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Welcome to the Barter Edge Podcast—your insider guide to smarter business, bigger networks, and better ways to trade.
Whether you're a seasoned member or just getting started, we're here to share real stories, expert tips from different industries, and fresh ideas to help you grow your business using the power of the Bartercard ecosystem.
BC_Episode Mike Hall
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Barter Edge Podcast, your insider guide to smarter business, bigger networks, and better ways to trade. We are here to share real stories, expert tips from different industries and fresh ideas to help you grow your business using the power of barter cart. I am Jen Trevorrow, and today we are showcasing one of our members with an episode that you need to listen to.
We have Mike Hall from MKH Associates, and he is a virtual CFO. So today we are going to be talking all things, money and finance with business. Mike, would you like to introduce yourself to everyone? Hi. Yeah, my name's Michael Hall. I am a. Accountant by trade. And I've been doing CFO, chief Financial Officer work for over 10, 10, 12 years now.
And at one point I took it upon myself to come out of the, I suppose the rat [00:01:00] race or the corporate career and decided to offer this services to smaller and medium sized enterprises and hopefully help them on their way. It's not normally something that people, I. Really relish or doing and, and but it's my skillset and it suits me and my history and everything.
So yeah, I decided to do that. It's eight years this year. I. Well, congratulations on eight years in business, Mike. Now you are a really valued member of the Barta Card team because you are there talking about something that every business needs, which is finance. But how has Barta Card helped your business?
I think Barta cards helped in a number of ways. One of them's certainly been around the fact that there is a, about the card network. And there's a lot of people in it, and there's a lot of clients and customers alike, which I can tap into. I also think there's a number of [00:02:00] switched on people who worked at Barta Card from a business or client networking perspective, and Barta card's being very helpful in either getting me in front of clients just to talk to them or actually getting me in front of people who have become clients.
And I'm still working with them today. I love that Mike. And yes, every business does need to know their numbers, don't they? They do. From my perspective, yes. I know a lot of people set up doing what they're good at and they can help themselves 'cause they know the product or they know the industry or they know the clients they're dealing with.
But every business has a profit and loss and a bank account, and they need to look after them as well. And that's potentially where my skillset comes in. It absolutely does. Now, Mike, what are some of the innovative or strategic ways that you've been able to utilize the Bartercard Network to either improve your business or your lifestyle?
I've sort of come with two examples there. [00:03:00] With Bartercard they've introduced me to a number of clients over the, it's probably about five years I've been in Bartercard now. Yeah. And those clients are, some of them are still with me today. So there's certainly work come out of Bartercard from my perspective.
And also just recently after the cyclone my pill pump broke and Bartercard member on the Sunshine Coast. Was offering a pool pump on Bartercard and I took them up on that offer. And the other piece that has been really both barter card and personal, card has a, a good deal with the pizzas on the Gold Coast, and my son also now works for that pizza company as well, and I do the accounts for them on a monthly basis.
So it's an an ever growing network. It sounds like that's definitely a win-win for everyone, including your son getting his pizza. Now, from your experience as a CFO, what [00:04:00] trends or opportunities should business owners be really paying attention to at the moment? Trends, I think the issue at the moment is the uncertainty around everything.
We've got the US being very uncertain on what they're doing. We've got a, a general election coming up and then really it's how can a business react to what's going to happen? If we get reduced interest rates potentially, then that could free up more cash for people to actually spend, depending on your business.
It's knowing what area you are in and how you can actually, I suppose, manipulate that for your advantage. I would think that looking at the business and, and knowing, for me, it's knowing your numbers, so if it's a certain product. That you're selling or a number of products, which one can you move quickly to get in front of people if they need?
If the need is there as things have changed. So that would certainly be that, that [00:05:00] uncertainty and that. Being able to pivot quickly. So you could have a main product now, it could be secondary in a month's time if things change and you can move over to another product that's really good for you, your business and understanding the benefits coming from that product.
