last four years cleaning up Labors mess.
Labor handed out 37 new exploration licences for just $1000 each
when they were last in government. Those licences covered more than
half of the State.
Weve bought back and cancelled licences, winding back the
area covered to just 15%. The Ballina electorate blanketed by CSG
exploration licences under Labor is now almost CSG-free thanks to
The Nationals.
Labor would have you believe they will just rip up the licences they
handed out it is not that easy. I dont want CSG here. Full stop. But you
need a plan, which is what The Nationals have.
What will a vote for you/your party mean for the local
communities of the region?
A vote for me on March 28 will be a vote for a strong voice able to
fight for what Ballina deserves, at the top table of government.
Its a vote for accountability, integrity and common sense.
Its a vote for action, rather than hollow words and empty promises.
Ive lived in northern NSW most of my life I love this place. Ive
worked here in small business and running the Westpac Rescue
Helicopter Service as well as volunteering in surf lifesaving for decades.
I want to see us move forward, and to get the investment into
infrastructure that we deserve. I have a clear plan, to deliver record
investment into infrastructure into the Ballina electorate.
ADVERTISEMENT
Vote
>
>
Created an independent
Small Business Commissioner.
>
>
www.nswnationals.org.au
www.nrbm.com.au
NSWNationals
@NSWNationals
NSW Nationals
Authorised by J Schwark,
1-2/10 Kerr St, Ballina 2479
29
business matters
marketing
Web Design
Graphic Design
Will it be used? The more use the product gets, the more exposure
for your brand. Everyday practical items get used - pens, coffee mugs,
water bottles... These high use items are ideal for branding and dont
break the bank.
Is it good quality? You naturally want to align your brand with quality.
Poor quality product sends all the wrong messages... High quality
provides for a positive and lasting association with the brand; the item
lasts longer, will be frequently used and therefore increases the exposure
of the brand and ROI.
Is it appealing? Undoubtedly, appealing and attractive items have a
higher use rate - if people like a product,
they will use it time and time again. Once
more, the higher the use, the higher the
brand exposure.
Is the decoration high quality? This is
essential - if the branding looks unclear,
messy or wears off before the end of
the life of the product need I explain
further?
There are literally millions of items on
the market, so take your time and ask for
advice from your promotions supplier,
they generally know whats hot and
what works for different target markets.
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