Accountant's Minute

“The truth is that while I’ve been patiently waiting for you to escape the compliance cubicle, I cannot hang around much longer. Business is getting more competitive by the day and I need your help! Over the years, I’ve sat through meeting after meeting with you about my tax returns.  To be honest, I do this under sufferance – tax does not light me up! Besides, I pretty much...

The Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Scorecard produced by ESS BIZTOOLS as at 31 July 2019 has identified that 31,141 investors have invested an average of $1,207 in the 44 companies that have raised $37,586,246.  (Click here to view the Scorecard) This uptake indicates that after a slow start Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is starting to raise much needed capital for Small...

What is in it for a company? Ability to raise up to $5 million in a 12 month period direct from the public This is not a loan therefore: No loan application required No security required No personal guarantees required No monthly repayments of principal and interest required The company issues ordinary shares to the investors What does your client want to achieve...

Accountants can assist companies to prepare the documentation that they will require: Business Plan Budgets/Cash Flow Forecast Customer analysis Identification of unique competitive advantage Business valuation to determine the number of shares to be offered and pricing Company directors and managers will benefit from advice on how Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising operates...

Based on information contained within the Crowd Sourced Funding Intermediaries’ websites we have prepared the following scorecard as at 19 June 2019: Link to Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Intermediary’s Scorecard Sample of business activities of companies which have raised capital include: 100% digital bank All-female rideshare company Craft beer manufacturers Craft...

Companies need to have their “House in Order” - Andrew Geddes Chair of Greencross Ltd for 11 years (former ASX top 200 company) and a consultant to the Australian Accounting Industry for the last 30 years. “To raise capital SMEs have to go through all the disciplines of getting their “house in order” before investors will even consider supporting them, and in many ways that is a...

Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is not the same as “Crowdfunding”. Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is governed by the Australian Government’s “Corporations Act” which specifies strict legal requirements for the company to abide by. The company has to appoint an Intermediary from the businesses which have been appointed Crowd Sourced Funding Intermediaries by...

When the then Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull announced the Coalition Government’s Innovation Policy in December 2015 he indicated that two new types of corporate entities would be established. These entities were: Early Stage Innovation Company which required amendments to be made to the Income Tax Act Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising which required amendments to be made...

Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising represents the biggest improvement in business financing for small businesses and medium sized enterprises in the last 35 years! Australia is playing catch up – Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is already proven in overseas countries United Kingdom United States of America Canada New Zealand have had Crowd Sourced Funding Equity...

In the Beginning………. The original amendments to the Corporations Act required a Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Company to be an unlisted public company. The legislation was changed from 19 October 2018 to enable “propriety limited companies” as well as “unlisted public companies” that meet the eligibility requirements to be able to raise capital direct from the public as...

Happy New Financial Year! 36 companies have raised $31.6 million as Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Companies. This augers well for a great capital raising performance during 2019/ 20.  The momentum certainly increased after 19 October 2018 when proprietary limited companies were able to raise Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Capital direct from the public without having to...

Former Greencross Limited Chairman, Andrew Geddes, believes the new capital-raising process, Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising, could be a real wake-up call for small and medium sized companies to expand. “Raising capital places as lot of pressure on businesses to justify that they’re worth lending to” said Mr Geddes, a highly experienced public company director. “To raise capital,...

Prepared from an interview with Andrew Geddes, Public Company Director, Consultant to Accountants and businesses wishing to “Scale Up” included within the webinar “All Female Business Very Popular”.  Click here to view the webinar. Crowd Sourced Funding: Knowledge is the Key: The former Chairman of Greencross Limited and Accountancy Industry Consultant, Andrew Geddes, believes...

Shebah Rideshare Pty Ltd broke the Australian record for the largest Crowd Funding Equity Raising deal to date recently. The intermediary company which acted for Shebah, Birchal announced that $3 million was raised from 2,117 investors which tops the previous record of $2.6 million held by digital banking start up Xinja. Birchal said that, prior to this offering, Shebah had been “dismissed...

Who would have thought that Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising (CSF) would have had such a rapid uptake as a way for small and medium sized businesses to raise capital, especially as it’s so new! Well, it’s happening. Over $22M has already been raised as capital for small and medium sized businesses in less than five months. By anyone’s yardstick, that’s a great success, and the...

By now you will probably have heard about Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising (CSF) and just how powerful an option it is for your small and medium sized business clients to raise capital from the public. There’s certainly a lot of buzz in the accounting industry at the moment. While you may have heard about the concept in general, perhaps you aren’t completely up on all the details and...