Small Business Australia – Part 1

DETAILED SUMMARY:

Podcast Show Notes: Small Business Australia and the Challenges Faced by Small Business Owners

Overview:

In this episode, we discuss the role of Small Business Australia and the support they provide to small business owners. We also delve into the challenges faced by these entrepreneurs and how Small Business Australia aims to address them.

Topics:

Topic 1: Small Business Australia and its role

– Small Business Australia is a for-profit private business owners club with a membership of over 30,000 businesses.

– They offer a range of services including information, education, professional assistance, and procurement support.

– Their primary focus is on helping small business owners navigate digital changes, marketplaces, and regulations.

Topic 2: Support for small business owners

– Small Business Australia aims to provide small business owners with more financial security.

– They offer support mechanisms and foster a sense of community to combat the loneliness often experienced by business owners.

– Their ultimate goal is to help business owners achieve greater success while minimizing negative stress.

Topic 3: Challenges faced by small business owners

– Small business owners encounter various challenges, such as loss of control, negative stress, and feeling misunderstood.

– The rapid rate of change, government regulations, and compliance further contribute to these difficulties.

– Small Business Australia recognizes the diversity and individuality of small businesses and strives to educate others about their complexities.

Join us in this episode as we explore the vital role of Small Business Australia in supporting small business owners and the challenges they face.

TRANSCRIPT:

Biz Bites: Bill Lang (Part 1) ===

Anthony Perl: [00:00:00] Welcome to Biz Bites brought to you by CommTogether, helping businesses like yours build their brand through telling amazing stories to engage and grow audiences on multiple platforms.

Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to a very New episode of biz bites with a guest who, I guess I’ve got to know only a little bit because he, attended a forum that I ran recently. And we had some fascinating discussions within that, and I invited him to come along and share a little bit more about small business Australia and and his role there.

So Bill Lang, welcome to biz bites. Hello, Anthony. Great to see you again. And I suppose let’s just start off in the, with, with your role there in small business Australia. Do you want to just tell everyone a little bit about not only your role, but about the organisation itself? Yeah, absolutely.

Bill Lang: [00:01:00] So Small Business Australia is a for profit private business owners club, effectively. And there’s more than 30, 000 businesses that we work with and assist, you know, on an annual basis. And the way we do that is we are either informing them around things they should be aware about around particular, topics or issues or priorities that they’ve got.

In addition, we provide a whole range of educational services both live webinars and then available on demand. We also provide a bunch of services. So professional services, we have a whole network of coaches around the country. Yeah. And then we have partnerships with many of the big brands that serve small business and whether that’s people like NAB or Aussie post or Telstra or Microsoft.

And we work closely with those big brands around helping them have a better understanding about, you know, a day, a week, a year in the life of a small business owner, helping them get where we can a bit more empathy but then also inputting into what they can be doing [00:02:00] to make their products and services and the way they communicate with business owners more effective and more value to business owners.

Then the final thing that we do is you know, we assist from a procurement point of view. So, Members of our business advantage platform, which pay a subscription fee to be a member can access several thousand dollars worth of savings on everything from basic inputs like electricity and network and NBN and computer stuff all the way through to a couple of the big areas, which is getting professional advice in marketing and I T systems and choices and HR related services.

So it’s sort of inform, educate, educate, But fundamentally, we’re all about helping anyone that owns or works in a small business have more financial security and with the rate of change, particularly in everything digital and marketplaces and regulations our focus is really helping business owners navigate through those.

Yeah, and it is

Anthony Perl: a minefield really for business owners [00:03:00] these days. And as you say, it’s probably, it’s been a pretty tough time for small business in the last few years with everything that’s gone on around the world and, and even locally. And you know, Having some sort of support mechanism in place is so critical these days, and I think also, as you, as you said, they’re making larger businesses better understand the issues that small business face is so crucial because you can feel

Bill Lang: lonely.

Yeah, look, I think, you know, we’ve got, I suppose, a couple of maxims over at Small Business Australia, and that is that we love small business owners and small business families sort of, you know, being in business for themselves. But if you’re a part of our family and community, you’re not by yourself.

And so that’s, you know, fundamental. And then the second part of it really is, you know, more success with less negative stress. You know, we’ve all, as business builders, Take it on positive stress. We’ve set goals. We’ve learned by doing some things that work. Some things haven’t worked. But in terms of when you [00:04:00] feel like you’ve lost control, you, you, things aren’t within your control, the pandemic and the way the government’s managed.

It’s a great example of that. Yeah, that’s distress. That’s negative. That is a bad for cortisol levels, bad for immune system, bad for mental and physical health. So our second maxim is, you know, more success with less stress, and it’s often around. Find, you know, making time and energy, you know, give you a much better return for the amount of time and energy you’ve got available to put into your business.

