1. Choose the structure. Most foreign businesses use either an Australian subsidiary company or register as a foreign company with a local presence. The right choice depends on liability, tax and how you plan to operate.

2. Register the company. This is done through ASIC, with a registered office address in Australia and a nominated company name.

3. Appoint directors. At least one must be ordinarily resident in Australia. Every director, including overseas ones, needs a Director Identification Number.

4. Get the tax registrations. An ABN and tax file number come first. GST registration becomes compulsory once turnover reaches the threshold, and PAYG withholding applies once you employ staff.

5. Check foreign investment rules. Depending on what you are acquiring and from where, foreign investment approval may be needed.

6. Open a bank account. This can take time for overseas-owned companies, so start early.

If you do not already have someone suitable in Australia, a professional resident director service can fill the requirement. It is worth treating this as a real appointment, not a formality: a director carries legal duties and personal liability under Australian law, so the provider needs real experience, proper insurance and clarity about their role.

Ask any provider:

• What exactly will the director do, and what will they not do?
• How do they get information to meet their duties?
• What cover do they hold?
• How does the arrangement end if your own team takes over?

• Residency. A company's tax residency depends on where it is incorporated and where it is managed and controlled.
• Related-party dealings. Loans, management fees and charges between the Australian company and its overseas parent need to be priced on arm's length terms and documented.
• Withholding tax. Dividends, interest and royalties paid overseas may attract withholding tax, which a tax treaty can reduce.
• Thin capitalisation. Rules can limit interest deductions on related-party debt.

1. Pay yourself properly. Chronic financial stress adds to the load, and a business that cannot pay its owner a reasonable wage is signalling a pricing or margin problem worth fixing.
2. Delegate what does not need you. Start with the recurring admin that drains time, such as invoicing, bookkeeping and payroll.
3. Document how things run. If another person can follow your processes, you can step away without everything stalling.
4. Build a cash buffer. Reserves reduce the pressure that comes from living one invoice away from a crisis.
5. Take real time off, and plan it. A business that cannot survive a week without you needs systems, not more of your hours.

If you are struggling beyond a rough patch, speaking with your GP or a support service is worth doing for your own sake, not only the business's.

RBizz takes bookkeeping, payroll and compliance off the owner's plate and builds the cash visibility that reduces day-to-day pressure. Get in touch if the admin is taking more than its share of your week.

It answers three questions you cannot answer from last year's accounts alone:

• Are we earning what we expected?
• Are costs behaving?
• Will we have the cash when we need it?

Without a budget, a bad month and a normal month look the same, because there is nothing to compare either to.

• Too detailed. A budget with 200 lines gets abandoned. A one-page version gets used.
• Set once and forgotten. A budget nobody reviews is just a document.
• No comparison. The value comes from setting actuals against budget each month and asking why they differ.

You will also generally need evidence that you incurred the expenses the rate is meant to cover, for example bills for energy, internet or phone.

For the actual cost method, you need the bills themselves and a reasonable, documented basis for the work-related portion.

• Estimated hours with no supporting record. This is the most common reason claims are reduced.
• Claiming a rate and also claiming items it already covers. That is double counting.
• Claiming for time that is simply the commute-free version of an office day, without a regular, genuine work arrangement behind it.
• No record kept during the year, then reconstructed from memory at tax time.

• Division 7A can apply to loans from a private company to a shareholder or an associate. Without a compliant loan agreement and the required repayments, the amount can be treated as an unfranked dividend, taxed in your hands.
• Informal withdrawals are exactly what this rule is aimed at. The intention to "sort it out later" does not change the treatment.

An unreviewed instalment amount doesn't fix itself — it just continues, quarter after quarter, until either a large refund or a large bill eventually forces the conversation. Catching it now, before Q2 begins, is a five-minute check. Catching it in six months is a much bigger reconciliation exercise.

RBizz can review your Q1 position and confirm Q2 instalments actually reflect where your business stands today. Get in touch before October starts — the fix is quick if it happens now.

1. Pull your actual accounts receivable report today and compare it honestly against the number you would have guessed.
2. Identify anything genuinely overdue and start a proper follow-up process, rather than letting it drift further.
3. Make checking this a regular habit, not a one-off exercise — a number that's accurate today goes stale again within weeks if it's not maintained.

RBizz helps business owners keep an accurate, current view of what's actually outstanding, not just a rough mental estimate. Get in touch if you haven't checked your real accounts receivable figure recently.

1. How many enquiries came in last month, and how many actually got a second follow-up if the first contact went nowhere?
2. Is there a defined process for follow-up timing, or does it depend on whoever happens to notice the enquiry?
3. What's your actual enquiry-to-sale conversion rate — and would fixing follow-up move that number more than any new marketing spend would?

Before spending more to generate leads, it's worth checking whether the leads you already have are actually being chased properly.

RBizz helps business owners look at the real numbers behind sales conversion, not just marketing spend. Get in touch if you're not sure where your leads are actually going.

Share sale The buyer purchases the shares of the company itself, acquiring the entity along with all of its assets, liabilities, and history. For the seller, this is typically a capital gains tax event on the sale of the shares, with potential access to small business CGT concessions if eligibility criteria are met.

Asset sale The buyer purchases specific assets of the business (equipment, goodwill, stock, contracts) rather than the legal entity itself. This can trigger different tax consequences at the entity level, including potential balancing adjustments on depreciated assets, GST considerations on the sale of certain assets, and a different profile of what's available to distribute to shareholders afterward.

Buyers and sellers often have different preferences for which structure suits them — buyers may prefer an asset sale to avoid inheriting unknown liabilities, while sellers may prefer a share sale for CGT concession access — meaning this is frequently a negotiated point, not a foregone conclusion.