In keeping with our Mondays featuring Xero, I thought I’d tell you a bit about what I was doing last week…

As much as I’d love to say I spent last week at “Comicon” (does anyone watch The Big Bang Theory?)…my outing at “Xerocon” was a tad more serious…if you can call a CEO skateboarding around the Melbourne Showgrounds serious??

First up for me was Uni Day at Crown Promenade, where I was able to have a face-to-face workshop session with my Xero account manager and the head of Accounting at Xero. We set some goals and had the chance to bounce ideas off our fellow Xero certified partners – you see in our business, there’s no sitting still.  You must continue to learn and enhance your skills, and for me, it’s also about how I can enhance the service to my clients…

Following Uni Day were two days of conference – two FULL days of learning new tips and tricks and finding out all the new developments the team at Xero have been working on.

But it’s not only the team at Xero who’ve been busy – users of Xero may be aware of the “Add-on Market” – Xerocon was a great chance to meet a number of these developers and see their products (you should see how many pens, stress balls, drink bottles and branded lollies I’ve come home with!)

In all seriousness though, I look forward sharing more of Xero with you – keep an eye on Mondays!

PS of all the facts and figures thrown around, for some reason the only one I can remember is that the development team drank 180,000 cups of coffee last year…go figure!?!?

Regards

Every now and then you need to give yourself some credit…and I’m choosing today to pat myself on the back!

Most of the time, like most of you, I simply get on with things.  But since I’ve been working for myself and with my mentor, I’ve come to realise that it is important to celebrate your successes – from my perspective, doing so reminds me how far I’ve come and provides the encouragement I need to continue forward.

Over the past couple of weeks, in addition to running The Tax Chic, teaching Body Pump and First Aid and just living in general, I’ve celebrated the following achievements:

• Spending two days with six accounting teachers visiting from China and taking them through the approach we use in vocational education
• Launching Business in Heels – South West Victoria
• Presenting a workshop and hosting an expo display at BizFest, and
• Participating in Xero Accelerate and Xerocon 2015

…it certainly has been a busy time.   While this doesn’t make me any more special than the next person, only I know just what I’ve needed to do in order to make it through – and this is why we should never compare ourselves to others!

After the Business in Heels – South West Victoria announcement, I received some absolutely wonderful and positive feedback, not only on the concept but directed to me and the way I live life – I am so very thankful to those who took the time to let me know their thoughts, it was very kind.

Now it’s your turn, have you reflected on your successes of late? I’d love to hear your stories, either in this forum or by private message – go on, celebrate your success!

Regards

The sole purpose of this blog post is to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Karen Foster and the team at o2Media!

o2Media were responsible for organising and co-ordinating BizFest in Warrnambool on Monday, and I am pretty confident in saying that everyone who attended had a great time!

The picture on the left is The Tax Chic’s stand in the expo area in the Foyer at Warrnambool’s Lighthouse Theatre (apologies for the quality of the photo, there’s only do much I can do with an iPhone…) – I personally had an enjoyable and productive day with lots of visitors and plenty of people to talk to.

The hi-lights of the day were definitely hearing from Jim Penman (CEO of the Jim’s Group) and Carolyn Creswell (founder of Carmans) – being able to hear their success stories as they visit my hometown was certainly inspiring!

Of course another hi-light was presenting my own workshop session “Update, Understand and Analyse your Accounts”, and I thank each of the participants for coming along.

Make sure you check out the rest of the Small Business Festival, there’s still plenty of events being held right across the state…but I’m off to a conference for the rest of the week, no doubt I’ll be experiencing some brain overload come Friday night!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Regards

Like most computerised accounting systems, Xero offers its users the opportunity to create invoices for customers…nothing new there…

But, one of the great features of Xero is being able e-mail your invoices to your customers!

The added bonus is that this process is as easy as entering the e-mail address of the customer in their record, there’s no complex e-mail system set up, and you can even send yourself a copy as well.

Xero allows you to work smarter with online invoicing software.

You can create professional looking invoices including your own personal brand or logo using the templates provided, or by customising your own.

Other features are recurring invoices, scheduling bill payments to match your expected cashflow and sending invoices to groups of customers – all with the click of a button (or the touch of your screen if you’re working on your tablet or smartphone!)…

…that’s right, you can even send invoices from your tablet or smartphone while you’re out and about!

To find out more about Xero, contact me for a consultation.

Regards