Getting the message out to all small businesses

[CarolineHughes]

Hi everyone! The message is that small businesses are eligible for lucractive cash funding from the government at tax time. It is a broad scale program that is open to companies of any size (yes micro & soloists too!).

I would love to get ideas/feedback from everyone about how best to get my business known to the tens of thousands of small businesses in Australia who are in engaged in product development, process improvement, software development, business improvement and more.

I have created a website which tells everyone about the programs, called the R&D Tax Concession & R&D Tax Offset. I have also created a few software tools to make claiming the cash a whole lot easier than is currently possible.
The site is www.smarttax.com.au

The government is useless at promoting the program (I guess it means they would have to give away more cash) so I would love a broad brush way of getting it known to everyone.

Any ideas would be awesome!
Thank you
Caroline

[kbrookes]

Looks awesome!

My one reservation is that it all looks almost too good to be true...... and then asks me for $59 without entirely explaining the kinds of activities that will ensure the eligibility of my business.

Perhaps I missed that, but if so, that too is a problem!

[Melinda B]

Originally Posted by kbrookes

My one reservation is that it all looks almost too good to be true...... and then asks me for $59 without entirely explaining the kinds of activities that will ensure the eligibility of my business.

Perhaps I missed that, but if so, that too is a problem!

The $59 is because Caroline is selling the submission service to small businesses, from what I read of it. Their tools and eligibility calculator makes it easy for the non-accountant business owners to submit the paperwork etc.

If you want to go through the process yourself the info is here http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/con...tent/34630.htm

[kbrookes]

Thanks for the clarification. I understand the purpose of the tool and I eagerly read through most of the site as I felt it could well have benefit for us...

But I wasn't willing to plonk down over $60 (once you take into account the templates) without knowing if I was going to be eligible in the first place.

I really think this is something that would be important to address.

[CarolineHughes]

Your feedback is great, exactly what I need.

If there is any confusion then I definitely need to clarify this and fix it up on the site.

Here is the dilemma, and again your comments on this will help me...

My IP rests with the tool that tells companies whether or not they are their projects are eligible. To find this out currently requires either extensive knowledge of the tax legislation which is rather complex, or else you can engage an R&D tax specialist consultant (such as myself) and we can charge you a lot of money to find out the answer.

But I need customers to see the value in the tool, so perhaps I need to provide some more information up front in terms of general guidance, so that companies can get more of a feel as to whether they could be eligible or not.

However, it really is as broad as I have made out. As per my landing page, if you are creating new or improved products, devices, services, processes or materials, then these programs are very likely for you.

Any thoughts on how I can best get the value message across would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Caroline

[kbrookes]

Hi Caroline,

That's exactly what I meant, thanks for listening.

I feel like I needed a little more guidance on whether I was eligible prior to purchase.

I'm definitely a potential customer here, so this sort of info is of interest to me.

[Melinda B]

Originally Posted by CarolineHughes

But I need customers to see the value in the tool, so perhaps I need to provide some more information up front in terms of general guidance, so that companies can get more of a feel as to whether they could be eligible or not.

However, it really is as broad as I have made out. As per my landing page, if you are creating new or improved products, devices, services, processes or materials, then these programs are very likely for you.

Could you include a dot point list such as:

"During this year or last, if you:
- created a new product
-researched how to improve your customer service
- blah blah blah
- blah blah blah

If you did any of these then there's a very good chance that you're eligible for these grants. Click here for your next step"

Can customers get their money back if they go through the program and find they're not eligible? Not if they put in a grant and it gets rejected, just if they're not able to apply? That would probably encourage more people to try it as it's lessening the risk for them.

[CarolineHughes]

Originally Posted by kbrookes

Hi Caroline,

That's exactly what I meant, thanks for listening.

I feel like I needed a little more guidance on whether I was eligible prior to purchase.

I'm definitely a potential customer here, so this sort of info is of interest to me.

Thanks Kelsey, this is definitely valuable feedback. I will update the site to include more examples of eligible companies and projects. There are still plenty of other eligibility issues to make my tool worthwhile.
One other value I could highlight from my eligibility tool is that even if you find you are not eligible for some reason, often it doesn't take much to change things to make yourself eligible. ie if you are not a company structure, you can register to make yourself a company to be able to claim.

I would love to help you to be able to make a claim. Perhaps if you could message me with your project I could also give you some guidance on eligibility.

Cheers
Caroline

[DavidThomas]

Hi Caroline,

As with previous posters, It does sound great, however I find myself asking if and how I can apply this to myself, ie. is "insert project name" worth checking into?

Maybe you could consider a no win, no fee scenario - at least for the first step in accessing eligability? Then its upto you to upsell the fact that if they adjust structures etc they can be eligible.

My opinion here would be if you can do whatever it takes to get that first enquiry from the customer, you way more likely to win them as a client - even if this costs you time.

[CarolineHughes]

Originally Posted by DavidThomas

Hi Caroline,

As with previous posters, It does sound great, however I find myself asking if and how I can apply this to myself, ie. is "insert project name" worth checking into?

Maybe you could consider a no win, no fee scenario - at least for the first step in accessing eligability? Then its upto you to upsell the fact that if they adjust structures etc they can be eligible.

My opinion here would be if you can do whatever it takes to get that first enquiry from the customer, you way more likely to win them as a client - even if this costs you time.

Thanks David and Melinda - great points!
It sounds like there are two things I need to fix up on the site:
1. Provide more info to help companies work out whether they are eligible or not before they purchase the tool
2. Provide some type of money back guarantee if companies find they are not eligible

These two things are definitely possible, although I would also love more advice on how I can best leverage my expert knowledge in this field to make some money
Basically the purpose of the site is to provide small businesses with low cost access to the advice that currently only specialist consultants provide. I have set it up to be totally automated so that companies can access it at any time convenient to them and not have to wait for a response from me (I also run a consulting business in this area).

I am currently working on my flagship product which is called R&D Application Wizard. Basically it is the R&D Eligibility Wizard plus takes all the information from you to automatically email you your completed R&D Application to lodge with AusIndustry. I working through some technical issues at the moment on this, but am hoping to have it out within a month or two.

But in the meantime I have got the R&D Eligibility Wizard set up so that companies don't have to wait and can go ahead and claim their R&D tax cheque sooner rather than later.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Caroline