Small Business Benchmarks available from the ATO

Interested in finding business benchmarks?

Benchmarks provide a snapshot of how businesses in an industry are performing, on average, by providing a measure of various business costs in relation to turnover.

Small business benchmarks at www.ato.gov.au

You can now find Small business benchmarks on the ATO website:

Small business benchmarks are designed to help business meet their tax obligations by enabling them to track their performance against the rest of their industry

We have benchmarked the key business ratios for high medium and low turnover businesses for more than 100 industries. By comparing your business to the benchmarks for your industry you can assess your business’s performance.

We also use benchmarks to identify businesses that may be avoiding their tax obligations by not reporting some or all of their income.

Small business benchmarks Overview at www.ato.gov.au

You can find a  link to these benchmarks (and other useful resources for small businesses) on the Find Information for Small Business page on our website.

Australian Taxation Office

Track that GFC

Here’s a neat site (thanks to Resourceshelf.com) from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis that will help you make sense of the Global Financial Crisis:

The Financial Crisis : a timeline of events and policy actions

Of course if you are a West Australian you can put flesh on the timeline’s bones with further research using the State Library’s business databases, including some you can access from home.

He’s making a list

No, it’s not that sort of list, it’s the List of Lists (LOL – no not that LOL!) from Gary Price and Special Issues.  What is the LOL?

The List of Lists is a database of ranked listings of companies, people and resources freely available on the Internet. Content comes from a number of sources including: Specialissues.com, Gary Price’s “ResourceShelf” and individual users of the LOL.

You can find more about the list’s history and organisation , or dive straight in.  It’s a marvellous free resource, just what we need at Christmas (and all year round).

BizLinks Seminar showcases information for Small Business starters in WA

Ready to start the BizLinks seminar

Last night we hosted the BizLinks seminar here at the Alexander Library building (Apologies, I should’ve blogged it before it happened  – I’ve been away and missed my chance there!).  Speakers from government agencies had the opportunity to present an overview of some of the many services they provide to small business starters (and operators). It was also great for presenters and support staff attending to learn more about the roles and services of the other agencies! 

So if you missed out and are a small business starter or operator in WA, who should you be contacting for information and advice?

• Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC)
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
• State Library of WA (SLWA)
• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
• Department of Consumer and Employment Protection (DOCEP)
• Office of State Revenue (OSR)
• Australian Tax Office (ATO)

Thanks to all our presenters and to those who attended – I’m sure we all learned something new!

Nomination open for Western Australian Business and the Arts Partnership Awards

Business and Art aren’t always thought of together – however Art has a long history of involvment with Business – think of the Medicis! 

Today the model for the relationship is more partnership than patronage and these partnerships are celebrated and rewarded  through the Western Australian Business and the Arts Partnership Awards.

Our own partnership with Rio Tinto for the Better Beginnings programme was highly commended in the 2007 awards.  A full listing of the 2007 (and previous) winners can be found in the 2007 awards booklet (pdf document).

Nominations are now open for the 2008 awards – full information including nomination forms and selection criteria is available on the WA Department of Culture and the Arts Website.

 

Get nominating!

Social networking your personal finances ?

One of our readers of finance used the ABI Inform global database as the index to discover an interesting article Managing your Money in Public View by Jane J Kim in the Wall Street Journal June 14 2007 (page D1 in the “Personal Journal” section of the paper). The article commented on several of the next generation of personal finance and money management sites including, amongst others, Wesabe, Buxfer, TradeKing, and Covestor.

The sites offer opportunity to discuss, with like minded people, financial planning and spending behaviour including student loans, shared expenses, managing savings accounts, credit cards and investing.  CNN predict 2 million users of social networking personal finance sites in 2008.

If you would like to hear more – as well as take a look at more conventional, as well as local, ways of managing money and investment – take a look at the “Money – your bottom line” seminars offered on a regular basis in the Library’s SEaK: Business program

Christmas Philanthropy

Did you know you can access a wealth of full text business newspaper and magazine articles using the State Library’s subscriptions?

At Christmas it’s great to see that not all business people are cold hearted Scrooges! From the Library’s business databases, we looked for this year’s articles on Christmas philanthropy.  We were touched by the story of Larry Stewart –  “Kansas City Secret Santa”.

You can look for more articles on this or other business topics - from the State Library’s website, select databases from home  select Business Source Elite or A&NZ Reference Centre, get out your local public library card (Western Australians only!) and and follow the instructions to look for more stories of Christmas philanthropy.