YEAR IN REVIEW 2017

We are numbers people and

WE BELIEVE THAT FAMILY IS NUMBER ONE

Our model is simple

Proactive Tax & Accounting that pays for itself in tax savings

then

Help to make the 7 Smart Financial Decisions of a Cashed UpTM Business.

Perfect for

Founders of 6 & 7 figure business owners

WHO ARE IN BUSINESS FOR A PURPOSE HIGHER THAN PROFIT

In TWENTY SEVENTEEN WE –

HIT $3M IN PROACTIVE TAX SAVINGS

FOR OUR SMALL BUSINESS CLIENTS.

That’s a whole lot of money back in the hands of the hard working families, that otherwise would have gone to the ATO. You don’t really think the tax-man deserves a tip do you?

WE GAVE 3 MILLION DAYS OF LIFE CHANGING HELP

TO FAMILIES IN NEED, IN 16 COUNTRIES.

(Food, Water, Health & Nutrition)

n Feb we launched the #GIVE1MDAYS campaign – a bold giving target to give one million days worth of access to water in 2017, in partnership with Global Giving Initiative B1G1 or Buy One Give One.

In the end we gave 3 million Days of access to not just water, but also food, health & nutrition services – a day of help for every dollar in tax saved.

We call it ‘Day for a Dollar’ – Inspired by how TOMS One for One initiative gives a pair of shoes for every shoe bought or how Zambrero feeds the hungry through ‘Plate 4 Plate’.

Why? As Accountants we love numbers, but when we found out that almost a billion people live on about a dollar a day, we knew we had to do something.

We believe that every business has the power to change lives by integrating giving into its everyday activities.

‘Day for a Dollar’ is a simple but powerful example of how together we can end global poverty, for good.

In Jan 2018 I’m hitting the ground in Kenya – and my business partner Harvee Pene is heading to Cambodia – to see first hand the impact we’re making thanks to your support of Inspire.

Wanna join us in the developing lands? Follow the Inspire CA – Life Changing Accountants for live project updates from the field.

WE STARTED A MOVEMENT FOR GOOD

WE INSPIRED 87 OTHER BUSINESSES TO GIVE 1,000,000 DAYS OF LIFE CHANGING HELP TO FAMILIES IN NEED.

After being nominated for Top 10 Global Business for Good at the Buy One Give One annual conference on the gold coast, Ben Walker was asked to share the magic and the mechanics behind our game changing #GIVE1MDAYS campaign.

At the end of the riveting TED style talk, the challenge was given to the audience. “I challenge you to pledge to Give 1,000,000 Days of life changing help to families in need?’ 87 Business Owners stood and said “YES!”.

That’s a huge 87,000,000 impacts pledged.

Since then the total B1G1 Giving Impact have reached record highs of 136,025,405 days and over $1,000,000 has been donated to fight global poverty in the developing lands.

DANIEL FLYNN CAME ONBOARD WITH INSPIRE

THE FOUNDERS OF THANKYOU JOINED THE INSPIRE FAMILY

We are pretty proud to be able to welcome Daniel Flynn to the Inspire Family this year, along with the other founders of Thankyou. Thankyou has long been idols of ours, so you can imagine our excitement when Dan not only came to speak at one of our team retreats (weeks before speaking with Barack Obama), but when he said –

“Inspired by our friends (& personal accountants) from Inspire. This is the most inspiring accounting firm you will come across. There (sic) vision and execution is world class. Watch this space.”

WE REBRANDED

DROPPING THE CA – AND BECOMING JUST INSPIRE.

Remember that scene from the social network when facebook was called “THE Facebook” and Justin Timberlake said “drop the THE, just Facebook”.That’s what was going through our minds when we moved to just Inspire. It signalled the move from a focus on just tax (which is how we first started) into a broader focus into Helping Young Families Use their Small Business to get Cashed Up. Speaking of which ..

WE LAUNCHED CASHED UP

HELPING BUSINESS OWNERS MAKE 7 SMART FINANCIAL DECISIONS

In working with thousands of business owners over 5 years we found that most were financially drowning, just keeping their head above water or seriously Cashed Up. Upon reviewing their numbers we found there 7 key mistakes that business owners were making that we’re keeping them Cash Poor. That’s when the Cashed Up Book & 7 Smart Financial Decisions were born.

