Royal Bank IT issue follow up

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Literally 1 day after my post Cheque-Pro was up for about 2 days until they did a further shut down for maintenance. Since then every thing is back to normal. No communication other than, Royal Bank would waive the January and February fees associated with the product.

Also, amid several complaints including mine about how the new on-line banking screen had too much wasted space and was more time consuming than the original version (which was fine), they compressed the layout and made it fit on the screen. Handy when you don’t have to scroll to see all your accounts (like the original).

At least Royal finally listened. Some companies do not. The moral of the story is “listen to your customers, and if it works don’t try to fix it.” Businesses are here to make customers happy and make money, in that order.

Till next time

 

Rick

 

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How not to handle an IT issue-Royal Bank Cheque-Pro

cheque pro

I have been a Royal Bank customer for decades, and I refer quite a bit of business their way from many of my clients. Usually they are on top of both technical and financial matters when it comes to serving their most profitable business segment (retail banking) until now. Take the recent facelift of their on-line banking makeover. It wastes a lot of space and makes me do twice the work to find out what I need to know. The old format was compact, easy to navigate and work with. The new interface in my opinion just plain sucks. Interestingly enough, Direct Investment and Business Banking has not changed, thank God for small miracles.  When I called in to complain the person at the call center said that Royal had used focus groups and surveys to mold their new design. I responded in kind “were the focus groups made up of hand-picked individuals or actual high volume users?” The rep responded that they would pass my thoughts along and also said that they were fielding a lot of similar calls.

This brings me to their latest blunder. Like many I liked the idea of depositing cheques remotely and avoiding driving to the branch. It would fund the account immediately and save time and money. The math was simple enough. I introduced it to many of my clients, some of which had to invest in scanners. About one month into their roll out the system was shut down. The only explanation I got was that they were having problems with an update.  It’s going on 3 weeks of down time and no update from Royal, despite still promoting Cheque-Pro on their site. All users get is this message:

cheque pro 2

As Canada’s Biggest Bank I would have expected more. Heads should roll and compensation needs to be addressed as well as doing the obvious and quit promoting a product that doesn’t work.

This is why competition from the Fintech industry is so important. Leaner, meaner and hungrier startups need to come in to save the day.

Royal, get your act together and get this fixed, or some Fintech company will fix it for you.

Till next time,

Rick

 

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Best Financial Calculators

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We’ve just updated our resource page with some of the most useful and easy to use financial calculators to assist you in making these common decisions or analyze your financial situation.

  • Lease v Buy
  • Rent v Buy
  • Net Worth
  • Accelerated Mortgage payment savings
  • RRIF payment Calculator
  • Financial Fitness Score
  • Break Even
  • Financial Ratios

Financial Tools made easy

Click on the link above to try them out today.

Rick

 

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Respecting your Clients and Learning from them

Art

One of the great things about serving a variety of customers is that you get to learn about each new business and industry from the inside. Our sweet spot has, and always will be, the small enterprise. Many of these enterprises start out because driven and talented people often need to be their own boss. They need the creative freedom of the non-corporate environment to flourish and innovate. Many of these individuals are involved in “fringe” industries that many practices shy away from, such as:

  • Tattoo parlours
  • Massage establishments
  • Adult shops, and the industry
  • Night Clubs

Our stance is that as long as it’s legal, everyone deserves a Great accountant. We respect each of our client’s and cater to their individual requirements including:

  • Odd schedules
  • Privacy
  • Location etiquette

The reward is that we often learn more from the client than we teach them. Keeping an open mind and overlaying the business element has made for some great success stories.

History has shown that once our clients embrace the documentation and process controls needed to measure and run their businesses, they feel confident enough to undertake growing their business rather than just working in it.

Till next time…

 

Rick

 

 

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Making Friends with the Bear

Bear fight

Like everyone else who has non-fixed income investments, I have felt the pain this year like you. When you put your money at risk you should in fact be aware of “the risk” and have the stomach to ride it out. No one, and I mean no one gets a free ride. If you go to sleep in a deep sweat at night worried about losing 15% of your investment, then you should not be in the market. Every investor should know that a balanced fund should always include cash and fixed income portions to counter balance the risk of equities. Mutual Funds (not my choice) do this automatically as they spread both the gains and losses over a wide swath of instruments.

If you’ve ever looked at my “Rick’s Picks” you won’t see very much change, even during this volatile period. It’s important to keep your head above the noise and realize that external forces are driving this Bear Market not fundamentals. Some of the 2015 forces included:

  • Oil prices (even the Saudi’s can’t keep this up forever)
  • Demand from China (Market is maturing)
  • Low Growth (Mature markets and economies here to stay)
  • Interest Rates (artificially low)

So instead of fighting the Bear, learn from it, make friends with it, and use it to your advantage. How you say?

  1. Watch your portfolio and the 52 week low points as they come up and buy into your gems on the cheap.
  2. The stocks on your wish list that were out of reach are probably cheap now-Load up
  3.  Take advantage of DRIP plans to lower your acquisition costs and “buy low” automatically

Bottom line, keep your head on your shoulders, don’t follow the crowd, and continue to do your research based on the fundamentals.

