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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business, the

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Speaker 1: place where business is far from boring. And today I'm

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Speaker 1: recording on a wobbicle land. Now, this episode in particular

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Speaker 1: that you're listening to is coming out during the Chrissy

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Speaker 1: Slash holiday break, and some podcasts take a break during

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Speaker 1: the Christmas break, but there's no break for me when

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Speaker 1: it comes to Big Business. I'm coming out with these episodes,

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Speaker 1: but I thought I would mention I'm recording these from

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Speaker 1: home and the quality may not be exactly the same

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Speaker 1: as when I'm in the studio.

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Speaker 2: But hopefully it will do. For today's episode.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be running you through how we run

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Speaker 1: and operate our businesses through the Christmas period. Now, before

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Speaker 1: I got into business, this was something that I never

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Speaker 1: really thought about and saying when I opened our very

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Speaker 1: first physical Fate store in Newcastle in twenty nineteen, we

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Speaker 1: actually opened that in December, but it had never cross

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Speaker 1: my mind that when we are opening businesses, we are

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Speaker 1: making a commitment to kind of running our business all

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Speaker 1: the time. And I guess I go back to thinking,

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Speaker 1: you know, when I worked in my full time jobs

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Speaker 1: and for those of you that don't know. Like the

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Speaker 1: last jobs that I had before I became my own

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Speaker 1: boss and self employed, was working, you know, nine to

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Speaker 1: five Monday to Friday. And I guess when you're an employee,

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Speaker 1: you just think, oh yeah, like if you work a

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Speaker 1: traditional nine to five job. Sorry, I just whacked the microphone.

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Speaker 1: When you work a traditional job, it's just like natural

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Speaker 1: to have time off over Christmas. I know it's completely

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Speaker 1: different if you're in hospitality and retail and everything else,

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Speaker 1: but I guess I went from working full time to

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Speaker 1: them becoming self employed. And when I opened our first store,

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Speaker 1: or even just when I started Fate, I never thought,

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Speaker 1: wait a second, at one point, We're going to have

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Speaker 1: to figure out how I'm going to run our business

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Speaker 1: through Christmas time? Because business never stops. So how does

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Speaker 1: it look for us what happens with Fate and our

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Speaker 1: cafe during Christmas time. We've got so many different elements

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Speaker 1: of our business, and I guess the way that we

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Speaker 1: operate through Christmas has chopped and changed over the years.

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Speaker 1: But I can give you a run through of what

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Speaker 1: we're doing this year and what we've done in previous years.

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Speaker 1: So ever, since Fate has existed for two weeks over

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Speaker 1: the Christmas and New Year period all of our full

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Speaker 1: time warehouse and office staff, which for a very long

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Speaker 1: time we only had full time employees in both of

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Speaker 1: those areas of our business. So if the history of Fate,

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Speaker 1: our full times office and warehouse all have two weeks off,

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Speaker 1: this is not forced leave. We've never done forced leave

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Speaker 1: at Fate. That's actually something I don't know anything about, Like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how.

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Speaker 2: That works, but I've heard about it.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, forever and ever and ever, everyone at the

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Speaker 1: opposite warehouse has always had two weeks off at Christmas,

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Speaker 1: and that has always and we're happy with that, but

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Speaker 1: it's always left AJ and I to do everything in

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Speaker 1: those two weeks. And so for the last however many years,

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Speaker 1: AJ and I have always had a pretty hectic two

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Speaker 1: weeks around Christmas and New Year's because everyone's off and

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Speaker 1: we've still got to keep the thing going.

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Speaker 2: And by that I mean we have to.

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Speaker 1: Pick all the orders, pack all the orders, get the

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Speaker 1: orders out, and also do the customer service because our

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Speaker 1: customer service team are also like full time in the office.

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Speaker 1: But things are changing this year. We made the decision

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Speaker 1: this year to hire casual warehouse employees. So throughout the year,

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Speaker 1: we've had a few casual members join our team in

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Speaker 1: saying that, a lot of them are working like so

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Speaker 1: many hours, but we've had some casuals join and we've

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Speaker 1: just had a few more join towards the very end

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Speaker 1: of the year, almost like a Christmas casual.

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Speaker 2: And now we've kind.

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Speaker 1: Of got some people that are going to be working

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Speaker 1: throughout that two week period, which means AJ and I

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Speaker 1: won't feel as pressured to be the only two to

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Speaker 1: kind of keep everything going throughout that two week period.

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Speaker 2: In saying that, and I mean I.

