Speaker 1: Small businesses now. They are the backbone of our country
Speaker 1: and I know firsthand how tough it is, long hours,
Speaker 1: constant hurdles, and too often feeling like you're in it alone.
Speaker 1: And what I keep hearing from you is that small
Speaker 1: business owners don't feel heard. My team and I are
Speaker 1: paying close attention to our small business community and the
Speaker 1: feedback that comes to us through the Mental podcast. Now,
Speaker 1: one thing is clear. You want to hear from more
Speaker 1: businesses beyond Sydney, from across the country, and especially those
Speaker 1: that are doing it tough. That's why my team and
Speaker 1: I are launching the Small Business call Out. The Small
Speaker 1: Business call Out, which will be under the Mentor channel,
Speaker 1: will talk to business owners all over the country every
Speaker 1: single week, no matter where you are. We want to
Speaker 1: hear from you. What's working, what's not working, What do
Speaker 1: you need from the government to actually succeed? What are
Speaker 1: the things can you enlighten us about what it's like
Speaker 1: being in the small business community. This is your chair
Speaker 1: has to make your voice count. We want to hear
Speaker 1: from all industries, from those struggling, from those who feel overlooked,
Speaker 1: or those who have something to say but haven't had
Speaker 1: the platform to say it. I'm going to continue hosting
Speaker 1: the Mental podcast, but the Small Business call Out will
Speaker 1: be uploaded between episodes. So let's get into this week's
Speaker 1: edition of the new Small Business call Out. What's the
Speaker 1: name of your business?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the name of our business is called Steps
Speaker 2: with a Z.
Speaker 1: Simple terms. What does your business do?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So Steps manufactures and supplies high quality boat trailer ladder.
Speaker 2: It makes boat access a lot easier and it bolts
Speaker 2: onto the front of your boat trailer.
Speaker 1: Where was your business founded and where is it located?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we originally started as a marine dealership where
Speaker 2: our state is Victoria.
Speaker 3: So in Warnable we're on the end of the Great
Speaker 3: Ocean Roads.
Speaker 2: And then now we've moved purely to online so or
Speaker 2: one hundred percent online now. So the reason we moved
Speaker 2: to purely one hundred percent online is there was a
Speaker 2: bit of a different change in our business. I sort
Speaker 2: of lost the passion of actually working physically on boats,
Speaker 2: so we decided to actually manufacture and sell our own
Speaker 2: product online. So there was a number of different reasons,
Speaker 2: but that's the main reason. And obviously costs going up
Speaker 2: renting that sort of thing and business expenses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what inspire you to start your business.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we used to in our dealership days. We
Speaker 2: also did and also and aluminium fabricator by trade as well,
Speaker 2: so we'd always be custom making ladders for people to
Speaker 2: access the front of their boat. So we decided that
Speaker 2: there was no out of the box solution, so that
Speaker 2: was the main reason behind it. We thought, if we
Speaker 2: can make a product that becomes we can pull straight
Speaker 2: out of the box, bolt straight onto someone's trailer and
Speaker 2: they can actually bolt it on himself, we can sort
Speaker 2: of access all of Australia and instead of just servicing
Speaker 2: the warnable area. So it's worked really well, and we've
Speaker 2: always been interested in moving completely online anyway, it just
Speaker 2: seemed to be the perfect time. With brands expenses, all
Speaker 2: the business expenses moving upward, it seemed like the right
Speaker 2: time to do it. I used to design things do
Speaker 2: it completely by hand, so it was pretty much get
Speaker 2: a bit of aluminium and cut it down and make
Speaker 2: it work and do it on the fly. Whereas now
Speaker 2: we've invested into CAD technology, so everything now I design
Speaker 2: on the computer and now it's just the one out
Speaker 2: of the box solution, so we've only had to design
Speaker 2: it once we've made it so it fits multiple boats,
Speaker 2: so very rarely do we come across a time when
Speaker 2: it can't be installed to a boat. Happens every now
Speaker 2: and then, but I'd say not eighty to ninety percent
Speaker 2: of boats that goes on no problem. So being able
Speaker 2: to actually design it on the computer was a big
Speaker 2: factor in that, and actually bringing down the time it
Speaker 2: takes to make per box, I guess.
Speaker 1: Was the most rewarding part of being a small business owner.
