Business Owners Forum | Whangarei Chartered Accountants

Motivating and rewarding your team

In July and August, the Business Owners Forum will discuss “Techniques and traps in motivating and rewarding your team”. We will be running this topic on 15 July in Whangarei – and again on 19 August in Auckland. On the agenda will be discussion around techniques to motivate and reward your team – and in particular ways to tie remuneration to performance, and some of the traps inherent in doing this. This will be a must attend session for any business owner who is more interested in fostering a high performance team than “managing staff”.

The Whangarei session will be at the Elevate CA offices on 15 July – and the Auckland session will be at a yet-to-be-confirmed venue on 19 August. Both sessions will run from 5:30pm sharp until 7:00pm. Here are the panelists:

David Grindle (Whangarei session only). David is a partner with Webb Ross Lawyers, who were awarded the New Zealand Legal Personnel Employer of Choice at the 2007 Law Awards. Webb Ross takes motivating and rewarding their team very seriously – and David has a wealth of great knowledge in this area gleaned through trial, error – and ultimately success.

Rebecca Brennan (Auckland and Whangarei sessions). Rebecca is a director of Elevate CA Limited – and is an experienced leader and motivator of high performing teams. Rebecca has a lead-from-the-front ethos – and a wealth of great coal-face experience including tips and potential pitfalls in tying remuneration to performance while maintaining a positive and energised culture.

Michael Masterson (Auckland and Whangarei sessions). Although today a director of The Bottom Line Expense Reduction Limited, Michael is a former serial CEO with a talent for building great teams and great cultures as a strategy for achieving competitive advantage in large organisations. Michael has a keep-it-simple ethos, and will share some enlightening and entertaining war stories from his journey.

Jim Huse (Auckland session only). Jim is a Business Psychologist and director of Huse Hill Associates, whose modus operandi is to help connect an organisation’s people to its business plan through a convergence of psychology, technology and business objectives. Sound technical? Well come along to the Auckland session on 19 August and hear Jim’s unique take on this topic.

As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge, free of “sales pitches” – and will be targeted to owners of businesses turning over $1 million or more per annum. And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.

Invites will be circulated to the Business Owners Forum e-mail list in early July. If you’d like to be included on that list, just contact Fraser Hurrell >>>.

And for a sneak preview of the upcoming Business Owners Forum topics right up to February 2011, click here >>>.

Fraser Hurrell is one of three directors of Elevate CA Limited, Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors in Whangarei, New Zealand.

Business Owners Forum Topics

Here is the list of topics planned for the next few months in both Auckland and Whangarei:

20 May – Whangarei. Rough guide on how to value a business. Preparing a business for sale. What purchasers look for. What factors impact on what a person may pay for a business. Impact of today’s lending environment on business values. Process of buying and selling, due diligence etc. Common traps and tips.

15 July – Whangarei / 19 August – Auckland. How to motivate and reward your team. Techniques from the coalface to motivate and reward staff, and in particular ways to tie performance to remuneration. Common traps and pitfalls.

16 September – Whangarei / 21 October – Auckland. Succession and admitting new shareholders. Discussion on some of the issues and fish-hooks in admitting new shareholders to a business as a way to bring in new blood and pave the way towards succession. Ways the purchase of shares by an incoming shareholder can be financed.

18 November – Whangarei / 2 December – Auckland. How to build a winning culture and use it to create a competitive advantage. What works and what doesn’t work – including war stories from a client who has done it well!

3 February 2011 – Whangarei / 17 February 2011 – Auckland. Advertising – examining the different media available, some expert comment on what works and what doesn’t, how to measure advertising success or failure, and how much to spend relative to cashflow.

Panelists will be confirmed a few weeks ahead of each event

Format is casual, normally with a panel of three professionals skilled in the particular topic of the day. Lively discussion is the order of the day rather than the more usual presentation “seminar” format. We even put on beer, wine and pizza to lubricate discussion and get the creative juices flowing.

Business Owners Forums are supported by likeminded businesses ElevateCA, The Bottom Line Expense Reduction, BNZ and Webb Ross Lawyers.

So how do you get involved?

Just contact Fraser Hurrell and ask to be put on the email list – and you’ll be kept fully informed of upcoming events and suggested topics. We don’t spam – and you can unsubscribe automatically from the list any time with one click.

Fraser Hurrell is one of three directors of Elevate CA Limited, Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors in Whangarei, New Zealand.

Shareholders’ Current Accounts

The topic for the 18 March Business Owners Forum will be “Shareholders’ Current Accounts”, featuring an informative (and entertaining!) panel discussion on issues and pitfalls around financing your company through the shareholders current account – and protecting that investment.