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Speaker 1: Don't have to go into the exact details of what

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Speaker 1: days our warehouse is open and closed, but just with

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Speaker 1: like Christmas Day and all of the public holidays that

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Speaker 1: surrounded and New Year's Day and everything, I think there's

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Speaker 1: like almost five days or something where no one is

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Speaker 1: at the warehouse and no orders are going to get packed,

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Speaker 1: which I think is fine because in my mind, oh well,

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Speaker 1: I think from my standpoint as a consumer, if I'm

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Speaker 1: ordering something on New Year's Eve or like a day

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Speaker 1: before New Year's Eve, I'm definitely not expecting my order

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Speaker 1: to get get shipped immediately kind of thing. So there

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Speaker 1: is going to be like five days or something like that,

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Speaker 1: like five working week days, like not including weekends, where

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Speaker 1: no orders are getting packed. And I think this is

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Speaker 1: the first time we've ever done that obviously in the

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Speaker 1: history of Fate. In saying that as well, AJ and

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Speaker 1: I can go in if need be, because we're not

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Speaker 1: going anywhere, and we'll just do like a bit.

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Speaker 2: Of a call out to our.

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Speaker 1: Community just to say during this date and this date, like,

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Speaker 1: it's going to be minimal people at Fate, so none

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Speaker 1: of your orders will get will be getting shipped during

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Speaker 1: that time.

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Speaker 2: And then yeah, it's.

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Speaker 1: Quite literally that there's just a few days where the

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Speaker 1: warehouse is shut and then everyone kind of comes back

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Speaker 1: in bits and bobs. But the full time is I

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Speaker 1: believe are all taking two weeks off. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: because we don't set there leave like everyone's got different

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Speaker 1: random days off. And then we've obviously got the other

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Speaker 1: side of our business as well, which is our physical

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Speaker 1: retail stores. And then we have our cafe in Newcastle,

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Speaker 1: which is called Outdo. I've done a whole episode on

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Speaker 1: our cafe if you want to hear about it and

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Speaker 1: hear the whole story of how he came to build

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Speaker 1: and open this cafe if you didn't know already, but

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Speaker 1: it's called Outdoo Espresso, and our cafe is right next

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Speaker 1: door to our Fate store in Newcastle, so they're like neighbors.

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Speaker 1: So that's a run through of our office and warehouse.

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Speaker 1: Everyone's off for two weeks, but then there's like five

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Speaker 1: days where absolutely no one's there, and then we've got

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Speaker 1: some casuals as well that are going to kind of

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Speaker 1: be filling in the gaps in those two weeks. And

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Speaker 1: during that time as well, I'll just be overseeing and

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Speaker 1: monitoring and doing our customer service emails while our customer

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Speaker 1: Happiness team off And that's so fine because I can

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Speaker 1: just honestly sit at home on my back deck with

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Speaker 1: the laptop riding back to everyone's emails that come through

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Speaker 1: every day. And then we've obviously got our retail stores. Now,

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Speaker 1: when you're opening a physical business, you really are opening

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Speaker 1: yourself to being open during holiday periods, especially in Westfields

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Speaker 1: centers and also in hospitality. So our cafe, for example,

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Speaker 1: the good thing about our boutique Fate stores, So our

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Speaker 1: boutique Fate stores are Newcastle, Parramatta and Hawthorne in Victoria.

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Speaker 1: The good thing about those and there's so many like

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Speaker 1: pros and cons to having a boutique as opposed to

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Speaker 1: like a shopping center store.

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Speaker 2: But one of the biggest.

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Speaker 1: Pros is you can pick and choose what days you're

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Speaker 1: open and what days you closed. And one of the

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Speaker 1: cons of having Westfield stores. So we have two Westfield

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Speaker 1: stores for Fate. One is Westfield term Side in Brisbane

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Speaker 1: and the other is Westfield Miranda in Sydney.

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Speaker 2: The con of.

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Speaker 1: Being in Westfield is you have to open when they're open,

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Speaker 1: and shopping centers basically never shut. I think there's what

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Speaker 1: like two or three days a year or something that

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Speaker 1: they're shut.

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Speaker 2: It's something really small.

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Speaker 1: And I remember when we first ventured into our Westfield

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Speaker 1: Miranda store, because that was our second store and we'd

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Speaker 1: only ever had our Newcastle boutique. I remember being like,

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Speaker 1: holy shit, like we're going to be opened basically every

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Speaker 1: single day. So our boutique stores for Fate are super flexible.

