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The Race Place

Will Racing Die


Hesi

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4 minutes ago, mardigras said:

I'd say pretty good. If business operate in a fashion that allows for such uncertainties, then they should be ok. Business running day to day, week to week - are in strife, and some will fail, although some will continue with the support mechanisms in place.

But how many in business (and individuals) will learn anything? I'd say, very few.

My wife (ex long term tax advisor/accounting professional), has often said that there should be a pre-requisite to starting a business (around business financial management). I don't 100% agree but I also have seen first hand why she says it. An unbelievable number of business start up without having even a clue as to what is a debit, a credit, a balance sheet item or profit and loss. Or even a budget/forecast? It's quite scary.

To qualify her views, she has been a tax advisor to Exxon, has a Masters of Tax through University of Melbourne - and also, I know she knows what she is talking about.

What was the pre-requisite?

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1 minute ago, Hesi said:

What was the pre-requisite?

They can understand simple things like assets/liabilities versus income/expense. They can understand cash flow and how that works in reality. And how GST works in regards personal expenses.

She has also worked (begrudgingly) in the chartered space, and it is mind blowing what people think they can attribute to the business - incorrectly.

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Just now, Hesi said:

What about carrying a lot more working capital, in other words, a lot more fat in the system

She was more looking at it from their ability to understand how to account for their business, since many did a lot of pre-work there. But there are many other things that could be incorporated into some form of 'business starter' pre-requisite. Open market suggests it wouldn't happen, but therefore, business failure is equally a given at times.

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1 minute ago, barryb said:

The trouble with accountants is they are excellent at instructing people about the financial side of the business but are often shit at understanding customer metrics, you need a balance of both. You can muff the accounting side and still survive, you can’t muff the customer side and fluke the numbers.

No doubt barry. I'm not just talking accounting. I'm talking business. And there are many in business that simply have no clue about business -  even if they know exactly what they are doing that the business is about. I have seen second hand huge business with turnovers/revenues of millions go under because they didn't understand business, yet they were very good at what they did.

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2 minutes ago, barryb said:

You can be fantastic on the tools and bullshit on the finances, you can’t be shit on the tools and great with figures. Many tradies survive on this factor.

They survive - but poorly. If your accountant/financial advisor causes you grief, I'd say you have a shit advisor. You must be used to pretty crap financial advisors/accountants (of which there are many) if that is the case. 

If you are brilliant on the tools and absolutely crap on the finances, you can go broke. It happens a lot.

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2 minutes ago, barryb said:

Shit yes agreed, I have also seen many a business stymied by poor advice from accountants, CFO,s etc.

As my prior post, there are many shit accountants. And they're not worth paying money to. My wife's specialty is more about tax minimalization -legally. Not dodgy financial practice.

Edited by mardigras
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Just now, barryb said:

Often the trouble is you figure that out when the noose is around your neck.

The other problem is that things like Xero make people believe it is easy. When that can cause as many issues as not using such a tool. It's a combination of needing decent advice/assistance and direction. 

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2 minutes ago, barryb said:

Yep agree. 
The reason why most businesses go to the wall is they don’t get the customer, they do not understand customer experience.

Being the best tradie wont help you if your customer experience is shit. Many never grasp this concept,people willingly pay more for customer experience.

You only have to look at NZRB/RITA to see that.

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It's a bit like what I see happening now with NZTR. Yes, overall it's less expensive to run meetings closer to the horse population or where they have fibre to lower broadcasting costs but those shouldn't be exclusive metrics for deciding where events should be held. Guiding principles maybe. However, the important metric is the net revenue that those events generate. Costs like travel and broadcasting may be higher in some places, but as barryb says if the customer experience is better, the events are more attractive to punters and other participants, they may still be more profitable than events that have fibre or are closer to horse populations. Simple analysis can determine that and that should be the basis for deciding these things.

No different from punting analysis. You can't apply population statistics to individual horses.

If they keep on with that sort of approach when they could do the above type of assessment in minutes, we'll quickly be further in the crap I'm afraid. Doesn't make sense.

