MAKING BETTER BUSINESS DECISIONS AND BECOMING FINANCIALLY LITERATE WITH LIZ JARVIS

✦ Self improvement has become an increasingly prevalent, and critical, topic of late.

COVID-19 taught us many things, not least of all how invaluable our health is. Living through and emerging from the worst pandemic in living memory, many people have realigned themselves with an improved healthy lifestyle leading the charge.

But what about the health of your business? Surely this should be afforded a similarly crucial health check? Do you trust or even understand the financial numbers behind your business and are they being maximised to ensure profitability?

If your answer to any of the above is no or unsure then it sounds like you need to connect with Liz Jarvis from Better Business Decisions. A Chartered Accountant with over 35 years experience, Liz has been helping Australian-based companies better understand and enhance their financial situation for the last twoand-a-half years.

Liz has purposefully positioned her focus on providing a new branch of accounting delivered with a human touch that strives to help, guide and educate clients, enabling them to gain clarity and insight to, ultimately, make better financial and business decisions. Heavily involved in the local community, she is passionate about helping small and medium businesses by empowering them without the need for them to change bookkeepers or tax accountants.

“Small and medium businesses are the backbone of Australia,” she says. “There are over 2 million of these ventures operating throughout the country. For the business owner it is imperative to understand their priorities. If a business is not performing, it has a ripple effect that

impacts many. Not only does the business and owner suffer but his or her family feels the effects, then, potentially, the wider community”

Deprived

Enhancements in technology have seen a widening gap over the years between business owners and accountants, mainly due to an increasing reliance on technology to crunch the numbers. This has led to more of a shallowthinking approach where people are either not bothered or too confused, even scared, to question things, becoming overly-reliant on clinical technology and rarely, if ever, viewing or questioning the results. However, just like the humans that program them, computers, programs and software can also be wrong sometimes.

“Many business owners are actually being deprived of the ability to understand and harness the numbers when making decisions, and that can be significant,” Liz says.

“My goal is to provide my clients with financial literacy, to enable them to truly understand their financial situation and maximise it.

“I work with my clients to bring them back to the numbers and fully engage with their financial statements – it’s amazing how their perceptions of the business can change just by walking them through their financials as the ‘Story of their business.’”

This is conducted via one-to-one strategy sessions that provide both parties a comprehensive overview on the situation and allows them to identify areas where they can work together and maximise a client’s position. Following the in-depth review, which typically lasts 60 minutes but can be longer if required, Liz will forward a proposal to the client pinpointing the issues or areas that may have been overlooked or neglected. This not only gives a clearer holistic overview but installs confidence in the client who now has both a more knowledgeable grasp on the business and a better understanding of sound financial planning.

“It’s prudent to not let others determine how your financial affairs are presented,” comments Liz. “Having a much clearer understanding of the dynamics of your business is a far healthier position to be in.”

It is something Liz does every day which she excels at and she will no doubt continue doing so for many years to come. Indeed, it makes absolute sense when I ask her if she has any form of personal or business mantra that she abides by.

Quoting American lawyer, writer, and orator during the Golden Age of Free Thought, Liz replies: “We rise by lifting others.”

Liz Jarvis very much practices what she preaches.