Advertise on podcast: The Australian Small Business Show

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Running a small business in Australia is harder right now than it has been in decades, and this episode explains why, so you know it isn’t just you. Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we’re talking about why it is so hard to run a small business in this country right now. When we recorded, the latest inflation figures had just come out and another interest rate rise looked likely. Small business is not a side note in the Australian economy. There are 2.7 million of us actively trading. We make up 90% of all businesses, employ more than 5 million people and contribute close to a third of GDP. (While researching, we also found there are around 15 different definitions of what a small business actually is.) Even so, it feels like small business is being ignored. The numbers on the other side tell the story. 14,000 companies entered insolvency in the 2026 financial year, and that doesn’t count the sole traders and family businesses that quietly closed their doors. Personal insolvencies are rising too, and many are business-related. That shows how business pressure eventually lands at home, especially for directors once PAYG instalments and super catch up with them. Research from MYOB and Xero found 65% of small businesses are worried about cash flow and 69% are worried about attracting new customers. COSBOA found 80% of owners are experiencing stress and anxiety, and in regional areas 77% report high levels of it. We talk about how worry stops people spending, which then hits other businesses. We also talk about how tight cash flow pushes owners into short-term decisions, like aggressive pricing, that hurt them later. The biggest point we want you to take away is that this isn’t about any one thing. It’s layered. Over the past three to four years there has been constant change to the Fair Work Act and the awards system. Employment costs are higher and it’s harder to engage contractors. Payday Super has arrived, which we actually support on its own merits. The credit card surcharge changes have been pushed back to 1 July 2027, but businesses still have to absorb the cost in the meantime. On top of that come the budget changes affecting trusts and negative gearing, and the new limits on borrowing inside self-managed super funds. Very little sits on the other side of the ledger. Even the $20,000 instant asset write-off is of limited use when nobody has spare cash to spend. This isn’t a doom and gloom episode. It’s us saying we get it, we feel it too, and you don’t have to carry it alone. We also share a family story about a grandfather who ran his own manufacturing business and spoke out against offshoring, and why it feels like history repeating. Next week we flip it around with five ways you can help your small business in this environment. Have you been asking yourself why everything in your business suddenly feels so much harder? This episode shows it’s the combined weight of many changes landing at once, and that thousands of other business owners are feeling exactly the same. Key Takeaways: Small business is a major part of the economy: 2.7 million businesses, 90% of all businesses, more than 5 million employees and close to a third of GDP.The pressure comes from many changes stacking up at once (IR reform, tax and super changes, inflation, interest rates), not from one single policy.Business stress doesn’t stay in the business. It flows into your personal finances, your director obligations and your home life.Tight cash flow can push you into short-term decisions, like aggressive discounting, that create bigger problems down the track.The credit card surcharge changes take effect from 1 July 2027, so it’s worth planning for them now rather than leaving it until next June.If you’re struggling, you’re far from alone. Around 80% of small business owners are reporting stress and anxiety. We want to hear from you: If you’re finding it tough right now, reach out to us on socials, even if you just want to vent. And if you’ve found a silver lining, please share that with us too. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Templates, a quick Google search and AI all look like a cheaper way to sort out your contracts, and this episode is about what those shortcuts actually cost you, which is usually far more than doing it properly. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we are joined by special guest Tracey Mylecharane from TM Legal Atelier to discuss the legal shortcuts business owners are making, and what it’s costing them. Tracey spent the early part of her career in litigation, watching businesses, livelihoods and even marriages fall apart over disputes that the right documents and advice could have prevented. These days her focus is keeping business owners from ever becoming someone's litigation client. The most common shortcut she sees is the template, including the ones marketed as lawyer-drafted. A template is written for everyone, so it fits no one. The gaps usually show up around scope: unclear inclusions and exclusions, no process for handling variations, and a business owner quietly working for free as scope creep eats their profit. Trimming a template to suit yourself carries its own risk, because clauses link to each other, and removing one you think you don't need (confidentiality and intellectual property are common examples) can weaken the rest. Bringing a tweaked template to a lawyer for review almost always costs more than starting from scratch. Borrowing a contract from a successful friend has the same problem, since you have no idea how many times it's been copied, errors and all, before it reached you. The second and third shortcuts are piecing documents together from Google, and using AI. Tracey uses AI for brainstorming, but it isn't built to draft enforceable Australian contracts or give legal advice. It makes things up, it aims to please