Ask questions. Get answers.

If there is minimal to no downside to engaging a business coach, then why not do it?  Having an indepenent external party looking at your business without emotion or ego is gold.  A sample of the support available includes:

The NSW government provides access to 4 hours of free business coaching under the Business Connect program.  
www.business.nsw.gov.au/support-for-business/businessconnect 

The ACT has the Business Growth Program  providing a business review to SMEs with a turnover of $500k+ .
www.business.act.gov.au/grants-and-assistance/grants/sme-growth-program

Queensland has Accelerate Small Business Grants Program  offering $10k to engage a business mentor, coach and advisory board for 6-12 months.
www.business.qld.gov.au/starting-business/advice-support/grants/accelerate-grants

In Victoria they have  Small Business Mentoring Service providing low cost mentoring, programs, workshops and events.  www.sbms.org.au/services.html

SA has great wine and the Startup and Early Stage Company Incentive providing matched grants of $20k-$100k for commercialisation and business development, skills development and mentoring.
https://innovationandskills.sa.gov.au/funds/research-commercialisation-and-startup-fund

NT has crocodiles and WA has mines. They probably have SME support as well.

There are grants to support women and indigenous Australians in business. There are also state specific grants for export training and support. 

Any good grants specialist should be able to direct you to appropriate grants at no cost.  If your grants consultant or accountant that prepares your R&D or EMDG claims have not advsed you, then they are not grants specialists. 

Wishing you success. 

It's really am matter of your marketing budget. What are you hoping to achieve and what are you willing to invest to get there. 

I am not an tax expert however I don't believe that the history of the previous owner would have any impact on your friend. Your friend will be lodging returns under her company / sole trader ACN or ABN. My wife has a hairdressing salon and she was audited by the ATO last year. My understanding is that they target specific industries on a cyclical basis, which may mean you will not be targeted for a while. The ATO run a range of fairly sophisticated tools to assess cash v credit sales, wages per employee, wages per sales volume etc...., however every salon is unique so it is difficult to generalise. In the end if you are upfront with what you declare, then as we were, you don't have an issue - my tip is to ensure your friend retains adequate comprehensive records in addition to bank statements, till receipts or appointment books were helpful for us.

Check out leanstack.com. This is the first thing I do before jumping into any business idea.

The best thing about Facebook ads is how much you can fine tune the targeting. Like what has already been suggested before, try to create multiple ads, target specific demographic and measure the effectiveness of your ads. Like all self-serve ads platform -- test, Test and more TEST!

Make sure your image and short blurb is catchy. Most people will be too busy scanning the timeline for their friends' status updates so you'll need something to divert their attention. Also utilise your own Facebook page and "Sponsored Stories" and your existing followers to build a bigger audience (if that's what you want, other than generating a sale).

We ran through some Facebook campaigns over the last 3-4 months and getting pretty good results. Our aim is building up genuine Likes, and found Facebook ads quite cost effective.

There are several ways:
- A name that describes what you do (perhaps based on company values, etc.)
- Join two words together to create something unique (and memberable) e.g. BlueChilli
- A random, made-up word.

I'd avoid names based on your name simply because it can be a limiting factor in the future if you're not a lawyer or accountant.

Each has benefits and disadvantages.

I hope this helps.

A great tax accountant will ensure that they review your financials regularly, help you set up budgets so you can compare your actual results against your budget plus ensure that you are not missing any expenses you could be claiming.  They can also help you ensure that your service or sales prices are covering your expenses and giving you the profit margin you are wanting.  Everyone of my clients want to pay less tax (and so do I) - so I will review each transaction of my business clients to ensure we are not missing any obvious expenses plus having a knowledge of how to apply tax legislation to achieve the best tax results is a plus.

Hi Phil, I would say the most frustrating part for me is as you put it the 'seamless' process.  I can not track a parcel all the way from China to my customers address.  I can see it leave the factory - see it hop on a plane - but can not see if it has landed in Australia onwards.  Very frustrating.