What I Wish I Knew About Small Business – Ep. 6: It's Not Luck: An Accountant's 5 Secrets to Small Business Success with Natalie McDermott (A Media Magnet Special Series)
Media MagnetShow Notes
Enough of the box-tickers. My guest today says most small business owners have, at some point, buried their head in the sand about their numbers, come to her flying completely blind, and finally hit the point where enough is enough.
In this episode of What I Wish I Knew About Small Business, brought to you by AMP Bank GO, Liz Nable sits down with Natalie McDermott, Partner at Kelly+Partners, to talk about what actually separates a great small business accountant from a box-ticker, and what it really means to "know your numbers."
Liz found Natalie the way most small business owners find a good accountant: word of mouth, after searching high and low. The recommendation came from Hayley and Jade of By Sid, who featured earlier in this series. Natalie has spent close to a decade at Kelly+Partners, starting out as an unpaid intern and building a career that now sees her working with 500 to 600 small business clients, with a particular focus on e-commerce and retail brands.
This is a genuinely practical, jargon-light conversation about the mistakes that quietly cost business owners the most: not separating personal and business money, misunderstanding GST, ignoring tax obligations until the ATO comes knocking, and not knowing the difference between revenue and profit. It's also about what happens on the other side, the moment the numbers finally click, and running a business stops feeling like guesswork.
In this episode Liz and Natalie cover
Why so many business owners arrive at Natalie's door having "flown completely blind," and the aha moment that happens once clean, monthly reporting is in place
Natalie's path into accounting, from offering herself up as a free intern a year out of university to becoming a Partner at Kelly+Partners a decade later
Why the right accountant should feel less like a box-ticker and more like someone who understands your goals, your family and your exit plans
Business structure basics: when it's fine to start as a sole trader, and the point at which it starts costing you not to switch to a company
The Div 7A trap: what happens when business owners treat company profits as their own money to pull out at will
Why GST is not yours to keep, and the tax fundamentals Natalie wishes were taught in school instead of learned the hard way after an ATO knock on the door
The single biggest tax trap Natalie sees: using the ATO as an unofficial creditor, and why that no longer flies now enforcement has ramped up
Revenue versus profit versus gross profit margin, explained in plain English, and why GP is the number product-based business owners need to understand first
Rough benchmark figures for staffing and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, for both product and service-based businesses
What business owners are cutting back on right now: supplier renegotiations, consultants, subscriptions, team size, and the two biggest levers of all
Practical first steps for getting financially set up from day one, including paying yourself a proper wage and taking superannuation and payday super seriously
The non-financial numbers most business owners overlook: aging inventory, customer retention, repeat purchase rate, return rates, and for e-commerce specifically, customer acquisition cost and lifetime value
When to graduate from a bookkeeper to monthly reporting, to a fractional CFO, to an internal finance team, and why "what got you here won't get you there"
The three or four simple rules Natalie's most successful clients live by, including one founder's iron-clad $5 cap on gift-with-purchase spend
Why discipline, not luck or intelligence, is the real differentiator Natalie sees between businesses that scale well and businesses that struggle
A line worth writing down
"Get a good accountant that is going to help educate you, and get someone with a bit of personality who can excite you a bit around understanding the numbers." — Natalie McDermott
About Natalie
Natalie McDermott is a Partner at Kelly+
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