the person typing, and it never hears from the other party to the agreement. We've seen it confidently cite the wrong privacy legislation and insist it was right, and Tracey shares how lawyers are now facing disciplinary proceedings for submitting AI-generated case law that didn't exist. We're also seeing tax businesses built around AI-generated advice, which raises the same questions. The part we think gets overlooked is that your contracts are a client touchpoint. A generic, cold or obviously AI-written document tells a prospect you don't understand your own terms, don't care, or aren't as professional as you seem. That doubt can cost you the work before the document ever has to protect you. Tracey's view is that your contracts should look and sound like your business, and you should understand them well enough to be proud of them. Tracey Mylecharane is a small business lawyer and the principal of TM Legal Atelier. After starting her career as a litigation lawyer, she now works purely with small businesses, mostly service-based, drafting contracts that set them up for success and keep them out of disputes. She's always happy to answer questions from business owners who want more confidence in the decisions they're making. Connect with Tracey Mylecharane: Website: https://tmlegalatelier.com.au Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tmlegalatelier/ Have you been asking yourself whether the contract you're using is actually doing its job? This episode helps you see what a shortcut document could be costing you, both in protection and in the work you're not winning. Key Takeaways: Why "lawyer-drafted" templates still leave gaps, especially around scope creep, inclusions, exclusions and variationsWhy cutting clauses you think don't apply can undermine the rest of your contractWhy having a lawyer fix a reworked template usually costs more than starting freshWhat AI is genuinely useful for (brainstorming, clarifying questions for your lawyer) and why it shouldn't draft your contractsHow your legal documents shape a prospect's trust in you, and how a generic one can lose you the job Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. We're well into the final quarter of the calendar year, and after one of the toughest years we've seen for small business in a long time, plenty of owners are running on empty. In this episode we talk about how to get through Q4 without dragging yourself to the finish line. For tradies, retail and hospitality, this is often the busiest stretch of the year. For others it's a quiet period, a time to ride things out or a chance to get ahead. Neither is wrong, but they call for very different priorities. If it's your busy season, the focus is delivery. Get as much work done and invoiced as you can, keep your rosters tight, know your penalty rates so you don't get caught out, and chase your debtors before the break so clients aren't left waiting and you're not left short. If it's your quiet season, Q4 becomes project time: reviewing your website and content, sorting out your marketing, and getting next year's plan done before Christmas rather than losing January to it. Either way, we suggest picking three priorities for the quarter and letting the rest go. We also talk through the realities of a Christmas close-down. There are notice requirements for staff, and some awards limit your ability to close if employees want to keep working. Payroll, super and lodgement deadlines don't stop because you're on a break, so check with your accountant about what's due and have someone on call for anything urgent. Then there's cash flow. Two weeks closed, two weeks of catching up, then waiting to be paid means the real pinch often doesn't land until February or March, unless you plan for it. Finally, we look at why January is resignation season. People take stock over the holidays, and if their last couple of months with you were rough, they'll be thinking about a move. Q4 is the time to put real effort into looking after your team, thanking them, and communicating clearly with employees, customers and suppliers about what's happening over the break. Have you been asking yourself what you should actually be focusing on before the year wraps up? This episode helps you work out what kind of Q4 your business is having, so you can set the right priorities and finish the year on your terms. Key Takeaways: Work out whether Q4 is your busy or quiet season, then plan around that rather than a generic year-end checklist.Choose three priorities for the quarter so you're not pulled in every direction.Plan for the cash flow lag of a Christmas close-down, which can hit in February or March, not January.Check your award obligations and notice requirements before announcing a close-down.Put effort into staff engagement and recognition now to reduce the risk of January resignations.Tell customers, suppliers and staff early what will look different over the break. We want to hear from you: How are you approaching Q4 this year? What's different from previous years, what's stressing you out, and what are you looking forward to as things wind down? Let us know on our socials. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Nobody hands you a playbook for being the boss, and this episode is about owning that role, and the mental load that comes with it, on your own terms. Most of us go from being told what to do to being responsible for everything almost overnight, usually without any leadership or management experience in between. Every decision, every supplier negotiation and all of the risk now sits with you. And this isn't only about leading a team. Solo operators often carry even more decisions, and those decisions can weigh more heavily when they're tied directly to paying the mortgage or the rent. The rewards aren't guaranteed either, especially in the early years or in the tougher seasons every business goes through, no matter how experienced you are. We share how we each handle it. Getting support is a big one, from networks of other business owners to specialists who know more than we do. So is grit: being able to keep going and try again when things aren't going well, with the attitude that most problems have a solution. We also talk about making decisions quickly rather than sitting on them, remembering that the decision you make today isn't a forever decision, and moving away from measuring your success by how busy you are. As the boss, results matter more than activity, and being less busy through better systems is a goal worth chasing. (We also explain why decision fatigue makes choosing what's for dinner so hard at the end of the day.) If you have a team, there's the added pressure of setting the tone and culture, even on the days you're not in the mood for it. If you don't set a clear vision, someone else will, or five people will take your business in five different directions. We finish with what mastering the mental game actually looks like: owning the role rather than running the business by committee, being yourself as a boss instead of trying to become a different personality, putting the right structure in place, and surrounding yourself with the right people. That means your team, but also advisors, mentors, networks and suppliers who will tell you honestly when something isn't landing. Not everything will go perfectly, and a bad decision or a bad day doesn't mean your business is failing. We also share details of the PowerBoss Experience, 30 days of live small group mentoring that works through three foundations: understanding your own boss style, designing the right team structure for your business, and getting the right people in the right roles. Find out more at https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience Have you been asking yourself why being the boss feels so much heavier than you expected? This episode is a reminder that nobody starts out knowing how to do it, and that owning the role, in your own way, is something you can learn. Key Takeaways: Why the jump from employee to owner leaves most of us without a playbook for decisions, risk and responsibilityHow to make decisions faster, knowing you can change course if one doesn't work outWhy results, not busyness, are the right measure of your day as the bossWhy setting a clear vision matters, and what happens in your team when you don'tHow to own the role of boss without changing who you areWhy the right people around you include advisors, mentors and networks who will be honest with you, not just tell you you're doing great Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we are welcoming Kate Toon back to the show. After 15 years running a successful digital marketing education business from a hut in her back garden, Kate recently purchased Umina Beach Book Nook, a 20-year-old independent bookshop on the NSW Central Coast. The previous owner was ready to close the doors, Kate's accountant and financial advisor both told her it was a terrible idea, and she bought it anyway. She's refreshingly honest that she knew nothing about retail, leases, stock or the software going in. The results so far are a mixed bag, and Kate doesn't sugar-coat any of it. Revenue lifted 42% in the first year and the shop was tracking at around 8% net profit, which is solid for retail, before a forced relocation and renovation swallowed those gains. She ran a crowdfunding campaign to fund the move, raised around $10,000, and copped criticism for it. We talk about why sharing the hard stuff openly on social media built a community that rallied around the shop, and why so many people who never like or comment are still quietly watching. We also dig into why customers are walking past cheaper, faster options to buy locally. Kate's view is that the shop survives on community rather than books: story time, book clubs, cheese and wine nights, and a space that adds something to the town. She makes a strong case that the only real edge a small business has over big brands is that there's an actual person behind it, so be as quirky and real as you can rather than settling for mass-produced "quirk". And if you're thinking about buying a retail business, Kate's advice is to go in with your eyes open. Selling might take up 20 to 30% of your time. The rest is marketing, community building, events, partnerships and coming up with the next idea. Kate Toon is an award-winning business mentor, digital marketing coach and author of several books. British-born, she moved to Australia at 24 and has worked in advertising and digital marketing ever since, building a successful online courses and membership business before buying Umina Beach Book Nook. Connect with Kate Toon: Visit Umina Beach Book Nook on West Street, Umina Beach, a short trip from Woy Woy Station. Have you been asking yourself whether your small business can really compete with bigger, cheaper, faster competitors? This episode is a reminder that people still want to deal with a real person, and that being honest, human and a little bit different is an advantage big brands can't copy. Key Takeaways: Get advice before you buy a business, and expect to keep learning on the job even when you've done your homework.Sharing your challenges openly can build a loyal community, and for every person who comments, many more are watching.Customers will pay more and wait longer to support a local business that adds something to their community.Your edge over big brands is that you're a real person, so lean into what makes you different.In retail, selling is a small part of the job; most of your time goes into marketing, events and community.As AI-generated content grows, there's a real opportunity in offering the human connection people are craving. If you're on the Central Coast, pop into Umina Beach Book Nook and follow Kate and the bookshop on socials to show your support. https://uminabeachbooknook.com.au/ https://www.facebook.com/UminaBeachBookNook