Davidsons talks risk with TCT

ACCOUNTING and business advisory firm Davidsons shared their learnings about business risk in an informative Bizz3228 networking event hosted by Torquay Commerce and Tourism at RACV Torquay Resort Last week.

Clinton Fraser and Ian Sweet from Davidson’s Torquay office talked about the company’s 2017/18 SME Research Report, which is collated using a business risk survey completed by between 400 and 500 businesses each year.

“Business risk is something that if you ignore it, you’re taking a huge risk,” Mr Sweet said.

The top three concerns of SMEs from the latest Research Report are business planning, protecting the business and family assets, and stress and lifestyle.

Mr Sweet said a business plan “could do whatever you wanted it to do but the important thing is that you’re thinking about your business in total”.

“Ask yourself ‘why do I do what I do?’ and evolve it from that; I think that gives you a point of difference.”

On protecting assets, Mr Fraser said it was important to be on guard against “predators and creditors” not just now, but for future generations.

“I think estate planning is a really critical component. From the research data, 50 per cent of people have a will, but only 30 per cent of people have an estate plan.”

He said business activities had inherent risk and should be kept separate from family assets.

“We all go into business hoping that it’s going to be fantastic and work out well, but I think everybody’s got an awareness that it’s tough being in small business, it’s not always easy and unfortunately for some business activities, they can’t see it through.

“Being able to exit an unsuccessful business without causing damage to the other assets that you have is really, really important.”