Speaker 3: So probably well for me.
Speaker 4: We really like working together, so that's probably the most
Speaker 4: rewarding thing that we get to do this job together.
Speaker 4: We work really really well together, and we've both got
Speaker 4: a good way of bringing out our strengths and weaknesses,
Speaker 4: and yeah, we just work really well as a team,
Speaker 4: and I think that's a real advantage because we can
Speaker 4: come together when we need to take over things when
Speaker 4: the other one needs and problem solve a bit quicker,
Speaker 4: and we just really thrive.
Speaker 3: Off that sort of working team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Primarily I do a lot of the website side
Speaker 4: of things, branding, small the product development designing and all that,
Speaker 4: but we do know bits of each other so we
Speaker 4: can come together when we need or we need a
Speaker 4: hand or that. Primarily I do a lot of the
Speaker 4: marketing and that side of things. So I used to
Speaker 4: work at an accounting film so I did admin there.
Speaker 4: So on in the early days when we had the dealership,
Speaker 4: I'd tap my full time job there and then I
Speaker 4: would of a nighttime come and help Brandon like when
Speaker 4: I could. And then eventually it just got like there's
Speaker 4: so much work in a small business that people don't
Speaker 4: see behind the scenes, and it just got to that
Speaker 4: point where I needed to step in and help him, and.
Speaker 3: Then we built it from there.
Speaker 4: But we've always like, I've always loved the design aspect
Speaker 4: of websites and all that graphics of the design. I
Speaker 4: did a lot of that at school, so I think
Speaker 4: because I enjoyed that so much, it's been nice being
Speaker 4: able to sort of do that again and then learning
Speaker 4: things like we're writing to you know, picking up.
Speaker 3: Something we don't know. We love learning, so just learn
Speaker 3: along the way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I guess my take on it all is like,
Speaker 2: I guess we both want to know how to do
Speaker 2: everything overall at the moment because we have no choice.
Speaker 2: We're sort of at the moment where money poor, time rich,
Speaker 2: So we obviously just get in and learn everything. But
Speaker 2: hopefully down the track we can have experts doing the marketing,
Speaker 2: you know, their own segmented areas. But at the moment,
Speaker 2: I like to have a full overview of everything that's
Speaker 2: going on and be able to at least know how
Speaker 2: to half do things, which is really the only choice
Speaker 2: until we were able to go to that next level.
Speaker 1: What challenges have you faced as a small business owner
Speaker 1: and how do they impact your business? Did they affect
Speaker 1: your fan family members, did they affect your relationships?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so some of the challenges that we've got sort
Speaker 2: of two main challenges that we've had in our business
Speaker 2: that we can nu let down through. The two main challenges,
Speaker 2: one of them being landlords. We went through through and
Speaker 2: I'm sure everybody's got different opinions on this one, but
Speaker 2: some people have good ones, some people have bad one.
Speaker 2: We had a really bad one, which just caused us
Speaker 2: to spend so much time on the bad, on the
Speaker 2: bad landlord and sorting things out, whereas we would have
Speaker 2: loved to have been able to be spending that time
Speaker 2: in our business and you know, just servicing the boat.
Speaker 2: So that was one of the main sort of problems
Speaker 2: we had. Then we also there was another one you
Speaker 2: could probably touch on that one. You're all over this one.
Speaker 4: We had an insurance issue as well, which caused a
Speaker 4: lot of just und needed time and stress.
Speaker 3: Like you know, you sort of.
Speaker 4: Think because you spend so much money in insurance that
Speaker 4: you cover it and you do all the right things
Speaker 4: as a business owner and make sure that you're all
Speaker 4: over it, but when it comes time to claim, they
Speaker 4: seem to find every excuse to knock it back.
Speaker 3: And just with our experience with that and the amount of.
Speaker 4: Hours we've spent, we do feel that it is a
Speaker 4: broken system that it definitely needs looking at, because you know,
Speaker 4: just on our personal experience, I can't like imagine what
Speaker 4: other business owners go through.
Speaker 3: It's just ridiculous.