https://www.instagram.com/uminabeachbooknook/ Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. If your team brings you every problem, every decision and every disagreement, the standard advice is that you need to delegate better. In this episode we argue that delegation usually isn't the real problem, and that delegating more can leave you doing even more hand-holding. We compare it to a trapeze: you hold a team member's hand to swing them to the next platform, then you have to catch them again for the one after that. We unpack the three underlying reasons business owners end up as the bottleneck. The first is not understanding how you naturally operate as a leader. We walk through four boss styles: the Driver (direct, wants people to get on with it), the Cheerleader (makes work fun and inspires the team), the Peacekeeper (avoids conflict and wants everything calm) and the Perfectionist (loves data, analysis and detail). Every style has blind spots. A Driver, for example, will often hand over a task and then swoop in and fix it because that's quicker, which only teaches the team to wait to be rescued. The second reason is structure. Most small business teams get Frankensteined together, adding a person here and another there to solve whatever problem is in front of you. What works with two people falls over at ten, and the org chart ends up looking like a spider's web with reporting lines crossing everywhere. When nobody is clear on who makes which decisions, everything lands back on your desk. We also talk about how good intentions, like giving people extra responsibility so they feel valued, can create double and triple reporting lines that confuse everyone. The third reason is the people themselves: lovely people hired for roles that no longer exist, the wrong personality for the job (a big-picture Cheerleader as your bookkeeper, for instance), or gaps where nobody on the team has the skills you need. We finish with the order to fix it in: get to know yourself as a leader and put practical hacks in place, build the structure your business needs right now, then find the right people to fill it. Have you been asking yourself, why does every problem still end up on my desk, no matter how much I delegate? This episode shows you where to look instead. Key Takeaways: Why delegating more won't help if the team is still relying on you for every answerHow the four boss styles (Driver, Cheerleader, Peacekeeper, Perfectionist) shape the habits you create in your teamWhy a Frankensteined structure with unclear reporting lines sends every decision back to youHow to match people to roles based on what the role actually needs, not just who you likeThe order to fix it in: yourself first, then structure, then the teamWhy taking the slower route and coaching your team to bring you solutions is a gift to your future self Free webinar: Want to go deeper on this? Join a free one-hour webinar on 13 October that walks through all three reasons in detail and helps you work out which one is affecting you most right now. Register at https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/delegation Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Last week, Loren Bartley showed us how she uses Claude Skills as her marketing team. For some listeners that was a big leap. So this week we've stepped it back and shared the everyday ways we're using AI in our own businesses, so you can borrow what works for you. We start with the one habit we'd recommend before anything else: keep your own source of truth. The tools change constantly, and custom GPTs are being retired as we speak. So every set of instructions we give an AI lives in a Word document, Google Doc or spreadsheet that we own. When the next tool comes along, we hand those instructions over rather than starting from scratch. From there we get practical. AI is now our starting point for building lead generation tools. Quizzes and calculators that once took a week or two to build, or cost over a thousand dollars a year in software, now take a morning. We use it to read our weekly Google Analytics and Search Console reports. It tells us which old blog posts are quietly pulling readers every week, shows when tools like ChatGPT have found us, and gives us a short list of actions. We've rebuilt one of our websites page by page so AI search can find it more easily, and learned a lot about the technical side along the way. We're also turning static membership templates, like a guide to difficult conversations, into tools that build a full script in the user's own style. Just as important is what we're not handing over. We don't use AI to give client advice. We've seen it make things up, and if you didn't build the advice yourself, you can't deliver it well. We're also not using it to write our thought leadership, including our weekly newsletter, because it still doesn't sound like us. We finish with a few extras. We talk to AI by voice rather than typing, including a weekly planning conversation on a Sunday walk, and the outputs are noticeably better. We also share some personal uses: fixing a struggling hibiscus, a 12-week fitness plan, and tracking the value of rookie footballers' collectible cards. Have you been asking yourself where AI should actually fit in your business, and what you should keep for yourself? This episode gives you a practical starting list, plus a simple way to protect your work as the tools keep changing. Key Takeaways: Store all your AI instructions in a document you own, so you can move them to a new tool without losing your work when platforms change.Use AI as your first stop for building lead generation tools like quizzes. Ask it to talk you through your options before you pay for software.Feed your weekly analytics reports into AI to find out which content is working, whether AI search is finding you, and where to focus next.Turn static templates into guided tools that do the implementation for your clients or members, not just the instructions.Keep advice and thought