That is such a, an insightful response to that, Mike. I really do appreciate that. I get surprised. Every day when I'm talking to business owners, the, it surprises me, the majority of people who don't know what their gross profit margin is, what their yearly or monthly expenses are, and they just, they, they only look at it at tax time rather than regularly keeping an eye on it.
But if we wait to just tax time, we are really leaving ourselves wide open, aren't we? Yeah. Correct. From my industry history and being in, and I've worked in a number of industries, from chemical to boats to structure structural businesses. They all look at [00:06:00] their reporting once a month, eh, they look at the sales, the costs, what margins they've made, break even point depending on the business and what, what they're actually spending.
And I think that this is potentially where a, a business owner should look at this strategically for once a month, for a couple of hours and get that insight and understanding in what's just happened in that month and, and can they do something differently or what's, what's actually telling them. Mm.
Great advice there. Have you got any other tips you would like to share with everyone in the Barta card network? I think that. You should take the time to strategically look at your business. Just think about what's just gone on. Understand, like people can say, oh, I've, I've got sales at 10,000, 20,000 that, what are they made up of?
How have you got sales for that? What were the issues in the month? And how can you just revisit them but in your own time [00:07:00] and then react in a potentially a better way or understand a way that you could have handled it a bit differently and you will next time. I. So that I suppose ultimately you. And your clients get a better outcome.
Hmm. And you would see a lot of businesses have like seasonal peaks and troughs and as well, so forecasting that sort of thing, you know, and opening up those times more to barter card members to try and get more foot traffic indoor. It's a smart way of doing business, isn't it? It is. I think that, as you said, there's a lot of seasonality on the Gold Coast.
And on top of that, we've also got the, the, I suppose, the peak visiting times with school holidays. They seem to be a peak time for a lot of businesses. Being able to, I suppose, stop those troughs becoming as big as possible by using the barter card network can only really help and, and understanding when those troughs are coming, eh, and then making sure you react beforehand rather than when it's too late.
Mm-hmm. Eh, and [00:08:00] buy the card again, aren't. A lot of my communication with buy the card is through the account managers and and yourself, Jen, and just you having that knowledge to say, oh, Mike, I've been speaking to so and so. Why don't you give them a call? And my initial piece is like, okay, let's have a coffee.
Yeah. Fantastic. So if someone wants to get in contact with you through the Barta card network you are open to working just on the Gold Coast or can you work nationally as well? I can work virtually. So yeah, we can certainly do that over teams. We can do it over the internet and we can look and review your numbers and talk about the strategically or, or even create budgets for people and forecast.
We are always. In, in the virtual CFO space, we're always trying to look forward and try to predict what's gonna happen so that people have a better understanding of how they can react. I love that. Well, Mike, I've heard the stories and the successes from your clients firsthand, and if [00:09:00] you are in business, I'd highly recommend picking up the phone and calling Mike and scheduling a time to meet with him so that you have a clearer understanding of where your business is going now, Mike, one last question for our listeners today.
If a business owner was thinking about becoming a Barta card member. What advice would you give them? I think for me is, is buy The card is held by different people in different ways, and that's fine, but we've all got our own opinions. But I would just come to a it with an open mind and then look to see if you, if you're earning dollar, buy the card dollars.
Start to think, well, okay, how? You don't have to spend them all at once. You can take your time, think about what you want to do. Wait for that pill pump to break or, or, or spend it on pizza as, as we sometimes do, but I think it's just a case of just having an open mind and trying to use the network as best you can.
Talk to the account managers [00:10:00] and they can really give you a lot of insight in what back the card can offer you. Absolutely. Well, thank you once again for being with us today for this episode of The Barta Edge. If you are listening today, make sure you tune into our next episode. Thank you for being with us today and sharing your stories and expertise.
If you wanna find out how Bartercard can help your business, or if you wanna be a guest on our future podcast, contact our team at hello@bartercard.com. Make sure you tune in for our next episode of the Barter Edge.