Speaker 2: And yeah, we've dealt with that insurance issue. We've dealt
Speaker 2: with a few government organizations over it, and they don't
Speaker 2: they don't help. There's nothing out there we're not We're
Speaker 2: not asking for any money or anything. I don't expect
Speaker 2: money for free, and I don't think most small businesses
Speaker 2: expect money for free. But just having something there that
Speaker 2: you can go to, like even just a website page
Speaker 2: where it's got all the information that that you're looking for,
Speaker 2: or someone to talk to that you can call on
Speaker 2: the phone and say, look, this is what we're having
Speaker 2: the problem with and they can give us a straight
Speaker 2: on at answer.
Speaker 4: Because they just handble you know, like you go to
Speaker 4: one place and they say one thing and go I'll
Speaker 4: go to there, and that's just you're just.
Speaker 3: Chasing your tail.
Speaker 2: As small business owners, we're very limited, as I said
Speaker 2: earlier on like without time. We want to we obviously
Speaker 2: are time rich, but we want to spend that time
Speaker 2: on areas in our business and that's what we need
Speaker 2: to do. Still, we're still working big ls. We don't
Speaker 2: want to be on the phone to some government organization.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you might spend a few hours on the phone
Speaker 2: to them and they just handball you to the next
Speaker 2: apartment and then you have to re explain yourself again.
Speaker 2: I just can't believe in twenty twenty five that you
Speaker 2: might go through ten different government departments and have to
Speaker 2: explain yourself every single time, Like, surely they can just
Speaker 2: use an email and have everything written out nice and easily,
Speaker 2: And we're not explaining ourselves too many times?
Speaker 1: And how did you overcome them?
Speaker 4: Both challenges are stressful they're stressful on yourself, on your relationship,
Speaker 4: but also you know you're working relationship as well, because
Speaker 4: you're constantly trying to grow and grow your business and
Speaker 4: do things. But you've always got that in the back
Speaker 4: of your mind that you're dealing with that, and it
Speaker 4: all takes, you know, time, and time's money in small business,
Speaker 4: like you don't have You've only got so many hours
Speaker 4: in a day, you know, when you're you know you're
Speaker 4: working at a shed and you know you've got interruptions
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 3: It can cause significant stress.
Speaker 4: And part of that with the insurance claim, you know,
Speaker 4: you don't really feel backed either, you know, so you think,
Speaker 4: like I said, you spend all the money and you
Speaker 4: think you're covered, but then when you need a bit
Speaker 4: of help from them, like they just basically just throw
Speaker 4: it out.
Speaker 3: And that's what's hard to because you just don't feel.
Speaker 4: You just don't feel back, and then you're not really
Speaker 4: fit in in your work because you think if something
Speaker 4: really bad happens, like what would happen in it and
Speaker 4: it just draws from everything. It's you know, stress and
Speaker 4: you know you sleep and then you're not eating right
Speaker 4: and you know, all those little things and people don't
Speaker 4: see that in small business.
Speaker 3: They just see the storefront and all that.
Speaker 4: But there's so much that goes on when there are
Speaker 4: challenges that people just yeah.
Speaker 2: And that was probably more when we're in the when
Speaker 2: we're in the dealership, we took things very hard, whereas
Speaker 2: it's taken us seven years now to actually learn to
Speaker 2: not really get too down and out about it. Now
Speaker 2: we we know we're going to have challenges. Now we
Speaker 2: actually say to each other's there's going to be challenges
Speaker 2: this year. Things are going to pop up, but we've
Speaker 2: just got to keep keep pushing forwards and really learn
Speaker 2: from our challenges. That's what we've learned to do with
Speaker 2: being in business for seven years. It's only now that
Speaker 2: we're just starting to learn. It might be our age too,
Speaker 2: we're starting to mature a little bit as well, but
Speaker 2: we're starting to learn that those things are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it is a good thing for challenges and
Speaker 3: that to come up in a business because you do learn.
Speaker 4: A lot from it, both you know personally and you
Speaker 4: know professionally. So it is good, you know, like we're
Speaker 4: sort of in the mindset that, all right, the challenge
Speaker 4: is going to come up. But as long as we
Speaker 4: can take something from it and learn from it. We
Speaker 4: said it as that sort of learning experience.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So as far as getting
Speaker 2: better with learning and getting better off in business, we've
Speaker 2: been down the rabbit hole of this at the moment
Speaker 2: with changing our life. We have completely changed our life
Speaker 2: around three sixty in the last six months since we
Speaker 2: closed our dealership and have moved completely online. Now we've
Speaker 2: got the time at home to actually sit down and
Speaker 2: learn a little bit more about business because we did
Speaker 2: get thrown into business to start with unexpectedly. We didn't.