leadership in your own hands, because you can't deliver advice well if you didn't create it.Try speaking to AI instead of typing, since conversational voice notes often produce better quality outputs. Tell us how you're using AI We'd love to hear how you're using AI, in your business or at home. Come and share your tips with us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we're joined by Loren Bartley, founder of Impactiv8, who helps service-based businesses build more profitable marketing systems in partnership with AI. Loren runs the AI Mega Success Academy and AI Mega classes, along with speaking, team training and coaching, and she's built out an AI "marketing team" of around 150 Claude skills that now do the work she used to need a much bigger human team for. We get into what a skill actually is, and why it's a completely different thing to a prompt: a skill is a saved, self-contained set of instructions for one specific job, built with your standards, your examples and your edge cases already baked in, so you're not explaining yourself from scratch every time you need something done. We also talk about why narrow, specific skills beat one giant "do everything" skill every time. Cramming every instruction into a single skill means it has more to read, more decisions to make, and a much higher chance of missing something or getting it wrong, not to mention the extra cost of all those unnecessary tokens. A skill that does one small job well, and does it brilliantly, is worth more than one skill trying to do it all. For anyone starting from scratch, Loren's advice is clear: build your brand voice skill first, because that's what stops your content sounding like generic AI output. From there, look at the repetitive, mundane tasks eating your time, and build skills for the things you already know how to do well before you try to hand over tasks outside your own expertise. She also recommends pacing yourself, building and actually using one skill at a time rather than ten at once, because each new skill needs feedback and refinement, much like training a new team member. We finish with the practical how-to: turning a chat you were genuinely happy with into a reusable skill, using Claude's record feature to walk it through a process step by step, or asking it to research frameworks for something outside your expertise and turning that into a skill. Loren also explains "coordinator" skills, where one skill knows which of your other skills to call on for each part of a job, and how Claude Projects let the same skills work across multiple businesses or clients, because the business-specific knowledge lives in the project, not baked into every individual skill. Have you been asking yourself how you're supposed to keep AI output sounding like you without rewriting the same instructions every time? This episode is our answer. Key Takeaways: Understand what actually makes a Claude skill different from a prompt, and why that difference is what saves you real timeKnow which skill to build first (brand voice) and why it lifts the quality of everything that followsLearn how to spot the repetitive, mundane tasks in your business that are worth turning into a skillBuild skills for what you already know before trying to build skills for work outside your expertiseUnderstand coordinator skills, and how a "team" of skills can work together to complete one jobSee how Claude Projects let you reuse the same skills across different businesses or clients without rebuilding them Loren Bartley Loren Bartley is the founder of Impactiv8, where she helps service-based businesses build more profitable marketing systems in partnership with AI. She runs the AI Mega Success Academy and AI Mega classes, and offers speaking, team training and one-on-one and small group coaching, with a particular focus on helping business owners build their own AI-powered marketing teams using Claude skills. Connect with Loren Bartley: Website: https://www.aimegasuccess.com/ Claude skills resource: https://www.aimegasuccess.com/claudeskills Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. We sat down this week to talk about something that's been frustrating Matt for months: marketing that used to work just doesn't anymore. The core concepts of sales and marketing haven't changed, but everything around them has sped up, and the touchpoints that used to build a relationship with a customer now have to happen faster and smarter than they did even a year ago. The biggest shift we're seeing is where people go to find answers. It's no longer just Google, it's AI tools, and even when people are on Google, it's often Google's AI doing the summarising. That means the old SEO playbook of giving away just enough to get someone to click through doesn't work anymore. Your content has to actually answer the question, properly, or AI skips straight past it. Matt's been rebuilding his own website with this in mind, researching what's landing in those AI-generated answer boxes and making sure his content earns a spot there too. But being found by AI is only half the job. Once someone does land on your website or your socials, they're still checking whether they like you, whether they trust you, whether you're their vibe. That hasn't changed, and if anything it matters more, because trust has taken a hit across the board now that so much content is AI-generated. Kristy-Lee's approach has been to let AI analyse her own analytics and tell her what's resonating, without letting AI write the content itself, because the trust piece has to stay genuinely hers. We also talked about where to actually spend your energy. Referrals, recommendations, testimonials and Google reviews matter more than ever. Your email list is one of the only things you truly own. And rather than trying to be everywhere, it might be smarter to pick two or three platforms and do them properly instead of spreading yourself across five. We'd love to hear what you're noticing in your own