And we, and we don’t really, you know, small business Australia is what we’re called, but really about small business families, because whereas the government and the politicians and some people that just don’t understand it, we’ll talk about small business and the engine room of the economy and all of those things.

We say, look, you know, if that’s about as far as you can go, you’ve got a long way to go because the end of the day. These are entrepreneurs, pioneers, people taking responsibility for their lives and, and critically you know, they’re the hearts and souls of local business communities and local communities.

They’re sponsoring the, the kids netball club, providing [00:05:00] part time experience, work experience for the, for the teenagers to the extent that, you know, they’re allowed to do it anymore. But that, that, that is often missed. And we are forever and always talking to everyone we can around. You got to move beyond this economic engine room.

No, I don’t know a small business owner that gets out of bed. Anthony, Monday morning, looks in the mirror and goes, Oh God, I’m fired up about being part of the engine room of the economy. Definitely

Anthony Perl: not happened to me. I cannot say that that’s that’s been me any any Monday morning. And I think that’s the that’s the hard part, isn’t it?

It’s this generalisation that often happens around small business. And in truth, it’s so diverse out there. Any any small business owner that has attended a conference, for example and in a room with 100 to 300 people will know the diverse range of businesses that exists in that environment. And that can be from the type of business to the amount of people they employ to the, to the [00:06:00] breadth of which they cover to, to, of course you know, the, the financial returns that might be there for them as well.

And understanding all those intricacies and things. And I think more often than not unless you’re an organisation such as yourself, or perhaps say a far reaching business coach that, that has that sort of breadth of, of understanding, most of them have no, most people have no

Bill Lang: idea. Well, look, that’s very much the case.

And you know, there’s been some recent research just published by the ComBank around a big chunk of the new business accounts that they’ve had opened up people that are sort of the jargon is millennials or Gen Z sort of aged under 40. And that’s sort of, you know, absolutely fabulous news that we’ve got a stream of people taking the plunge and getting out there.

But, but the reality is, you know, businesses come in all shapes and sizes. Every owner is an individual. They had a vision when they started, maybe they inherited it, maybe they bought it, maybe they started from scratch in many respects, in many industries, it’s getting harder and harder just because of the rate of change and whether it’s red [00:07:00] tape, green tape, sort of the octopus of government regulations and compliance for people that don’t have any understanding around what’s going on out here, even the definition of a small business.

I said only to two, two GB radio yesterday that. You know, the federal government’s talking about industrial relations legislation to sort of close the loopholes. Well, most of the small business owners that are employing people that we deal with are saying, this is tightening the noose, right? So closing the loopholes, it’s tightening the noose.

And you know, we you know, we, we believe that, you know, fundamentally a great society, you know, is based on great communities, great families, and great small businesses. Everyone should want to start one, work in one, be proud of working in one. And to every small business owner and family member that you’ve got listening to your podcast, you know, thank you for everything you’re doing.

Keep going. If you need help, ask for help, but you know, think about where you’ve got to now. You can keep going. And I, I

Anthony Perl: love that because You know, people don’t spend enough time reflecting on what they have [00:08:00] achieved. You know, I’m fortunate that I’ve been in business now for 13 years and where the business started and where it is now, it’s been a heck of a journey.

There’s ups and downs as there are in any business but the things that you’ve achieved along the way, it’s it’s huge. And I know like, I suppose I have a similar story to a lot of small business owners in that you go out and you hope that it’s going to work. You give yourself a, a period of time and hope that you keep going and, and fortunately here I am 13 years later and still going, but I know originally I thought, gee, if I get through three months, that will be a, a small miracle.

And, and here we are. And I think there isn’t enough credit given to that. I think loyalty is something that. We’re not taught that much any, any these days to respect all that much and I think small business really isn’t rewarded for for its role that it plays and for, for, you know, being sustainable and continuing to, to employ people, whether it’s, whether it’s just an individual as a sole trader or whether it’s, you know, [00:09:00] 20, 30, 50 people, whatever it might be I think that that it goes largely unrewarded.

Bill Lang: Well, look, it’s a volunteer business and a volunteer industry and you know, a bunch of us do it because we couldn’t imagine working for someone else would probably be awful employees or we’ve come to the conclusion that, geez, a lot of those bosses and all of those organizations are pretty useless.

But I think there’s a bigger issue. We need more of this mindset and this pioneering spirit is have a go attitudes that are learned by doing because we are continuing to be sort of drowned to some degree by. People making up rules, half implementing them and providing all these impediments to the ability to start and operate and grow a small business.

So you know, we get quite involved you know, sometimes they listen to us, sometimes they don’t, with all three levels of government, because there are impediments at all three levels. And we’re just sort of seeing where, you know, we’re headquartered down in the state of Victoria, which is you know, a lot of our business owners talk about it being sick [00:10:00] toria rather than Victoria, but it has significant.

