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About Andee Sellman

Andee is Founder & CEO of One Sherpa, and a trusted business advisor and qualified accountant. After two decades of experience running businesses in different countries, cultures and industries, he specialises in combining financial communication with human behaviour, which assists with better personal and organisational performance.
Author Archive | Andee Sellman

Why you should use an expense template?

By on July 21, 2011 in Expense Template

As a business owner it is important that you understand the expenses in your business and the easiest way to do this is with a well thought out expense template.

So what is the first number that you think of in your business?

For most business owners it is sales. Somehow if we are to succeed we gravitate to income and customers which is entirely correct.

The most difficult thing for a growing business is to find enough customers and income to make the business successful.

However, often business owners with a focus on bringing income into their business find it disappearing just as fast in expenses so that they have little for themselves at the end of the day.

So to combat this I believe it is mandatory for a business owner to understand and monitor their key expenses and how to keep them to a minimum.

It is often incredibly easy to let expenses get away on you particularly those that are necessary to service and keep your customers satisfied.

The context of the business owner is often different to the employees who work for you. The person who does your book keeping will not normally be thinking like a business owner.

Their focus is on getting the bills paid and stopping suppliers ringing up for their money rather than making a profit and developing a sustainable and successful business.

This means that even if you get them to prepare the expense template for you, it must be at your direction.

They may be far better skilled than you at using Microsoft Excel and be able to prepare figures much faster than you but they will never have the business perspective that you have.

This means that the format, order and style of the expense template that really works for the business owner must be determined by you.

Many business owners that I know wait for the book keeper or administrative person to come to them rather than going on the front foot and determining and instructing on how the figures should be presented.

Never assume that your administrative people know all about your business.

They normally get their perspective from seeing the figures come through the creditors invoices and never have the overall context and perspective that you have of your business.

So my encouragement to you is to get involved on go on the front foot designing the expense templates in your business.

What’s your experience on this?

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Discover how you may be jeopardizing becoming a most profitable business

By on July 19, 2011 in Most Profitable Business

Did you start your business to be successful?

Of course you did because no one starts something with the intention of failing.

So when you started your business did you think that you would become a most profitable business?

Of course you did because that is one of the primary measures for being successful.

So what happens when you get into the business?

Suddenly TAX becomes a major consideration in running your business. As business owners we have a dislike of paying TAX and this can become such an obsession that it jeopardizes you becoming a most profitable business.

So how does this happen?

It’s simple really. You instruct your accountant to prepare your books so you pay as little TAX as possible. While this makes sense from a cash flow perspective, it can lead to some really strange behaviour around tax time.

Have you ever made purchases because it made sense from a TAX point of view?

Have you ever pushed through expenses so that your profit was decreased and you got a tax advantage from doing so?

Each time you do this you jeopardize becoming a most profitable business.

So why do it?

Well it makes no sense to me at all. Most business owners want to grow their business and if they make no profit and pay no TAX the only way to fund that growth is through DEBT.

Many small business owners have far too much debt because they never think about what they building in the financial part of their business and continually fall into the trap of trying to minimise their profit for tax purposes.

So can I encourage you to make up your mind NOW that you really want to have a most profitable business.

This will mean paying some tax but at the end of the day your profit will provide the fuel to grow your business and you won’t need to keep taking on more and more debt.

What’s your experience on this?

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3 steps for addressing difficult employees in your business

By on July 14, 2011 in Difficult Employees

Have you sometimes wondered why running your business seems so hard and you feel like giving up?

The most common reason I’ve heard is that difficult employees are sucking the life out of the business owner.

Behaviour issues with employees are causing significant stress to the business owner.

So what should you do? How can you go forward in this situation?

Step 1:
Identify who is either difficult or likely to become a difficult employee.

You only need to ask yourself one simple question to find the answer.

“Does this employee add energy or take energy from my business?”

This very simple question has helped many business owners get quickly to the source of current or future difficult employees.

