Moore Stephens Adelaide is a dynamic business advisory and chartered accounting firm that prides itself on providing value, results, and a first class experience to its clients.
With a history dating back to 1977, a new Moore Stephens Adelaide was recently created which combined the forces of the audit division of the former Moore Stephens Adelaide and the former Horwath SA practice in November 2009.
This successful merger led to a larger Moore Stephens Adelaide including an expansion of the team, which currently employs six directors and 25 staff.
Moore Stephens has a national network of six independent firms of business advisors and chartered accountants in all mainland capital cities.
Each firm is an independent member of Moore Stephens International Limited, a global association of more than 630 offices in over 98 countries.
Managing Director, Ian Anderson, said that this network enables the firms to share expertise, knowledge and best practice.
“Having this network ensures our clients receive the best advice and highest quality of service wherever they do business in Australia,” Ian said.
“Moore Stephens delivers the personal attention and local market knowledge clients want, backed by a leading national and international network of expertise, knowledge and advice that clients need to succeed.”
The team at Moore Stephens works with a wide variety of businesses to help them meet the challenges they face every day, aspiring to be their first choice for all of their business and financial needs.
The economic downturn has had a significant impact on South Australian businesses and Ian noted that many businesses remain under pressure.
“The sharp interest rises continue to hurt many small businesses. Despite what the bankers and politicians say – it is still difficult for many businesses to gain access to funding for capital acquisition items or simply carry on finance,” Ian said.
“The confidence in the first quarter has waned leaving a flat second quarter. Many businesses anecdotally are ensuring they preserve their cash and margins to counter the continuing tight SME lending environment and self fund to build momentum.”
Director, Peter Gregg, noted that the biggest impact of the global financial crisis has been the tightening of money.
“This means banks have required a greater equity input, higher cost of funds and a reluctance to lend,” Peter said.
“This has led to a number of major projects and developments in this state being put on hold.”
“Our client base has needed to be massaged through this dynamic time which has led to a greater requirement for sound financial information to flow to the banks to ensure the funding is secured.”
Peter added that there is a fear that over the next 12 months there will be a mismatch of demand versus supply as public spending decreases.
Ian and Peter both identified key issues being faced by business including cashflow and bottom line performance, increasing sales, a strong balance sheet and using common sense.
“Even profitable businesses can go broke if they do not effectively manage their cashflow during these financially difficult periods,” said Ian.
Ian noted that increasing sales involves a number of steps from reviewing the number of existing clients in your database through to the effect of bundling, your industry equivalent of “would you like fries with that?”
Peter referred to a strong balance sheet and common sense as key issues throughout the downturn.
“During these difficult periods, businesses should ensure that a common sense approach is adopted to overheads and hence cash management which means making tough decisions in tough times,” Peter added.
The Directors of the business have experiences in all walks of life, with one having trekked the North Pole, another an award winning car rally navigator, another is a sporting trivia tragic, one is dedicated wife mother and superannuation and estate guru, one is a food connoisseur and one has his “tradie’s” ticket as a qualified plasterer – certainly a team full of experience!