Issues among a whole range of different areas with respect to, you know, what a proportion of the population actually thinks is doable and achievable. I was only talking to a federal politician a couple of weeks ago saying, listen, you, you, you want to keep sort of slicing up the pie. You’re going to get to the stage where the pie maker says, that’s it.

I’m not making any pies anymore. And that small business owners and entrepreneurs, they’re made, they’re not born. So while the CommBank research has a number of the new business accounts being opened up by young people, we’ve never had such a low percentage of business owners aged under 50 as we have in this country at the moment.

So while there’s people having a go, and young, and that’s fantastic, and I’d encourage it, it’s not happening anywhere near at the rate at which it’s happened in the past. And, you know, that’s an issue.

Anthony Perl: It is. And I think that whole workforce idea has changed completely. And I think there’s two aspects to that.

I mean, there’s one, which is kind of the more obvious that’s talked about a little bit more these days, which is the, [00:11:00] the change of people in creating more lifestyle positions. And I think there’s this falsehood around that idea of what you’re talking about, because a lot of people have become contractors.

And in fact, for all intensive purposes, they may well be employed, but they’re creating those business accounts because they need an ABN and they need to do that to do that. But really, they’ve only got one person or one business that they’re working for. So, so I think some of those stats would be horribly misleading for starters, but I think countering that as well was Some, some Gallup research that I read recently that talked about you know, how much how hardworking Australia is compared to the rest of the world.

I haven’t got them at my fingertips, but, but essentially that idea that probably you and I grew up with where it was sort of the, the she’ll be right attitude and we’re more about dole bludgers and all those kinds of things and taking days off. That’s, that’s a complete myth these days with you look at the amount of hours.

that we put in and how hard we work. We’re as hard at working as [00:12:00] any nation in the world. And that is underestimated in small business.

Bill Lang: Yeah. Well, look, if you look at the it’s the Australian small family business ombudsman sort of is the best collator of some of the data that’s out there and some of the data’s dodgy, there’s no.

question about that. There’s any number of things with ABN numbers that are basically a trustee of a self managed super fund. Now that is not a business. And there are hundreds of thousands of those that are getting counted because they’re a proprietary limited entity. But you know, I, I know in terms of my work over the years in different countries and my travels that young Australians and Australians are always very well respected in terms of being workers, then in terms of getting.

Getting down to work, but we still also have a challenge around the rate at which the productivity is being impacted by working from home and those sorts of things. So, you know you know, depending on your level of debt and your expenses and your family structure and all the rest of it, we still have out of the ombudsman data, you know, about, about two in five small business operators in the end to [00:13:00] taking home, you know, 50 grand or so a year.

And that’s where, you know, the travesty of things like JobSeeker when they were. Announced and the politicians not realising well, a sole trader from a legal perspective could have 300 employees. They’re just picking a sole trader legal structure. And, and so, and a lot of sole traders will just take drawings.

What have I got left at the end of the month, end of the year? And that’s my, I never ever had, I never was an employee of my business. So that person was treated as if they were unemployed. And we’re told to go on JobSeeker and others that are exactly the same business. But let’s say they were, you know, they were being treated as an employee and doing a bit of pay as you go, they got paid 50 percent more, you know, same person, same, same sort of, you know, size of business, et cetera.

And through the lack of understanding of the politicians and the bureaucrats and the way they define things. So, and this is just an example of the disconnect. And I’ll talk about, oh, we’ve improved bankruptcy. Well, you know, 38%. of small businesses are incorporated. And so some changes to the insolvency laws was of some benefit to some of [00:14:00] those.

But 62 percent are not incorporated. They’re sole traders. They’re partnerships. They’re in a trust structure. And when the business goes bust, it’s coming out of the balance sheet if there is one of the owner. And a number of businesses, effectively, they got closed down or the individuals are on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of the management of COVID.

Let’s not blame COVID. It’s the management of COVID and yet there were no changes made by the government with respect to what we were asking for, which is something called a COVID business closure. Like if you’ve got to close your business down, why don’t we look at the suppliers, the landlord, what are their balance sheets, very easy calculations around sharing the financial consequences rather than know they’re very happy to stand behind the contracts in place that the big landlords got with a tenant.

You know, or big suppliers have got. And yet here’s the, you know, we’re hardly all in it together when you’re literally being thrown overboard and these others are literally got their feet on each shoulder pushing you down while [00:15:00] they’re sitting on cruise ships. So again, this gets back to this being taken for granted and that it is, you know, incredibly tough going for many very small businesses.

You know they’re earning less than the average wage.

Anthony Perl: Hope you’ve been enjoying the conversation so far. We look forward to bringing you part two in the next episode of Biz Bites. Biz Bites is brought to you by commtogether for all your marketing needs, so you can build your brand, engage audiences on multiple platforms. Go to commtogether.com au. Follow the links to book an appointment for a free consultation.