If you’re in business and you want to pull more money, time and happiness from your business you need to start making smarter financial decisions.

The top 7 Smart Financial Decisions of a Cashed Up Business are –

Cut Tax
Capture Profit
Control Cashflow
Check Numbers
Crank Biz Value
Cover Assets
Create Lifestyle

The Cashed Up Book is launching in March 2018 in partnership with Commonwealth Bank, Xero and Buy One Give One.

WE DOUBLED THE TEAM

“THE TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK”

In our mission to become Australia’s Most Impactful Accounting Firm we welcomed Chloe McKie, Regnier “Reggie” Alexander Guzman Silva, Ali Alajmi and Ethan Paraha-Cutts to the Inspire team of Life Changing Accountants.

AND WON A BUNCH OF AWARDS

Including B1G1 Top 10 Global Business of the Year, Anthill Online 30 under 30 Awards (Honourable Mention), Dent Global Partnership Award (pictured) and probably the most significant of them all.

Anthill Top 100 Companies in Australia 2016 & 2017 – 2nd year in a row. These are the coveted cool company awards and coming from an industry where most accountants are considered ‘boring’ we thought this was pretty cool.

WE SOFT LAUNCHED IN SYDNEY & MELBOURNE

STARTING OUR 10 YEAR 10 CITY VISION

Off the back of our uber-popular Save Tax Workshops (to share the 12 strategies behind how we saved our clients $3M in tax) we set up our satellite offices in Sydney and Melbourne in partnership with WeWork.

Currently we have about 20% of our clients in Sydney and Melbourne.

This was the first step in realising our “10 Cities & 10 million Freedom Days” vision.

And what’s a Freedom Day you ask?

A Freedom Day (calculated as Net Wealth / Cost of Living per day) is a day where you can do what you want, when you want, with whom you want.

Money isn’t the most important thing in the world but it can be the key that unlocks one’s ability to put the family first, and make a difference in the world.

Every piece of advice we give you will not only help you get Cashed Up, but also build your Freedom Days.

WE BROUGHT AN OFFICE

USING OUR SMSF TO BUY IN FORTITUDE VALLEY

Funny story, when we first launched Inspire CA 4 years ago, we also launched the Inspire Cafe. An accounting firm in the middle of a cafe, to break the mould on what a modern accountant could look like. The idea was great, but the numbers didn’t really add up.

We were paying – wait for it – $11,500 plus GST a month for 250 square metres in Doggett st, Newstead.

12 months ago we managed to get out of our 7 year lease with 4 years to go (don’t ask how … ) and used that time to save up and buy our own office.

See, you can use your Self Managed Super Fund to purchase a Commercial Property and have your own business rent it off the SMSF as your business premises.

We bought a ‘renovators delight’ (aka complete dump) in the valley and after an extensive fitout, we’re aiming to move in in March 2018.

Best thing is, we’ll go from paying an eye watering $11,500 plus GST per month (to someone else) for 250 squares to paying our own super fund $4,000 plus GST a month for 160 squares, just 2 streets away. That’s a great 7% return for the SMSF and we’ll pay ZERO tax on the capital gain when we sell it in 15 years.

That’s a win-win-win-win.

WHERE TO FROM HERE

WHAT’S THE PLAN IN 2018?

We’re heading to Cambodia and Kenya to visit some of the projects we’ve supported through our Day for a Dollar Campaign.
We’re launching the Cashed Up book in March.
We’re running the Cashed Up workshop in May and September in Sydney.
We’re hiring 4 x more Life Changing Accountants (we’d love an intro if you know any inspirational accountants)
We’re on track to save another $3M in Tax for small business (and therefore give another 3M days of life changing help to families in need)
We’re running our Save Tax Workshops in BNE, SYD & MEL every 2nd month and are even running a few sessions in Tasmania and The Barossa Valley (Tax Deductible Holiday anyone??)
We’re trying to get Jeff ‘The Hornet” Horn on board as a client.
We’ll continue to work towards becoming Australia’s Most Impactful Accounting Firm.

Thanks for all your support and remember:

Dream Big. Make an Impact. Remember Your Roots.

Ben Walker & Harvee Pene

Co-Founders of Inspire