What can you do to avoid holiday business stress?

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This time of year can get out of control quickly, and without having some form of plan in place, it can be harder than it needs to be. Here are a couple of tips to help you through the silly season.Having a budget for the holidays will help you achieve the year-round goal of avoiding unnecessary and inefficient debt. Work towards having a minimum of 3 months worth of cash available so that you can tap into it when unexpected expenses come along. You also need to think about your staff wages over the holidays, paying for public holidays and holiday pay.

Get your Bookkeeper or Accountant to calculate your GST before you close for the holiday break. Don’t risk a late payment just because you are unprepared. You end up paying interest and penalty fees which could go on other expenses so do it before you go away.

Use Tools to Manage Cash Flow – Cash flow management can cause a great deal of small business stress. Invoice due dates and financing require working capital and missed payments can lead to damaged credit. Opening up to assistance can help you take charge of your accounts receivable and help manage your cash flow calendar in one swoop.

Manage staff – Make sure you have clear and accurate staff rosters to avoid being over or under staffed during the holiday. It doesn’t take long for the wages budget to blow out with poor planning. Close down for the holiday period? Ensure all of your staff are aware of close down dates and have planned their leave appropriately.

Back up your data – We all backup our data – or at least we should be!
However, have you considered how secure your backup data is? With many offices closing over the Christmas period, its important that your backup files are stored somewhere secure and that it is offsite. One option is to use a cloud based back up that saves your files to a cloud based server. However, if you prefer to use a storage device such as external hard drive, make sure it is stored at your home or in a secure location over the Christmas break. Whilst hardware such as laptops are covered by insurance in the event of a burlgary, losing your data is irrecoverable and can have an enormous impact on the business – sometimes even terminal!