marketing right now, what's working, what you've quietly stopped doing because it wasn't earning its keep anymore. Come find us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok and tell us. Key Takeaways: Why the fundamentals of sales and marketing haven't changed, but the speed and format of every touchpoint hasWhy website and blog content now needs to directly answer questions to be picked up by AI search tools, not just rank in GoogleWhy trust matters more than ever, and why that's a reason to be cautious about outsourcing your content creation to AIWhy analytics are worth paying closer attention to right now, and how AI can help you interpret them without writing your content for youWhy referrals, testimonials, Google reviews and your email list deserve more of your attention than chasing every new platformWhy focusing on two or three platforms you can do well may beat trying to maintain a presence everywhere Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we unpack single person risk from three angles. On the team side, we talk about what happens when one person holds all the knowledge in your business, prompted by a recent client experience where a well-structured team was still genuinely shaken by one unexpected resignation. We discuss why documenting processes and SOPs properly, rather than letting a team member build their own undocumented system, is the single biggest thing you can do to protect your business, and how much easier that's become with AI tools that can help capture a process as you talk it through. We then move to client concentration risk, sharing our own experiences of losing a client that made up a significant share of revenue, and why we think 20% of income from any one source is a sensible ceiling to work towards. We talk honestly about how easy it is to let marketing slide once a big, comfortable client comes along, and the flow-on risk of giving one client enough power to push down your prices as well as your time. Finally we cover supplier risk, particularly relevant right now given how many businesses across industries like construction are going into liquidation. We share an example of a manufacturing client who built a genuine three-tiered supplier strategy, with backup suppliers they maintained real relationships with, not just names on a list, so they were never completely exposed to one supplier's problems. Across all three, the common thread is control. If someone else, whether that's a team member, a client or a supplier, holds the power in the relationship, your business carries real risk. Have you been asking yourself, "How reliant is my business on any one person?" This episode gives you a practical starting point for finding out, and for building in the contingencies before you're forced to. Key Takeaways: Document your processes and SOPs properly rather than letting critical knowledge live in one person's head, and use AI tools to make capturing them easier than everAim to keep any single client below 20% of your revenue, and keep marketing running in the background even when a big client makes it tempting to stopBuild genuine backup supplier relationships before you need them, not just a name in a drawer you've never actually ordered fromWatch for situations where a team member, client or supplier holds enough power to start dictating terms, whether that's pricing, timelines or decisionsAssume loyalty isn't a long-term plan; build a simple contingency matrix so a resignation, a lost client or a supplier collapse doesn't mean panic stations Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you. Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we're joined by Frieda Maher from SalesPOD, an independent technology consultant who helps small businesses plan their CRM and customer facing systems without being tied to any particular software provider. That independence matters, because Frieda isn't trying to sell you a licence, she's trying to find what actually works for your business, and that's exactly the lens we bring to this conversation. We start by unpacking what "CRM" actually means, because it gets thrown around as if it's one thing when it's really a broad church. There's marketing CRM (newsletters, automated sequences), sales CRM (tracking conversations and pipeline so nothing falls through the cracks when more than one person is talking to customers), service CRM (think Zendesk style ticketing) and e-commerce CRM (the Shopify style "people who bought this also bought that"). Most small businesses don't need all four, and a lot of us are only using a fraction of what we're already paying for. Frieda gives us a genuinely useful filter for deciding whether you need a system at all: value only ever comes from two places, more sales or more efficiency. If a shiny new feature doesn't move you towards one of those, it's not worth the extra cost or complexity. We also dig into the real tipping points, when a spreadsheet stops cutting it (usually once more than one person is talking to the same customers), how to think about growth and pricing tiers before you commit, and why integration, making sure your systems actually talk to each other, is one of the most overlooked and most technical parts of the decision. One idea that reframes the whole conversation is Frieda's point that choosing software is a three to five year decision, not a forever one. Your business will change, the software will change, and planning with that horizon in mind changes how you evaluate cost, implementation time and what you're prepared to compromise on now. Have you been asking yourself whether the system (or spreadsheet) you're using is actually helping you grow, or just quietly costing you sales and hours every week? This episode gives you a genuinely practical framework for answering that, before you spend another dollar on software you might not need. Frieda Maher is an independent technology consultant at SalesPOD, specialising in helping small businesses plan