Odds and ends

Revenue in itself does little for you. It looks good but does nothing for the business as such. Generally all you are doing is working for the wholesaler.

Profit is in the long term the best indicator of business robustness.

But profit is often a fairy tale. You cannot pay bills with a good financial statement, to pay these you need cash. Run out of cash and generally if you are lucky you will be working for the bank.

People tell me that it is too hard to get the point of sale software going. But to accomplish any task, we all start with a small step. I was 15 years old when I went in front of a computer, and I just stared at it, not knowing what to do. Then I pressed a button. I had started.

The most important thing is we START.

A friend of mine went to Woolworths for the oldies shopping today. He got there at 7.15 AM. He found no toilet paper (no delivery apparently), no eggs no sugar etc.

Victorian Chamber of Commerce has here put together a COVID-19 (Coronavirus) resources for business here with many useful links for you.

I do not know what to say about it, no matter what you think of the Coronavirus effect, it is clear to our community this is Economic and Social disaster.

If it continues it may grinding much of the country to a halt.  Schools are shutting down. The Australian Grand Prix is cancelled, they are talking of closing down part of Australia as they have done in some overseas country e.g. Spain, Italy, South Korea and China where 100 million people are in lockdown. In some countries now save for supermarkets and pharmacies, all malls are closed. Restaurants, public hotel dining, gyms, pools, amusement parks, zoos, bathhouses, beauty and massage salons, event and conference venues, public boats, heritage sites etc. closed too. People in religious activities have to keep at least two meters from one another.  

I have clients that have 30% to 40% of their business is Chinese tourists and most of that is gone, and that is hurting. Where is this going to go? 

The closest example I can think of is the Spanish flu which my aunty talked a lot about it, it closed down much of Australia for over a year, made sick about 40 per cent of the population and killed around 15,000. Are we looking at something like this?

Several of my clients have received advise sheets that state

- That they have to clean up frequently their public areas, door handles, public bathrooms, etc. with disinfectant.

- Make available antibacterial hand sanitisers. 

In theory, it is all good advice. The problem is that try and get antibacterial hand sanitisers now, I went six (6)  time to my supermarket, and they had none.  

One of my clients reported to me that they rang the government Coronavirus helpline, and the phone rang out.

Another told me that Coronavirus tests in Australia are now only available to high-risk people. 

Two pieces of advice, I was told besides the  handwashing everyone talks about

1) Give yourself plenty of fresh air, make sure the air in the shop circulates

2) Do not touch your face but without a mask, its almost impossible to do as a study here showed

Where is this leading too?

As an Australian, it is lovely to celebrate Australia Day because it reminds how blessed we are to be in such a wonderful country.

For those that need support, rest assured that our support lines are all open today.

First of all, a very happy Chinese New Year to all our Chinese readers, we hope for your good health, good luck and much happiness throughout the coming year.

Surprisingly for non-Chinese, the rat is actually in traditional Chinese legends considered to being quick-witted, resourceful, and smart but lack courage. With rich imaginations and sharp observations, they can take advantage of various opportunities well. As a person who has involved in a few rat hunts, I can confirm that they are all this.

For those that do not realise it, this festival is celebrated by about 1.5 million people in Australia now and here is an article on how to attract Chinese tourists. 

Perfectionism is defined by the dictionary as "refusal to accept any standard short of perfection."

It is considered as being a psychological condition as perfection, an impossibility in reality. What tends to happen is because nothing is perfect, people do nothing, procrastinate and get depressed as nothing is done. As such it becomes a fast track to unhappiness and often leads to depression.

Why bring it up here in a POS software blog because too often people look at their point of sale system and they know it does much more then what they use it for but talk themselves out of using these extra features because they think it lacks something. As it is not exactly what they think they need they do nothing. 

My advice, use what you have.

Do it, once you get going you can always make it better.

It is the first step that is the hardest. The second is not so hard. The third often is easier still.

With us, you have a support network who will give you honest feedback. We can often introduce you to people that you can talk too that are doing and what you are thinking of doing. 

Remember.

Last night as it became apparent that these bushfires were growing, some of our clients in the affected areas started ringing us up for advice on taking a backup as they are moving out. Some of them had a cloud backup (its free with us so why would they not do it?) but just in case they wanted a manual backup. Thank goodness for mobiles when this is over we really need to think about improving some of the mobile phone coverage in some areas. We also need some decent rain now to end this drought.

We have three months to go on this bushfire season.

Thanks for your support over 2019, we are now the second most visited site for point of sale software in Australia, only retail express beats us and not by much.

Readers, I wish you our warm and heartfelt greeting to you and your family and your business.

I hope 2020 is full of health, happiness and prosperity.  

PS My thoughts for today. I will not make any new resolutions as I never keep them anyway. Mine last year was to lose weight, it is now unchanged from the previous year, and it was a big struggle to keep it the same.  

Accept that many of the things happen in life, that I can never go back.

Switch off.

Do not worry.

Enjoy the moment