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Speaker 1: We pretty much stay open throughout the holiday period and

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Speaker 1: it's especially great because a lot of people travel at

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Speaker 1: Christmas time and I've found over the years that Fate

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Speaker 1: has become a bit of a destination for people that

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Speaker 1: are on holidays, and especially you know here in Newcastle

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Speaker 1: we keep our cafe and our Newcastle Boutique open because

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Speaker 1: people will be traveling to Newcastle for Christmas to visit

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Speaker 1: the family or whatever and they'll go, oh, we'll go

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Speaker 1: to fate and outdo So we definitely try to keep

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Speaker 1: open as many days as we can, but with the boutiques,

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Speaker 1: there are a few days that they're closed. And again

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Speaker 1: I don't need to like run you throughout opening and

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Speaker 1: closing days in particular, that's not what this episode is about.

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Speaker 2: You can find all our.

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Speaker 1: Hours on Google if you really want to know. And

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Speaker 1: then the Westfield stores are basically open the whole time.

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Speaker 1: They're shut Christmas Day and they're shut.

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Speaker 2: Now New Year's Day. I think they're open.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't quote me, but the Westfield

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Speaker 1: stores open the most out of everything.

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Speaker 2: On the back end.

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Speaker 1: With all of our full time staff at HQ going

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Speaker 1: off because a lot of our full time HQ staff

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Speaker 1: support our retail stores, like from our head office. On

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Speaker 1: our end, that just means we need to be super

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Speaker 1: organized in the lead.

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Speaker 2: Up to the Christmas period.

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Speaker 1: We have to make sure that all of the rosters

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Speaker 1: are done well in advance so that everyone knows exactly

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Speaker 1: when they're working, and we just have to make sure

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Speaker 1: that all the store managers are prepared for the two

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Speaker 1: weeks that our head office support is going to be off.

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Speaker 2: And bless every year.

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Speaker 1: Grace, who is our national retail manager, she's based here

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Speaker 1: in Newcastle, works in our head office. She oversees all

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Speaker 1: of our stores and every year when she's going to

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Speaker 1: have the two weeks off, and she's the kind of

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Speaker 1: person that's like, now you can message me if you

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Speaker 1: need anything, I'm just going to be sitting at home

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Speaker 1: doing nothing.

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Speaker 2: Anyway, I've said to her this year.

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Speaker 1: I say it to her every year, but I said

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Speaker 1: you are not to do that this year and instead,

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Speaker 1: because when my staff go on leave, I'm like, you

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Speaker 1: are on leave, like, do not talk to me, do

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Speaker 1: not talk to anyone, Like I would feel terrible to

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Speaker 1: know that someone was answering to someone, unless it was

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Speaker 1: like some type of emergency, of course, But I've said

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Speaker 1: to Grace, you.

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Speaker 2: Make sure you tell all of your store managers.

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Speaker 1: That they need to contact AJ and I before they

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Speaker 1: think of contacting you. And she's like, oh, okay, she

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Speaker 1: sent out an email literally the other day and she

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Speaker 1: included me in on it and she's like, all right, everyone,

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Speaker 1: make sure if you have any questions during these two

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Speaker 1: this two week period, contact Britain AJ. But it all

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Speaker 1: comes down to having great managers in place as well.

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Speaker 1: So all of our stores have a store manager and

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Speaker 1: then they have an assistant store manager and they run

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Speaker 1: their stores and Grace is quite literally there to guide them,

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Speaker 1: you know, train them, help them.

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Speaker 2: Give them anything they need.

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Speaker 1: But our stores are really self sufficient because of the

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Speaker 1: strong managers and the strong teams that we have in place.

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Speaker 1: The last thing we would want to be doing is

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Speaker 1: opening more and more retail stores and not having strong teams,

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Speaker 1: like having a strong team and strong managers in that

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Speaker 1: store to run it day to day and especially if

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Speaker 1: you know, if we go away, not that we ever

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Speaker 1: got away, but it's just vital because we can feel

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Speaker 1: comfortable in knowing that Grace, who is the national retail manager,

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Speaker 1: can take two weeks off at Christmas time if she

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Speaker 1: wants to take some manual leave and they're not going

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Speaker 1: to be like, oh my god, what are we going

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Speaker 1: to do without Grace because they're such strong teams and

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Speaker 1: AJ and I, of course, are always on call at

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Speaker 1: any given moment for anything, no matter what it is,

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Speaker 1: and Aj and I aren't going anywhere over the Christmas period.

