When Hannah Porter’s eCommerce business – Bear and Moo – started to grow, she knew she needed to find a new accounting partner to help her take her business to the next level.

“I had an accountant who was a family friend, but who mainly looked after service based businesses.

“Because I work in eCommerce, I really needed somebody who got what we did, and was going to understand inventory, and working with influencers, and all of that kind of extra stuff that comes when it’s not just a straight money in, money out, type situation.

“Like keeping track of what was going on and where. And because we import products from China, it’s international currency as well.

“So I wanted somebody who really was going to be all over that and who could take that data and explain it to me.”

“I very much felt like I didn’t know day-to-day how much money we had to spend and whether we were going to be alright. I just bought what I needed to buy and figured it out later.

“When I spoke to Jason I really just felt like he got who I was, what I was up to, where I was going, and could deliver.

“I didn’t feel like I was being sold a sales pitch. I felt like he actually knew what he was doing.”

Business growth soars

In early 2020 Hannah jumped on board with SMYD to make sure her day-to-day accounting was ship shape, and her end of year financials were taken care of.

At the same time we also factored in annual budgeting sessions and monthly CFO catch ups to ensure the business is tracking in the right direction.

And the business is booming! Bear and Moo’s growth has been huge, tracking at more than 560% increase over the past two years even while there’s been a global pandemic at play.

“A lot of that comes down to being able to utilise the planning that Jason’s done. The predictions and reforecasting the budget regularly.

“Having budget goals that we’ve set with Jason, has helped us push sales at our end. Our team now knows what we’re aiming for and is always trying to try to smash those goals.”

Using data to drive business decisions

A priority for us was to make sure Hannah can easily capture and utilise her financial data, such as her sales and stock management data, to make well informed decisions to keep driving profits up.

Because Hannah imports cloth nappies and other products from overseas, she plans orders about six months in advance. Having access to sales and prediction data enables her to understand which products are likely to sell well again, so it supports her to make sound stock purchasing decisions.

“A lot of what we’re doing is quite data driven now.

“Jason’s put together a dashboard that shows us gross profit based on category, brand, product type, things like that. So we can really drive in to see where we’re making our money, not just guessing.

“He also notices if things don’t look right when he’s pulling a monthly report, and he’ll say can we can we delve deeper into that and figure out what’s going on.

“And we look at whether our budget projections have been correct, which we’ve been very on point this year, which has been really cool to see as well.”

Growing confidence and calmness

As Bear and Moo has grown, Hannah has brought her husband into the business, and has added two full time and three part time staff members, along with a number of casual staff to support seasonal fluctuations.

She’s also started paying herself. Something that – let’s face it – many business owners don’t always do in a consistent way!

“I feel more confident in where we’re at, where we’re going, what we’re spending, and the decisions that we’re making, based on that data. I don’t have the same fear anymore.

“There’s also a calmness. I don’t feel frazzled and overwhelmed and uncertain about it. I’ve got processes and systems in place.

“I feel like Jason is a part of our business. He knows what we’re up to. He knows what we’re talking about.

“But also, I feel like he genuinely cares about what we’re doing and where we’re at.

“We wouldn’t be where we are without them. They are a very integral part of our business now. And as we grow, I want them along for the journey.

“The help they’ve given us has been incredible… They’re worth their weight in gold.”

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