Establish a new business with a strong foundation

Minimise the risk of cashflow death

Knowing your market, your product plus lots of hard work should be enough for a business to thrive. But unfortunately, basic financial literary kills many new businesses.

It's well known among accountants and business advisors that cashflow problems are a major hurdle.

We urge you to work with a professional to develop a simple cashflow forecast. You need an approach which you can understand, and which covers the first months of your business, and seasonal slowdowns.

Manage the first steps of your business with good financial benchmarks

An experienced advisor will immediately challenge your expense levels and your gross margins, and make sure you are putting away enough cash for vital commitments (tax, wages, superannuation and quarterly GST).

How GrowthPath likes to help

Two of GrowthPath's team are very experienced in helping new businesses.

As well as his Masters in Accountancy, Tim Richardson holds a Certificate IV in Small Business Management. He teaches financials and some aspects of business law for Holmesglen's Business Enterprise Unit, which provides a number of outstanding Certificate IV programs for people starting their own business (such as the NEIS program, and programs tailored to tradesmen, graphic designers and other skilled graduates ready to take the step into independent work).

Catherine MacDonald is a very experienced small business book-keeper. A wise advisor will tell you that for a small business, a strong bookkeeper is more important than a good accountant.

Not everyone has time to take a Certificate IV in Small Business Management. For starting businesses, GrowthPath can help with:

• A cashflow forecast of your personal financial needs which tells you how much you need to draw from the business
• A business cashflow forecast, simplified and easy to understand and use in the first 12 to 24 months
• Training in important business skills like Finance 101, business licenses, registering trademarks, basic contract law.

Are you buying into a franchise? We can help you evaluate the financial outlook and value of the business you are buying into. Under the law covering franchise agreements, potential franchisees are provided with a lot of financial information. We can help you take advantage of this data to make informed decisions (such as understanding how much of your own time you need to contribute to the business).

For situations where you are investing substantial amounts in a new business, we recommend a GrowthPath business plan, which integrates market research and financials. The business plan is developed collaboratively, so there is a lot of knowledge transfer (education) in the process of developing it. Our approach is not to give you a DIY template, but to use our financial and business skills to work with your expertise to help your business get off to a great start. 

More GrowthPath services for small businesses

For more information, please see Services for Small Businesses

Pro-bono and discounted support

At GrowthPath, we love emerging businesses. It's not a lucrative area for consultants, but we find it highly personally rewarding.

GrowthPath offers pro-bono and discounted support for new businesses where we feel our advice meets our desire to support community development. This may be to support a non-profit organisation, or someone starting a business from what we feel is a disadvantaged position.