I find when it comes to marketing, everyone's first thought is to set up a strong social media presence. While it's a fantastic tool for raising awareness, pharmacies must explore other channels to connect with their community. And believe it or not, focusing on these channels can be even more crucial than social media! So, stepping away from the digital marketing strategies for this blog, I’ve highlighted below why and how you can begin to tap into generating engagement for your pharmacy at a local level!

It's astonishing to see how some buyers dismiss due diligence as a mere inconvenience and expense in the process of purchasing a business, without fully considering the risks involved. Unlike buying a house, acquiring a pharmacy entails numerous potential pitfalls, each with the potential for significant consequences. Moreover, the emotional aspect of the buyer adds another layer of complexity, as it may lead them to overlook crucial risk factors. This oversight leaves the buyer exceptionally vulnerable to unforeseen challenges.

In previous blogs I have written, I have from time to time mentioned something called Fringe Benefits. Some of you who have attended Curtin University in Perth might know Fringe Benefits as the hair salon on campus, however in the accounting world, I am referring to Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT). With the current market of finding good employees and providing benefits for them to stay or benefits made to business owners under a Company or Trust, the topic of FBT isn’t considered more frequently than it should and sometimes business owners are caught paying additional taxes before they realise it. As the FBT year has now finished for the year, I wanted to give a general overview and explore if you may have a tax obligation with the ATO that needs to be actioned now and/or what you can do to plan for the next FBT year.

There are the necessities of bank funding and compliance, using the equity in your pharmacy to remove debt securities from your family home, determining a value for selling, partnership equity changes, sometimes for tax reasons, and sometimes unfortunately for Family Court reasons. Now some pharmacy owners will take a valuation report, go straight to the $value and ignore everything in between. Some will aggressively try to persuade me to change my opinion. Others think they know valuation theory more than me (some do by the way). Some will go through the valuation with a fine-tooth comb and focus on each word and sentence but are so respectful and balanced with it (yes, you know who you are).