This event will be hosted at “The Conference Centre”, 585 Great South Road, Penrose on 18 March 2010 – from 5:30pm (sharp) to 7:00pm. A map and full directions are here >>>.
As always with BOF events, discussion will be driven by those who attend on the night – and the panelists will keep things moving along quickly. We have three great panelists, and here’s what you can expect to be covered over the hour and a half:

Fraser Hurrell – Director of Elevate CA Chartered Accountants. Fraser sees the results of a lack of forethought with regards shareholders current accounts every day, and has some useful and pragmatic insights into avoiding these issues up front. Issues often arise over time such as one shareholder having much more at stake in a company than others through their current accounts – or shareholders having significant personal borrowing that is not tax efficient where there may be an opportunity to refinance this into the company. There are often ways to prevent issues such as these from arising – or possibilities to fix them once they have arisen. More on Fraser Hurrell here >>>.

Damien Grant – Liquidator at Waterstone Insolvency. Damien is intimately involved with unravelling the affairs of companies in liquidation when things go wrong. Often this involves some unpleasant issues for shareholders who may find their advances to the company are unsecured – or that amounts repaid to shareholders may be recoverable by the liquidator. Damien has a wealth of knowledge and some sobering war stories, and plenty of useful techniques for keeping your investment in your company as secure as possible. More on Damien Grant here >>>.

Ben Langdon, a Solicitor and Partner with Claymore. Ben will discuss some of the practical strategies for protecting your investment in your company – and for maintaining equity between multiple shareholders. Simple tools such as General Security Agreements and proper shareholders’ agreements can pay dividends when the going gets rough, and these will be discussed from the point of view of shareholders. More on Ben Langdon here >>>.

This event will be chaired by Michael Masterson, director and founder of The Bottom Line Expense Reduction. More on Michael Masterson here >>>.

If you have advanced funds to your company – or if you have multiple shareholders with unequal current accounts – or if one shareholder has a current account and personal guarantees independent of the company, then this event is tailored for you.

Format is casual over pizza, beer and wine – and Business Owners Forums are always lively events! These events are targeted to owners of businesses with $1 million turnover and more.

This Business Owners Forum is supported by ElevateCA Limited and The Bottom Line Expense Reduction. The ethos of the Business Owners’ Forum supporters is to give back to the business communities which support us. In line with this ethos, Business Owners’ Forum events are always free of charge. Find out more here >>>.

If you would like to be invited to this event, please contact ElevateCA.

Fraser Hurrell is one of three directors of Elevate CA Limited, Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors in Whangarei, New Zealand.

Ideas for BOF Topics in 2010

Business Owners Forums have been running monthly since June 2009 – with topics chosen by popular choice. Last time we canvassed for topic suggestions was back in June, and we have now exhausted those which were put forward. So the time has now come to ask for a fresh batch of topic suggestions so we can go about assembling panels for the rest of the year.
Just to provide a bit of inspiration, here are the topics we have presented so far in Whangarei and Auckland.

Property Development

Managing Cashflow

Protecting Shareholder Current Accounts

Employment Issues

The Art of Networking

Monitoring your Business Performance

So if you have any thoughts on topics which you would like to see discussed over the remainder of this year, just add them in the comments box below. The only criteria is that the topic is relevant to the group – owners of businesses turning over $1 million or more per year.

And if you have any suggestions for panelists, we’d like to hear those too!

Fraser Hurrell is one of three directors of Elevate CA Limited, Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors in Whangarei, New Zealand.

The Art of Networking

This will be the last Business Owners Forum event for 2009 – and we have brought the date forward from the usual third Thursday of the month to avoid the worst (and the best!) of the silly season. The December Business Owners’ Forum will feature a panel discussion on “The Art of Networking”.

This event will be hosted at the ElevateCA offices on 3 December from 5:30pm (sharp) to 7:00pm.

As always with BOF events, discussion will be driven by those who attend on the night – and the panelists will keep things moving along quickly. This time we have three great panelists, and here’s what you can expect to be covered over the hour and a half:

Fraser Hurrell, a director of ElevateCA Limited will talk about his experience with using social media tools such as twitter, facebook and blogs to drive leads and sales. He has some good practical advice from the coalface on how to get results networking online without letting these tools become couterproductive and consume your time.

Geoff Grigg didn’t follow the more usual banker’s career path from the bottom up through the ranks – he joined the BNZ as a Business Relationship Manager without the benefit of a banking network built up over the years. Luckily Geoff’s past life as a Sales Manager meant that he knew exactly how to build his business network from scratch. Geoff will share some insights and practical tips from this journey.

Sarah Lochead-MacMillan, author of “The Naked Networker” says that entering a networking event for the first time can generate the equivalent feelings as attempting to socialise naked. She will give some tools and techniques to get past these feelings – and enable you to form and drive a sustainable network. *Spoiler: There will be no naked networking at this event*.

Format is casual over pizza, beer and wine – and Business Owners Forums are always lively events! These events are targeted to owners of businesses with $1 million turnover and more.

Business Owners Forums are supported by ElevateCA Limited, BNZ, The Bottom Line Expense Reduction, The ICEHOUSE and Webb Ross Lawyers.

The ethos of the Business Owners’ Forum supporters is to give back to the business communities which support us. In line with this ethos, Business Owners’ Forum events are always free of charge.

If you would like to be invited to this event, please contact ElevateCA.