customer facing systems, with a particular focus on CRM. Unlike many providers in the space, Frieda isn't aligned with any single software vendor, so her recommendations are built around what genuinely suits the business in front of her, not what she's incentivised to sell. Connect with Frieda: Website: https://www.salespod.com.au LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/friedamaher/ Key Takeaways: Understand that "CRM" isn't one product, marketing, sales, service and e-commerce systems each do a different job, and most businesses only need some of themUse Frieda's value filter (more sales or more efficiency) to cut through flashy features that won't actually move the needle for your businessRecognise the real signs you've outgrown a spreadsheet, usually when more than one person is talking to the same customersTreat any software decision as a three to five year commitment, not a forever one, and let that shape how you weigh cost and implementation timePrioritise integration, checking new systems talk to what you already use, as one of the most overlooked steps in the buying processGo in with realistic expectations on switching costs and implementation time, because both are almost always underestimated Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Hello and welcome to this weeks episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we get honest about something we don't talk about enough: why we're actually building our businesses in the first place. Kristy-Lee came back from a mastermind with a lot to think about rather than a clear next step, and it led to a realisation - she'd been chasing a goal she'd set because she thought she should, not because it actually motivated her. That fuzziness, we discuss, is something almost every business owner runs into eventually, and it's worth stopping to name. We unpack the different reasons people actually build small businesses, from wanting to create a legacy and build something bigger than themselves, to giving back to a local community, to chasing lifestyle and freedom of time and location. We also talk about the shift toward building a business as a wealth creation vehicle (a saleable asset) and how that single decision changes everything else, from how you handle a client leaving to how you make marketing and retention decisions. When you know what game you're playing, every decision gets easier. When you don't, you can end up going through the motions without realising it. Have you been asking yourself, "why am I actually doing this?" If so, this episode will help you get clear on what game you're playing, because once you know that, you can start playing to win it. Key Takeaways: Get honest about why you're really building your business: legacy, community contribution, lifestyle and freedom, or wealth creation are all valid, but they're not interchangeable.Notice when a goal has stopped being yours and started being one you think you "should" have, that fuzziness is a signal, not a failure.Understand that your real "why" should drive practical decisions, hiring, marketing, retention and systems all look different depending on the game you're playing.If you're building toward a sale, treat every decision as a test of whether it moves you closer to that outcome, not just whether it solves today's problem.Expect your reason for building the business to evolve as the market shifts or your own life changes, that's normal, not a sign you got it wrong the first time. We'd love to hear from you on this. Why are you building your small business? Let us know on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, or email Matt directly at [email protected]. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Hello and welcome to this weeks episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. If you want to get better results from conferences, training programs and networking events without wasting valuable time or money, this episode is for you. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we discuss how Australian small business owners can maximise the return on the time and money they invest in conferences, training, masterminds and professional development. Whether you're attending because you genuinely want to learn, need to complete CPD requirements, or are looking to grow your professional network, we explore how to be intentional about the events you choose and the outcomes you want to achieve. We share practical strategies for selecting the right events, setting clear objectives before you attend, and making sure you're investing in opportunities that genuinely support your business. We also discuss balancing education with networking, planning for time away from your business, and why being present during an event is just as important as showing up. If you've been asking yourself, "How do I know whether a conference or training event is worth the investment?" or "How can I make sure I actually implement what I learn?", this episode provides practical advice to help you turn learning into measurable business outcomes. We also discuss why following up with new connections, reviewing your key learnings, and creating space to implement new ideas are essential if you want to see a genuine return on your investment. Key Takeaways: Be clear about why you're attending an event before committing your time and money, whether your goal is education, networking, CPD or business growth.Choose conferences and training that align with your current business priorities rather than attending simply because they're convenient or industry standard.Create space before and during an event so you can be fully present and make the most of both the presentations and the conversations.Develop a follow-up plan for new contacts, relationships and opportunities so valuable connections don't disappear once the event ends.Schedule time after the event to review your notes, implement new ideas and share key learnings with your team to maximise the return on your investment. