How NOT to Commit Business Suicide

Business Suicide is a collection of ideas and strategies for dealing with issues that I have learnt and found to be valuable over my 25 years in business. This book has spent years in different stages of development and I believe it is now refined enough to be of real help to many Australian business owners. Through my experiences, I have realised that for businesses to succeed they must first survive – a task that is easier said than done. Every year there are more than 12,000 insolvency appointments in Australia and while that does not sound like a huge number, it affects a great number of people. This is especially true when we consider the number of businesses that just scrape by, year after year, and do not take that final step of consulting an insolvency practitioner. No one running an SME is under the illusion that running a business is easy. We work harder and longer than people with 9-to-5 jobs at the multinationals and I believe that SME business owners have just as much (if not more) of a right to be rewarded for their efforts.

Currently, I run a number of companies – specifically, Fresh Numbers (an accounting/consultancy firm), All Profit Solutions (a non-conforming loans introducer) and primarily Your Business Angels. Your Business Angels specialises mainly in helping people who have fallen on hard times, while Fresh Numbers helps many businesses further develop their success.

I believe that all SME owners should be aware of the common advice that I give my clients, which is contained in this book. Business Suicide is designed to explain all the basic premises for running a surviving and successful SME. It is arranged in such a way that chapters can be read independently if a reader feels they have a grasp on a particular issue. However, I cannot stress enough (as you will see when you read on) the importance of getting even the small, basic things right. In tough times these things can be the make or break of a business and can determine whether a family get to keep their home. I sure wish someone had made me aware of these things when it happened to me. I urge you not to skip over these small things.

I hope you enjoy reading the book and hopefully it will enable you to pursue your goals and achieve the things you know you can and should achieve. Going into business takes guts and we all deserve to be rewarded for our bravery.

Gavin Waring, 2010