Edited by curious
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Interesting topic, business viability vs not.

Got me looking around at trainers generally,  and, wondering what we collectively could term as assets.    Apart from equipment/vehicles, most trainers are operating from leased premises, so no asset there.  The saddlery etc, while 'assets' wouldn't be likely to realise much in cold cash unless in very large amounts.   A few trainers may run horse floats, some have spelling farms, but most don't...so, the training asset would have to be an intangible one of expertise, reputation, goodwill...yes?  or have I got that wrong.

As for the horses - clients' horses.  Surely an asset would have some guaranteed component, such as winning percentages/training fees.  But these are conditional upon said horse winning stakemoney [  no certainty ]  and its owner paying fees...which is also not guaranteed.  So, your flash 3 yo, which has had an injury, can't win any money, and whose owner says fuck that, I'm not paying any more, ceases to be an asset and becomes a bloody liability.

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Your value is you Freda, the knowledge you have and the contacts you have.

I thought quite a few trainers have other sources of income, utilising that knowledge and those contacts.  Trading horses for instance.  Could be wrong so go easy on me.

I got made redundant many years ago, and i promised myself, that never again would I rely on just one source of income, so now I have 4 different ones.  

Good business advice as well, don't put all your eggs in one basket

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35 minutes ago, Hesi said:

Your value is you Freda, the knowledge you have and the contacts you have.

I thought quite a few trainers have other sources of income, utilising that knowledge and those contacts.  Trading horses for instance.  Could be wrong so go easy on me.

I got made redundant many years ago, and i promised myself, that never again would I rely on just one source of income, so now I have 4 different ones.  

Good business advice as well, don't put all your eggs in one basket

Yes,  good advice indeed.

But, having other sources of income - which many do, as you say,  trading, breaking-in, milking cows, etc - is a bit like NZ thoroughbred racing needing income from other sources to remain afloat.

The core business, as far as I can see, doesn't work very profitably UNLESS good stakemoney is won or a nice horse is sold.

Edited by Freda
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20 minutes ago, Midnight Caller said:

Is it just me?But has the NZTA only just realised that the water is up to their knees and someone has left the bungs out at the boat ramp a while ago!🚣‍♂️🦈

And they're a few 100ms out to sea and have to go back to get them?

Edited by curious
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The boat can be saved(and all who sail on her).Captain  calls on the crew(bail you f...ers)to sight land.Caption goes for home(water never enters a speeding boat ),puts boat on trailer to drain and thinks that this would be a good time to dry out,strip it all back,cut out all the dead wood and start from scratch!

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2 hours ago, Midnight Caller said:

Is it just me?But has the NZTA only just realised that the water is up to their knees and someone has left the bungs out at the boat ramp a while ago!🚣‍♂️🦈

That actually happened to me once, fortunately we were only 20-30m from shore so could get the boat back to the ramp and pull it out.

To continue the analogy MC, yes you could go to full revs to try and get the boat up planing to allow the water to drain, but only if too much water(dead weight) has not entered.  In Racing's case the dead weight has reached such a level, that is not now possible and will sink

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On 5/3/2020 at 11:54 AM, Hesi said:

That actually happened to me once, fortunately we were only 20-30m from shore so could get the boat back to the ramp and pull it out.

To continue the analogy MC, yes you could go to full revs to try and get the boat up planing to allow the water to drain, but only if too much water(dead weight) has not entered.  In Racing's case the dead weight has reached such a level, that is not now possible and will sink

😄Also happened to me once many years ago!Cruised the length of Tairua harbour before the old man realised he was stern heavy and observed the bungs still sitting  in the the well of the Hartley!😳(great fishing boat)He may have blamed it on us kids,but  I believe it was possibly his visit to the Sir George  Grey the night before.

Going back to the NZTA discussion,why has it just taken this current situation for them to voice their opinions ?Why haven't they stepped  in or help implement the new racing calendar? Look at the South  Islands  deep south shambles.

 

Edited by Midnight Caller
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