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Hello and welcome to this weeks episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Today we are joined by returning guest Kristy Smith from Virtual Elves to chat about some tips and traps for engaging an offshore VA’s. Kristy and her team at Virtual Elves help busy entrepreneurs scale faster through virtual assistant support, without burn out or the high cost of hiring employees.Virtual Elves is an Australian-managed outsourcing agency connecting skilled Filipino virtual assistants with growing Australian businesses. Kristy started the business over 15 years ago and Virtual Elves has become a trusted partner to hundreds of business owners who value quality, consistency, and care. She is a speaker, mentor, and strategist, sharing what she has learned about building sustainable systems, leading with empathy, and growing teams that genuinely thrive — both in Australia and the Philippines. In this episode we explore why successfully working with an offshore VA involves much more than simply finding someone with the right technical skills. Understanding cultural differences, your own communication and leadership style, and how to confirm that instructions have genuinely been understood can make an enormous difference. We also discuss the role behavioural profiling can play in matching the right VA with the right business owner and the work they’ll be doing. We also unpack some of the traps to watch for when choosing a VA provider. From incredibly cheap hourly rates and questionable claims about ethical employment practices to large upfront fees and lengthy contracts, we discuss why doing your research matters. If you’ve been asking yourself, “How do I choose an offshore virtual assistant without getting locked into the wrong arrangement?”, this episode will give you some practical things to consider. Finally, we look at the rapidly changing relationship between virtual assistants and AI. With AI agents already replacing some tasks traditionally performed by people, we discuss why AI doesn’t necessarily mean the end of virtual assistance. Instead, the skills VAs need are likely to evolve, with people increasingly using AI and automation to create efficiencies within Australian small business. The challenge is making sure those efficiencies don’t come at the expense of appropriate oversight, risk management or the people within your business. Key Takeaways: Learn about the culture of the country you’re outsourcing to, particularly how cultural differences can influence communication, feedback and whether someone feels comfortable saying they don’t understand.Understand your own leadership and communication style before choosing a VA, and consider whether their behavioural profile suits both you and the tasks you need completed.Don’t automatically choose the cheapest VA provider. Understand how the VA is being paid, what support and matching processes are provided, and whether the arrangement aligns with your expectations around ethical outsourcing.Be cautious about large upfront engagement fees and long-term contracts, particularly if you haven’t had an opportunity to properly assess whether the VA and service model are right for your business.Think strategically about AI rather than assuming it should replace people. AI and virtual assistants can work together to create efficiencies, but businesses still need human oversight and a clear understanding of the risks involved. To connect with Kristy and her team you can find their website here: https://virtualelves.com.au/ Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we explore one of the biggest barriers to sustainable growth for an Australian small business: becoming the bottleneck in your own business. As business owners, it's easy to believe that staying involved in every decision protects quality and customer service, but over time it can actually limit growth, create frustration for your team, and leave you working longer hours than ever. We discuss the warning signs that suggest you've become the bottleneck and why recognising them early is critical if you want to build a business that can grow beyond your own capacity. We unpack the common habits that create bottlenecks, including struggling to delegate, insisting on approving every decision, and unintentionally training your team to rely on you for everything. We also discuss why many Australian small business owners delay hiring or outsourcing for too long, the impact of previous bad hiring experiences, and how introducing buffer roles, virtual assistants, team leaders or outsourced support can remove pressure while allowing the business to continue delivering excellent customer service. Have you ever found yourself asking, "Why is my business growing but I still feel busier than ever?" If so, this episode is for you. We share practical strategies to help you identify where your time is really being spent, decide which responsibilities only you should retain, and confidently delegate the rest. The goal isn't to remove yourself from your business altogether, but to ensure you're focusing on the work that creates the greatest value while building a business that isn't limited by the number of hours you can personally work. Key Takeaways: Learn how to identify the warning signs that you've become the bottleneck in your business.Discover why control, delayed delegation and constant sign-off can unintentionally slow business growth.Understand how introducing buffer roles, virtual assistants or outsourced support can free up your time.Learn why hiring or outsourcing earlier can support sustainable business growth without immediately committing to full-time employees.Discover how choosing your ideal role in the business helps create greater freedom while continuing to deliver exceptional customer service. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We'd love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.