During my nineteen years with ORIX I have been extremely proud of how we have grown and of all we have achieved through our strong partnerships with our customers.

But even more exciting times are ahead as we step up our performance to a new level. The initiative, determination and passion within our ORIX family promises only bigger and better things.

We hope that you find the information in this edition of Insight both interesting and informative. We have introduced a regular reader forum so we can learn even more about you and look forward to hearing what you think.

Best wishes,
John Carter

It’s winter. It’s cold, it’s dark. It’s much too easy to curl up in front of the television and the heater. But here’s the perfect opportunity to beat the winter blues – put on your running shoes and start training right now.

What for? The Blackmores Sydney Running Festival, of course.

It’s a major city sporting and community event that will this year see 15,000 people participating on one of the most spectacular and scenic courses of its kind in the world.

Taking in two huge Sydney icons - the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House - and delivering significant economic benefits to Sydney’s tourism industry, it is also the only annual sporting event that closes the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

ORIX is very proud to be the official logistics partner in the 5th Blackmores Sydney Running Festival, which will be held on Sunday 11th September 2005. The Festival will include:

• The Blackmores Sydney Marathon
• The Blackmores Sydney Half Marathon
• The Sunday Telegraph Body and Soul Bridge Run (a 9km event which could soon join the City to Surf as a “must do” event for the Sydney Community)
• The Sunday Telegraph Family Fun Run

Runners in all four events will finish at the picturesque Sydney Opera House, where a Recovery Village will be set up in the adjacent Botanical Gardens, featuring our own ORIX post race tent.

All runners and wheelchair athletes are invited to participate in the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival, and we would like to further extend the invitation to our readers to enter the event as part of our team, the “ORIX Running Mates”. Look out for your email invitation in the next few weeks.

So, come on – off the couch. Training starts today. For further details and registration visit www.orixrunningmates.com.au

Keeping your cash flow in a healthy state can be a stressful and time-consuming part of your business. Here are some tips to help you identify the warning signs, get things back on track and keep your cash flow in great shape.

The symptoms.
When your cash flow needs some serious attention the signs will be obvious. Your suppliers will be chasing you for money, outgoing payments will be delayed, and the stress levels will be rising. The end result - new opportunities are missed because your relationship with suppliers is strained.

The road to recovery.
In order to get things back on track, a few tools and techniques need to be implemented.

Firstly, prepare a detailed cash flow forecast – review and update it regularly.

You will also need to allocate a dedicated resource to your financial administration – with particular attention focused on collections. Collecting from debtors is not a job many of us enjoy, but if a formula is put in place it will make the process less painful. Here are some suggested steps for you to take:

1. Call your client as soon as payment is overdue. Record their response.
2. Give them 48 hours before phoning again.
3. If payment is not received, advise them legal action will commence.
4. Put a freeze on their account and stop supply.
5. Leave the matter in the hands of a reputable collection agent.

Take a hard look at your stocking levels – are there ways of reducing your stocks without harming your service delivery?

Also, try to negotiate appropriate terms from your suppliers that will give you manageable lead time for payments.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, secure a cashflow finance facility that will cover your day-to-day operating costs. This will give your business the financial flexibility that will allow you to take advantage of opportunities including settlement discounts for early cash payments to suppliers – up to 10% can often be agreed upon.

The Cure.
A cashflow finance facility from ORIX could be just the cure to get your business out of a holding pattern and back in a growth position. ORIX Cashflow Finance uses balance sheet assets such as debtors and stock to free up working capital for your business – leaving your residential and commercial properties secure and untouched.

Finally, if you are going through the growing pains of expansion, consider an ORIX Cashflow Finance facility. This facility grows in line with your sales success and is not fixed like a bank overdraft. As you expand – so does your finance – so do your opportunities.

To speak to ORIX Cashflow Finance about a solution for your business, call 1300 360 423.

Doing the bookkeeping or the accounts is not most people’s idea of fun, but for a well-run business these are simply not optional activities.

An automated financial management system can deliver a reporting system which

• assists with compliance, and
• provides information to guide decision-making in the business.

If you are an MYOB user, you probably use some reports on a regular basis. You can list the reports you use most frequently in the Reports menu, if you are using a version later than MYOB Accounting v14, Accounting Plus v14, Premier v8 or AccountEdge v4. This allows you to quickly view the report by selecting it from the menu, without opening the Index to Reports window.

To include a report in the Report menu:

1. Select Reports from the menu “Index to Report”
2. Highlight the report you want to display, them click the “Customise” button.
3. In the “Report Customisation” window, click the Finishing Tab
4. Mark the “Include in Reports” Menu selection
5. Click the “Display” button to display the report. This report will now appear in the Reports menu.