 

Till next time…

Rick

 

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Why I’m pulling the plug on Social Media advertising

Referrals

 

Like any other business I have to balance the need for attracting new clients with our ability to service existing ones. I don’t like to overextend my resources to sacrifice service to long-standing clients. During the past year I actively pursued adding 2-3 more clients and possibly adding staff to handle them. You may ask yourself only 2 or 3? The reason for such a conservative goal is that each client is different and can  eat up a lot of support time either on the phone or in person. I like to over deliver and under promise to keep satisfaction levels high. Besides tax season, the past 10 years has seen a new client added about every 18 months, and I’m ok with that. Most of these add-ons were from tax work that progressed into part-time accounts and some even full-time.

Fast forward to 2015. I started advertising on Twitter, Bing, and Google with a modest yet effective budget designed to deliver new leads. What I experienced from SEO, Display and Search ads was a lot of noise and window shopping.  The new clients that I did add were from the QuickBooks Partner program which is free and another referral which was from some previous tax work done in the past. So taking my own example and data into consideration, I’ve decided to end my experiment. All the time and effort I put into designing ads, managing different platforms, choosing keywords and ad text, can now be spent on my current clientele. I’ll probably wind up spending more time with my family and get  more referrals as a result.

Bottom line is don’t believe the hype. Be your own judge and make sure the cost/benefit is in your favour, not Google’s, Instagram’s, Twitter’s or Facebook’s.

Likes are not sales nor leads.

‘Till next time

Rick

 

 

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Small Business Excellence: Confidence

Self-Confidence

First and foremost I would like to apologize for not posting more frequently. I have recently been involved with getting a new client up to date with their record keeping and it’s taken most of my free time. I always personally handle new clients so that I understand their business before I hand it off to junior staff. If you’ve read my prior posts I lament about getting an accountant early on and getting things in order instead of catching up.

I digress.

Many of you already know this, but to start and have your own business takes guts and a lot of B***s. I’ll substitute B***s with the word Confidence going forward. Taking that leap and putting your money in harm’s way on a daily basis is not for the faint of heart. Normally individuals with this kind of appetite for risk have an abundance of confidence in their abilities and desire to follow through on their business plans.

This is an absolutely essential quality to have and must be in place to facilitate sales, cash flow, and operations. These 3 key areas will need guidance, coaching and vision to sustain the initial business and see it through its inaugural year.  Most small business owners and entrepreneurs can sustain their optimism through this start-up phase, but when things start to get serious (either in a good way or bad) is when you need that confidence to stick around even more.  Having the ability to stick it out through growth spurts, cash crunches and competition means turning that confidence into persistence. Your staff, partners and bankers will all look to you to see them through these challenges.

No one said you had to do it alone. Confidence and indeed persistence, can come from many sources. Knowing you have help and options when these challenges arise feeds your confidence and enables you to push through roadblocks to come out the other side. That’s why choosing your partners and advisors wisely can help you formulate options you thought you never had. Knowledge is Power.  Power is Confidence.

‘Till next time.

Rick

 

 

 

 

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What are the signs you need a new Accountant?

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Accountants like other professionals are subject to regulations and ethical behaviour when practicing. But what separates “average accountants” from “Great Accountants”? Surprisingly it’s not the level of their education or which firm they work for, but it’s how they relate to you, their client.

A Great Accountant will bring the following elements to the table:

  1. Trust (without it there is nothing else!)
  2. Establish Goals and Timelines
  3. Straightforward advice
  4. Timely and on-going communication
  5. Progress reviews and client feedback
  6. Updates on pending changes to the Tax Act or Legislation
  7. Market trends
  8. Competitive research
  9. Proactive opportunities for growth or expansion
  10. Estate or Succession planning

If your not getting what you bargained for then it maybe time to start looking for another firm or person that can offer you more than just “doing the books”.

 

‘Till Next Time

Rick Barbosa

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Small Business Excellence: Profits over Sales

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Growing a business can be difficult, especially if your business is price sensitive. Many a competitor will try to undercut prices and take a loss in the hopes of winning customers. This “loss leader” strategy works against them in the future as they try to re-coup losses by raising prices anyway. Consumers and clients who play this never ending game are not ones that you want to attract and do business with.

Focusing your attention on maximizing profits based on sustainable relationships is key to enabling moderate and realistic growth well into the future. Top line sales numbers grab attention, but it is profitability that pays the bills and provides cash flow to sustain your operation. I often ask owners and managers what would they rather have, 5 clients and good profitability or 500 clients and breaking even?

We must remember why we got into business in the first place, to make money. If you are working like a dog just to turn a small profit, then your time would be better spent on investing the capital you have in your business.  A good rule of thumb is 7-10% profit before tax. The rate of inflation is roughly 2% and the market historically returns 5-7% per year. If you are not making more than the market + inflation then you need to consider changing your focus or staying in business altogether.

The Discipline of Profit needs to be engrained in every relationship and in every process that is present in your operation. Without that discipline, that focus, you are just turning money over and not improving your life and the lives of those that depend on you and your company.

Till next time

 

Rick Barbosa

 

 

 

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