Accountants Have a New Opportunity to Provide Value Adding Services!
Accountant's Minute 215
The Federal Treasurer, Mr Josh Frydenberg has announced details on the Australian Business Growth Fund which the Australian Government is contributing to along with investments from the top banks (a total investment of $520 million).
The Fund which is expected to launch in the near future will provide long-term patient equity capital to 30 to 50 firms a year with annual turnovers between $2 million and $50 million.
The aim is to make it easier for small businesses and medium sized enterprises to access equity, which will allow them to grow and employ more people.
The Government believes that access to equity capital will help to reduce business risks for small businesses and medium sized enterprises because it will reduce their reliance on debt financing and will give greater confidence to the SME community.
The Australian Business Growth Fund will give proactive accountants another opportunity to be able to perform value adding services to their clients and prospects.
Each company that aspires to raise equity capital from the Fund will need to have ensured that the company already has prepared:
- A “bankable” Business Plan that clearly articulates the company’s vision for the next three years;
- Budgets and Cash Flow Forecasts and projected Balance Sheets that coordinate with the Business Plan for the next three years;
- Leadership team that understands the challenges of developing a business whilst having a strong appreciation of the role that equity finance provides to assist the company to achieve its vision
- An understanding of corporate governance issues and the role that the Board of Directors can play in mentoring and guiding the leadership team to achieve the company’s vision.
The Australian Business Growth Fund will supplement other recent Federal Government initiatives to give greater opportunities to small businesses and medium sized enterprises to be able to solve their financing problems if they are able to articulate their strategies and visions to create value creating businesses including:
- Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising
- Early Stage Innovation Company Capital Raising
As well as section 708 of the Corporations Act which has been available for 35 years to assist private companies to be able to raise capital.
Many of the companies who seek to utilise the opportunities that the Australian Business Growth Fund presents will need mentoring and advice from accountancy firms who are prepared to offer a broader range of professional services then the traditional annual accounts and income tax return services.
The Australian Business Growth Fund’s activities are expected to commence in early 2020 so now is a great opportunity to start internal preparations within your accountancy business to ensure that a skilled team is available to assist clients and prospects that wish to submit an application for equity capital by the Australian Business Growth Fund or the other capital raising opportunities that the Government has made available for the benefit of small businesses and medium sized enterprises.
ESS BIZTOOLS will be releasing a new “Australian Business Growth Fund Product Package” as soon as the guidelines for the new fund are announced so that accountants who are keen to provide these types of services to their clients will be able to utilise the product package without having to spend a considerable amount of time in developing their own resource tools to undertake these services.
ESS BIZTOOLS is presenting a Free Webinar examining all aspects of the Australian Business Growth Fund and identifying the services that will be available to assist accountants to deliver these services on Tuesday, 3 December 2019 at 11:30am AEST / 12:30pm AEDT – to register please click here.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday Promotion
To assist accountants to gear up to provide business advisory services in 2020, ESS BIZTOOLS is launching our “Business Advisory Services 2020 Promotion” from Thursday, 28 November to Friday, 6 December 2019 with:
- Special Black Friday/Cyber Monday Discounts of 33.1/3% on all packages and product packages from Friday, 29 November to Monday, 2 December 2019; and
- A 25% discount during the remainder of the promotion on Thursday, 28 November 2019 and from Tuesday, 3 December to Friday, 6 December 2019.
Please visit www.essbiztools.com.au to view these discounts.
You are invited to visit the ESS BIZTOOLS website at www.essbiztools.com.au to view the various “learn more summaries” on the various product packages contained within ESS BIZTOOLS.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us:
Have a great day!