The report name is listed on the menu as a combination of the header name (above the report in the Index to Reports window), and the name of the report. For example, if the “Bank Register” report appears under the header “Cheques and Deposits” in the Banking Tab, the name listed for the report would be “Cheques and Deposits – Bank Register”.

To help you get the most from your accounting software, we will feature a technical tip each newsletter. We hope this will save you some time and make a few tasks in your day a little easier.

In the midst of successful corporate careers, six years ago Effie and Nick Panou broke away from the corporate world, moved from Sydney to Melbourne and started Lepanto Australia.

Lepanto is a wholesale distribution business selling catering and cleaning products. The business has steadily grown since it started, and the early days when business was conducted from a card table and fold out chairs are now long gone.

With strong business backgrounds, Effie and Nick knew the importance of ensuring correct procedures and management tools were in place as the business grew, and they restricted themselves to using only working capital for growth.

As time went on, Lepanto Australia’s reputation went from strength to strength within the industry and in April this year they found themselves having to turn away business due to a lack of cash flow. They simply did not have the working capital to allow them to hire the resources and order the supplies necessary to meet customer demands.

Effie and Nick turned to their bank for the funding required to grow the business and meet the needs of their customers, but had no success. Their overdraft limit (secured by property) could not be increased, so they decided to look at alternate forms of funding.

Lepanto had received a letter from ORIX about cashflow finance and decided to give both ORIX and one other cashflow finance provider a call. Both providers offered competitive pricing however ORIX’s weekly reporting procedures were far simpler and required little time on Effie and Nick’s part; a factor important to any small business owner.

In May Lepanto’s overdraft was extinguished in favour of an ORIX Cashflow Finance Invoice Discounting facility that will allow the business to grow and will ease the financial pressure.

And now the company can happily take on any valuable new business that comes their way.

The Federal Budget for 2005-2006 brings good news for small businesses in the form of several positive new measures that should help to enhance business operations.

The tax system has been simplified in two key ways:

• A small business no longer needs to calculate taxable income on a cash accounting basis.
• The amendment period in which the Tax Office can audit and adjust tax assessments has been reduced from four years to two years.

$55 million over the next five years will be devoted to initiatives and programmes that will help small businesses, including:

• The continuance of the Small Business Assistance Programme (for skills development, mentoring and advisory services).
• Small business mentoring and succession planning.
• Continued support for home-based business seminars, with a focus on businesses in regional areas.
• Provision of information to small businesses about proposed reforms to the Trade Practices Act, to help small business bargain collectively with large business.
• Improvements to the processing efficiency of the Office of Employment Advocate, and promotion of the advantages of Australian Workplace Agreements.

The continued funding of the Industry Capability Network Limited and Supplier Access to Major Projects Programme should assist SME’s to access supply chain opportunities in major development projects.

And $7 million (over two years) has also been devoted to the establishment of a network of Occupational Health and Safety Advisers specifically for small business.

The Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund has also been established to encourage local governments to cut red tape and reduce the complexity of compliance requirements and regulations for home-based businesses.

The changes will be welcomed, with the extension of the simplified tax system, in particular, promising to make things a little easier for the small business community.

We all know how important it is to have good financial advice, but finding the right financial planner for you can be difficult in an industry that varies so widely.

In a recent Business Tips article, Australian Business had this advice about what to do, what to look for and what to ask:

• Do your research first. Self-help books and free guides are available from Centrelink or the Financial Planning Association.
• Try to get a referral from a friend, associate or respected professional, such as your solicitor or accountant.
• Be prepared and have questions at the ready.
• Ask the adviser how they are paid. Remember, it comes out of your money!
• Ask the adviser if they are linked to any fund manager, investment house or stockbroker.
• Get a second opinion.
• An initial interview should be free. Most experienced advisers will have an idea of the general strategy that will best suit your needs and how much it will cost to implement it.
• Don’t select an adviser on price alone. Cheapest doesn’t mean best.
• Find out what it costs for a plan, especially if there are fees built into products.
• Be wary of free plans, this means your adviser is probably working purely on a brokerage (commission) basis. This in itself is not a problem, as long as this is disclosed.
• Ask your adviser what experience and qualifications they have. The ACA report found that on average, Certified Financial Planners performed better than other advisers.
• Ask if the planner is a member of a professional association such as the Financial Planning Association or a professional accountancy body.
• Find out if there are limitations to the services being offered. Be wary if they seem to favour their employer’s products.
• Make sure you know what ongoing service is being offered and don’t invest in anything you don’t understand.
• Have realistic expectations. Your planner’s role is to help you set long-term goals and strategies to achieve them. They don’t have a crystal ball.

So, with these valuable pointers to help you obtain the best financial advice, we wish you well on your path to greater wealth.

(Reprinted with permission of leading business advisory group, Australian Business Limited. For more information about these tips or Australian Business Limited, its products, services and membership, please call 13 26 96).