Newsletter - February 2025

In this edition:

• Better bank feed connections: Rounded becomes the first Australian invoicing and accounting tool to offer Open Banking

• Spotlight: How to survive AI and build a creative business in 2025: Tips from a veteran copywriter

• Have your say: What do you want to see from this newsletter in 2025?

• More resources to help run and grow your business

🎉 Better bank feed connections with Open Banking

Starting in February 2025, Rounded users will be able to connect their bank accounts to Rounded via Open Banking.

This is an industry-first, with no other Australian invoicing and accounting tool offering an Open Banking connection to date.

Here's what co-founder Oliver Garside had to say:

Open Banking offers a more consistent connection whilst aligning with the banking industry's heightened focus on data protection. By adopting Open Banking, Rounded ensures its users can continue to enjoy the convenience of bank feeds via a government approved and administered initiative which will improve and evolve over time.

What does this mean for Rounded users?

New users: From mid-February onwards, all new bank feed connections will be made using Open Banking.

Existing users: Your connection will remain unaffected for now. We will eventually phase out legacy connections; however, the cut-off date will be communicated well in advance with instructions on how to best transition to Open Banking.

Find out more about Open Banking and how we're keeping your data secure in the full update 👇

📣 Spotlight: How to survive AI and build a business in 2025 with Tom Valcanis

This month, we caught up with Tom Valcanis, Melbourne-based copywriter and founder of I Sell Words.

I Sell Words is a copywriting and consulting business focusing on SEO copywriting, web content, and newsletter strategy. Over the years, Tom has worked with an impressive roster of clients, including Virgin Australia and the Movember Foundation.

Here are 3 takeaways from our chat:

1. AI can be a valuable tool for creatives – but not a replacement.

When it comes to more creative tasks, tools like ChatGPT struggle because they depend on the ingenuity of the operator.

If you remove writers and creatives from the process, you get garbage input and garbage output.

2. 2025 is the year businesses will reassess their use of AI and realise the true value of creatives.

Tom is already seeing clients return to the fold after experimenting with AI in 2024 and learning what these tools can (and can't) do.

We’re in a cost-of-living crisis, and it’s a natural impulse for businesses to cut expenses wherever possible. And suddenly, all these ‘magic’ generative AI tools say they can replace human creatives. It’s the perfect storm.

Businesses are starting to realise that churning out AI content is fine if you just want words on a page, but not so great if you want those words to be meaningful. If you want to see strategy and thought put into the content, and an actual return on the investment you’re making, that’s the value of hiring creatives.

3. Multi-skilling is key in 2025 and beyond.

When I was starting up, you couldn't avoid being an SEO copywriter. You had to know fundamental SEO. In the same way, today’s copywriters need to have at least some understanding of digital marketing as a whole: PPC, SEO, etc. You need to know how your content fits into the bigger picture.

Check out the rest of the story here 👇

💡Tip Of The Month With Lauren Thiel, Accountant For Creatives

AI is all people are talking about! Don't forget the value you bring to your own business though. Put your creative mind to work, and think of AI as a tool.

Can ChatGPT:

• Be a coach for you?

• Help you make a marketing plan?

• Ask you questions like an advisor would?

• Re-write difficult emails to make them more professional?

Personal opinion, but use artists to make art (not AI) and use AI to help you have more time and energy for the things you love to do.

See more advice from Lauren here.

📣 Survey: How can we make this newsletter better for you?

We want to make this newsletter as helpful for you and your business as possible. This will only take 1-2 minutes.

🧠 More Helpful Resources

From our archives:

• Sole Trader Tax: The Ultimate Guide

• How to improve your pitch strike rate and bring in more clients

• Protecting your mental health as a freelancer

• Toxic client behaviour: How to spot it and deal with it before it does harm

• How to grow your business with email marketing

Masterclasses:

See how Rounded works in our first masterclasses of 2025!

From around the web:

• The Content Byte: Conquering LinkedIn, finding clients and the power of community, with Rebecca Cofrancesco

• The secret rules of freelancing, from the Freelance Jungle

• Small Business Answers: Four sole trader tax trends for 2025

• Frog Dog Studios on selling premium, niche services in a tight economy

• Tradies in Business: Starting a business with Ben Hulsbosch from MOA Heavy Diesel

• Brand Builders Lab with Suz Chadwick: My online business strategy for 2025

• Claire Emerson: Practice makes progress, and progress beats perfection

💬 What's Your #1 Tip For New Users?

What do you wish you'd known when you first started using Rounded? Are there any hacks you'd like to pass on?

Share your tips here!

Cover Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash