Tax planning refers to the practice of organizing your business’s financial affairs with the goal of minimizing the amount of tax that you have to pay. You can’t avoid paying tax, but you can use certain strategies to ensure that your business doesn’t have to shoulder an unnecessary tax burden. Tax planning initiatives are perfectly within the law, and when implemented correctly, they can help your business gain a great competitive advantage. Your tax planning strategy can make or break your business. If you have a good strategy, you will end up with more money which you can reinvest into your business, and this will improve the quality of your products, your cost of production, and your ability to market your products. Tax planning is particularly important if your business has an annual turnover of more than $200 to $250,000. If you want to ensure that you have a good tax plan, contract tax accountants who have lots of expertise and experience on the subject.

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Like many perfectionists, for many years I chased the ever elusive ‘fix your weaknesses’ story, always putting myself in places where I could work on my weaknesses. Sadly this strategy did not bring me or my employers a whole lot of joy and I eventually got smart enough to avoid choosing the jobs that were too focused in those areas of weakness. At one point I graduated to telling my employer why it would not be a good idea to give me certain tasks… I explained these tasks were not a natural talent and ability for me and they would be wasting their and my time given my capacities in other areas! Of course, most people ignored this, preferring to squash the square peg into the round hole until they created a big mushy mess of misery for them and me. Imagine if Frank Gehry had become a bricklayer instead of the magnificent architect he is?

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Many successful people come to a stage where they feel tired, unmotivated and missing that energy that made them successful in the first place. Sometimes it is a result of a specific incident, more often it shows up out of the blue - the combination of a thousand small moments that weren't quite what our inner being truly desired! Sound familiar? Here's 10 quick, easy changes you can make that will give your mojo a boost: Do your work differently. Look at it as if you have never done this task before and ask yourself how else could you do this to create a greater possibility? Start in the middle of a project instead of the beginning and see where it leads. (Sometimes the unplanned leads to the greater possibility!!) Re-energise by having fun in your 10 minute breaks. If you can't remember what is fun for you, the first thing to do is make a list of possibilities...

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Think about the businesses you interact with. Can you name more than five that offer you an outstanding experience every time? Can you even name one? Being ordinary in business is easy. You don’t have to think much. You don’t need to do anything different or unusual. You don’t need to be brave. You don’t need to stand for something. You don’t need to get out of your comfort zone. The outcome? You don’t stand out from your competitors. You don’t attract raving fans. And you certainly don’t get extraordinary results! Being ordinary doesn’t cost much…. Or does it? Is your business joyful and fun or is it all pain, suffering and gory? Your answer will depend on your brand and culture… If your brand is more beige than magenta, and your culture is more ‘slit your wrists’ than celebration, it may be time to rethink the risks of being ordinary!

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The culture of a workplace has a great impact on the performance of employees. A positive workplace culture is one that values and cultivates professionalism, teamwork, and productivity, all of which lead to excellence. Negative workplace cultures are those that unwittingly incentivize employees to act in ways that are counterproductive, thus leading to failure or poor performance. It should be noted that companies don't set out with the explicit intention of establishing a negative workplace culture. However, a series of poor decisions on the part of the leadership team can inadvertently cause a negative workplace culture to take root. Negative workplace cultures have the following impacts on companies and businesses. A negative workplace culture is one where the managers don't express appreciation for the hard work and the dedication of their employees. If employees don't feel as though their hard work counts for something, they are likely to develop a bad attitude towards their work, which can lead to negligence, poor performance, and low productivity.

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