• Tax Returns - due by: 31 October
• Horwath Swim Challenge
• Finalist for Small Business Awards
• Small Business  - Improve Productivity by Controlling Your Emails
• Starlight Foundation Bowling
• Christmas Trading
• What is a Management Consultant?
• Horwath Alice Springs Financial Services - Risk Insurance - an overview
• Cool Clients - Gallery Gondwana & Vatu Sanctuary
• Team Member in Focus - Katherine Venice
  
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Lodged you Tax Return yet?

Lodgement date for Tax Returns is Friday 31 October. If you haven't done so already, gather your records and make an appointment to have your 2008 Income Tax Return prepared. 

Contact Danielle on 89510100 to make an appointment with one of our advisors.            
Same day lodgement for fast returns are provided and fees can be
deducted from your refund.

             
                                
                            
                             
                              


To find out more about the team at Horwath Alice Springs click here.



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Horwath Alice Springs Swim Challenge

With the warmer weather upon us, the team are back to the grind of swimming laps at the town pool which lead to the next great idea - let's raise some money for local charity.

Our hospital volunteers The Drovers, will be the recipients of funds raised when the team from Horwath Alice Springs take to the blocks during the next six weeks for the Horwath Swim Challenge.

Individuals and local businesses are being invited to sponsor the “Dream Team” with Horwath Alice Springs also sponsoring the team and donating to The Drovers by matching the donations received.

So many people in our community have been touched by the generosity and kindness of our hospital volunteers, The Drovers and so they will benefit from all the funds we can raise through the swim challenge.

To date 14 businesses and individuals have got behind the Dream Team, to sponsor the swim and therefore donate to The Drovers. Thanks to the businesses .....  Murray Pest Control, Alice Springs Watershed, Red Centre Office Technology, Get Physical, Asbuild and Dymocks for supporting the swim challenge.

As you can imagine The Drovers are appreciative of Horwath Alice Springs initiating this idea as funds raised will help them to attend to the daily needs of patients and to meet their vision to “provide care beyond treatment".

You may like to sponsor the Dream Team (Marc, Tanya, Damian, Sean and Tricia) for 10c per lap (up to $200) with all funds raised donated to The Drovers at the Alice Springs Hospital. Just for the record the current lap count is

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Finalist in Small Business Champion Awards

Horwath Alice Springs were finalists in the 2008 Northern Territory Small Business Champion Awards in the Business Services category. Directors, Marc Loader and Tanya Kirker travelled to Darwin with a number of other Alice Springs small business owners to attend the award presentation at the Darwin Convention Centre.

These awards are the "Oscars" for small business, celebrating the achievement of small business and the contribution that it makes to the local community and the economy.

         
Congratulations to winners and finalists Lil Antz, Essential Fitness, Beaute on the Mall, Professionals Stephanie Hart Real Estate, Centre Labour Force, Territory Hirex and Bonanni Brickyard. 


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Small Business Tips - Improve Productivity by Controlling your Emails by Andrew May

Email facts
•    The average email user in business spends 2 hours plus a day dealing with email
•    Worldwide email traffic will triple over the next few years with 331 billion emails predicted to be sent and received per day by 2009 (Radicatti)
•    Average worker receives 48 to 75 emails per day, with many workers now receiving 200 to 300 (Christine Cavanagh, University of Western Ontario)
•    70%  of senior managers found dealing with daily torrents of email stressful (Australian Psychological Society study survey)
•    Costs $25, 000 annually on paying senior managers to read and write emails (research by Emphasis on UK’s Big Four financial firms) 

New set of rules
So clearly we need to find ways of cutting down on email traffic and managing it more efficiently. Read the following 7 Deadly Sins of email to help you control the date deluge and avoid feeling ‘inboxicated’.

• Sin 1: 24/7 email addiction – always connected and controlled by the medium.
  Bing! … the noise alert ‘you have mail’ has to be the greatest killer of productivity and concentration. Get rid of the email alert and focus on one task at a time

• Sin 2: email tennis – stuck in a serve volley game of constant returning emails
  Ever had one of those asynchronous email conversations that goes on like a Lleyton Hewitt 5th set tie breaker?

• Sin 3: email emu – sticking your head in the sand trying to avoid confrontation
  Don’t use email as a medium to shy away from face to face confrontation.

• Sin 4: writing a thesis – waffling on, and on and on and on and on in emails
  Get to the point.

• Sin 5: BCC (But Covering Child) –CC’ing everyone to show how busy you’ve been
  Needlessly long distribution lists are a major cause of email log jam.

• Sin 6: quick draw McGraw - not thinking before you send

• Sin 7: junk emails – spam, chain emails, and general junk
  That email you received from the Nigerian farmer about needing help to bring money out of the country probably doesn’t have much truth to it; and what about the endless parade of emails that ‘promise to bring you luck and abundance after you forward to 50 family members and friends’;

Final comment
There’s no doubt that email can be a scourge on productivity and an added source of stress. Used inappropriately, it can even cause embarrassment and elicit unintended responses. But follow a few simple rules and apply a bit of self-discipline, and email can live up to its promise of being a fast and efficient communications tool. That’s it for now – gotta go – more emails to send!!


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Starlight Foundation bowling

Marc, Tanya, Michael and Damian recently partipicated in the Make-a-Wish Tenpin Bowling Fundraiser. The team is to be commended for their consistency resulting in a similar placing to previous years - somewhere after third. The team had a fun night bowling and supporting a good cause in the Make- a - Wish Foundation. 

Congratulations to the volunteers at Make-a-Wish Foundation for putting together a great night!

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What is a Management Consultantant?