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Speaker 1: We're just staying here in Newcastle. We're actually hosting Christmas

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Speaker 1: at our house but AJ's family for the first time

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Speaker 1: ever this year, which is super exciting. So I'm really

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Speaker 1: looking looking forward to that. We're not going on any

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Speaker 1: holidays or anything. We're just going to have a nice

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Speaker 1: Christmas at home, which I'm really looking forward to. And

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Speaker 1: that's a bit of a rundown on how we run

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Speaker 1: our business. It's always a bit of figuring out on

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Speaker 1: the back end, and I'm really excited that we have

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Speaker 1: casual team members in our warehouse now because it's not

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Speaker 1: going to be just two solid weeks of no one

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Speaker 1: being there. I think there's like that five days where

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Speaker 1: no one's there, which is quite literally over Christmas Day

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Speaker 1: and New Year's and I'll feel a bit better just

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Speaker 1: knowing that there's going to be some people there scattered

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Speaker 1: before all the full timers come back. And another thing

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Speaker 1: that we're doing this time around because last year we

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Speaker 1: really fucked ourselves over, so we're doing our Boxing Day

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Speaker 1: sale in all of our stores on Boxing Day, so

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Speaker 1: on the twenty sixth, but we're doing our online one

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Speaker 1: early this year, which we have never done, Like we've

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Speaker 1: always done our Boxing Day sale for Faate on the

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Speaker 1: twenty sixth, but obviously last year, I mean we've done

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Speaker 1: it every year, we do it on the twenty six

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Speaker 1: and that's when all the staff were off and because

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Speaker 1: we had no warehouse casuals.

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Speaker 2: Last year, AJ and I just were.

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Speaker 1: Like fuck because we had the thousands of orders to pack,

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Speaker 1: like from the day after Christmas, and so we were

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Speaker 1: just in that warehouse every day, just the two of us,

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Speaker 1: and I just remember saying it Aj this time last year,

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Speaker 1: we are never doing this again.

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Speaker 2: We aren't never fuck.

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Speaker 1: Because with two people and you're packing so many orders,

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Speaker 1: it's never ending. It's days and days and days and weeks.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, we've come up with a bit more of

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Speaker 1: a strategic plan this year, and the online Fate Boxing

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Speaker 1: Day sale is going to be a little bit earlier

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Speaker 1: when everyone's still at work, so that you know, it

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Speaker 1: can be a team effort of smashing out those Boxing

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Speaker 1: Day orders online.

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Speaker 2: And then we'll still do.

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Speaker 1: Our Boxing Day sale in stores because it's fun, you know,

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Speaker 1: for people to be able to come in and shop

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Speaker 1: Boxing day with their chrissy money. But anyway, that's a

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Speaker 1: little run through of our game plan for the Christmas period.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't Again I always say this, but before

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Speaker 1: I started a business, I never thought about, Oh, how

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Speaker 1: am I going to operate this thing through holiday periods?

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Speaker 1: You know, because I was just so in the mentality

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Speaker 1: of working a regular job and like, if you're working

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Speaker 1: full time, having two weeks off a Christmas kind of thing.

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Speaker 2: It's just one of those things that I never thought of.

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Speaker 1: And now every year, like a month out, we're like,

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Speaker 1: all right, what's our plan of attack? You know, what

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Speaker 1: days is all the Fate boutiques opening? What days are

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Speaker 1: we going to open out Do our cafe and like

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Speaker 1: Outdo heavily relies on when Fate's.

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Speaker 2: Open as well.

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Speaker 1: We want them both to be open at the same time.

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Speaker 1: People can get a coffee and shop at the same time.

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Speaker 1: And then what are we doing with a warehouse and

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Speaker 1: we need more casuals blah blah blah. I'll be doing

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Speaker 1: the emails like it's a thing every year, and it's

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Speaker 1: just one of those parts of business that you don't

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Speaker 1: really think about. When you're going into it, and if

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Speaker 1: you're at the start of your business journey, just remember this,

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Speaker 1: remember me talking about this one day you might have

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Speaker 1: to sacrifice having time off over Christmas, because let me

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Speaker 1: tell you, I have sacrificed that for every year.

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Speaker 2: So far at fate.

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Speaker 1: But I'm hoping that AJ and I are at least

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Speaker 1: going to have like that five days off where everyone's

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Speaker 1: off over the public holidays and stuff, so that we

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Speaker 1: can relax, enjoy our new house, enjoy all the hard

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Speaker 1: work that we've done this year, as well as celebrating

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Speaker 1: all the hard work that our entire company has done

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Speaker 1: this year. And that's a little look into our holiday period.

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Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure when this episode is coming out,

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Speaker 1: but if it hasn't been Christmas yet, I hope you

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Speaker 1: all have a good one and a safe and happy

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Speaker 1: new year. And I'm excited to continue this Big Business

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Speaker 1: pod in twenty twenty five. My bloody, you love talking

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Speaker 1: about this stuff.