Step 2:
Identify the unique behavioural traits of the employee.

Many individuals are unaware of themselves nor their effect on those around them. In the work place it is critical to be able to co operate with other people in a team so that you all perform at your best.

In smaller business this becomes more critical because many people have multiple tasks and often there are few written procedures. It all comes down to working with each other.

There are many tools around which can help identify these traits. The most common are DISC and Myers Briggs, but my personal favourite is Business DNA which can quickly identify the strengths, struggles and relational keys for an individual.

Step 3:
Ensure that the work requirements match the behavioural traits of the employee.

If an employee is continually struggling in their job then it is only a matter of time before they drop in performance and become discouraged and create a problem.

You can see that if someone is struggling they will obviously take energy out of your business and ‘cause you grief!’

Often people have taken on a job for money rather than enjoyment and in these circumstances it is almost impossible for the person to add energy to your business over the long haul.

Have you had any experiences with difficult employees you’d like to share?

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How you can avoid disappointment with small business coaching

By on July 12, 2011 in Small Business Coaching

When you decide to go ahead with small business coaching it is incredibly important that you do not go into the process with ‘gold coloured spectacles.’

When you are about to enter into a process you need to remember that your potential coach has a business just like you and will be wanting to make a good impression on you. You will likely hear about all the other people he / she has worked with and how incredible that has been for them.

And remember that you will normally be looking for help when appointing a coach so you can often be vulnerable to a sub standard decision.

When you’re buying anything, it will not be the logical part of the decision that drives the process but the emotional elements will drive the decision.

That’s why disappointment can quickly enter into your world because it’s also an emotion.

Going through a decision making process is really important when deciding to hire a small business coach. One of the most common reasons for getting a coach is that it is lonely being the business owner.

There’s only so much you can discuss with your employees and of course when you have issues with your employees then you’ll want someone outside the business to discuss these issues with.

Disappointment can only occur when you get something you weren’t expecting or fail to get something you were expecting.

When you’re lonely and wanting some encouragement you’re wide open to be taken advantage of with some coaching that isn’t going to really help your business go forward.

So before you appoint a small business coach you need to have a list of the logical reasons why you would want one.

The process you go through to appoint a coach should be as rigorous as appointing a new employee into your business.

You need to interview them, make sure that they have a track record in assisting in the specific areas that are an issue for you.

For example: If you have significant cash flow issues then hiring someone who is really good with people may not suit you.

Make sure you hire the right small business coach who understands the specific issues you’re facing and then you both have the same expectations and this will avoid disappointment through the coaching process.

What’s your experience on this?

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Discover how your business behaviour can be a catalyst in your business

By on July 7, 2011 in Business Behaviour

Are you aware of how your business behaviour affects all the employees in your company?

Do you realise that there is an amplification affect throughout your business on how you behave as an owner?

Unfortunately it can feel as though you live in a glass fish bowl as a business owner because every one is looking to you to ‘set the tone’ in your business.

Everyone has an off day in their business life and as a business owner you’re going to have one every now and then.

So how can you make sure that your own behaviour doesn’t have a negative effect in your business?

The facts are that negative behaviour travels faster and further than a positive behaviour. This is why the media is always looking for things that are sensationally wrong because that type of news travels faster.

Think about catastrophic events that get reported around the world. They are in the category of BAD news rather than good news because of their ability to attract people.

Fear is an amazing thing because of the pace at which it travels and how it has an ability to multiply so quickly.

Given all this, you must become intentional in your business behaviour. The reason is that you must push towards the positive and make sure that you become known for being more positive than negative.

A bad experience can have a significantly more powerful effect on an individual than a positive one.

As a human being you will automatically draw people into your negative experiences but you will need to intentionally draw people into your positive ones.

The best way to succeed in having a positive catalytic effect in your business is to have a plan for spreading positive things around your business.

Celebrate successes, become known as an encourager to your employees and guard the way you speak in your business.

What’s your experience on this?

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