Speaker 2: I never set out to be business owner. It just
Speaker 2: happened to happen to happen. So what we have been
Speaker 2: doing is actually jump it. We've been All we do
Speaker 2: at the moment one hundred percent is business learning. So
Speaker 2: whether it's watching TV at nighttime, we watch a lot
Speaker 2: of American TV, American business shows. You learn so much
Speaker 2: from those podcasts. All day, listen to podcasts like The
Speaker 2: mentor that, those sort of podcasts and let you just
Speaker 2: learned huge things from those people that have been there
Speaker 2: and done it and are actually successful. You learn so
Speaker 2: much from them and you can then go and implement
Speaker 2: that into your business and that has been absolutely huge
Speaker 2: for us.
Speaker 4: And just like a little thing that we started to
Speaker 4: do which is like not even business related, but just
Speaker 4: as simple as going for a walk along the beach
Speaker 4: in the morning just to like clean your hand and
Speaker 4: just have that you know, clear focus. We just find
Speaker 4: it's a really good way to start the day. And
Speaker 4: even like reading as well, fines. You know, you just
Speaker 4: hope take that hour out of your day just for yourself,
Speaker 4: and yeah, we find that really sets our day up
Speaker 4: really well.
Speaker 3: Just have a really good.
Speaker 2: Morning routine and self care too. Like we when we
Speaker 2: were running the dealership, I got up to a weight
Speaker 2: that I wasn't very happy with. So now I'm on
Speaker 2: the on the decline back to a healthy weight where
Speaker 2: I was when I started the business. So you just
Speaker 2: don't you run out of time when you work it hard,
Speaker 2: you run out of time to do those sort of things.
Speaker 2: But now I actually have made it my number one
Speaker 2: thing in the morning is to do the work on
Speaker 2: myself and during the day that's the number one thing
Speaker 2: that we both do. Yeah, so that's very important as well,
Speaker 2: because at the.
Speaker 4: End of the day, to be successful and have a
Speaker 4: good business, you yourself have to be firing as well.
Speaker 4: So everything that we do now, like we look at
Speaker 4: ourselves and then you know it all you compliments each.
Speaker 2: Other, and any of these people that have actually been
Speaker 2: successful that we are listening to now and taking their advice,
Speaker 2: if you really dive into them and look into who
Speaker 2: they are and how they go about it, they all
Speaker 2: seem to be very big and I know Mark is
Speaker 2: very big on it looking after himself, and you can
Speaker 2: just tell by looking at them that they look after themselves. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And when we were at the point when things weren't
Speaker 2: when we were just very busy and it was we'd
Speaker 2: just sort of grind through it. So there was no
Speaker 2: real I guess we just that we felt terrible, we
Speaker 2: looked terrible, everything was. We weren't really completely enjoying it.
Speaker 2: So we'd just go to work and grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind,
Speaker 2: go through and just really not achieved too much. Because
Speaker 2: when you're not looking after yourself and when you're not
Speaker 2: doing the right things, you just don't really achieve as
Speaker 2: much as what you do is when you are doing
Speaker 2: the right thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And like you just when you know, day in
Speaker 4: day out, it's just a daily grind. You're not thinking
Speaker 4: because all you're worried about is the next job or
Speaker 4: the next bill that's coming up for you know, to
Speaker 4: pay or whatever, So you're not thinking about anything else.
Speaker 4: But that So until we sort of like we've reset
Speaker 4: and you know, started this new business Vanisher, we've sort
Speaker 4: of been able to sort of lay everything out and
Speaker 4: really prioritize what our priorities are in business and in
Speaker 4: personal life as well. And I think that's really helped
Speaker 4: because until you're out of that space, then you can
Speaker 4: actually think clearly and it all just follows, or else
Speaker 4: your brain just feels from you like you just don't
Speaker 4: you're not thinking straight.
Speaker 3: You're just too worried about the next thing.
Speaker 1: How's your business doing right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So at the moment, we are in a bit
Speaker 2: of a transitioning stage, so it's almost like we're starting
Speaker 2: up a new business, but we are putting those things
Speaker 2: in place that we wish we had to put in
Speaker 2: place when we had first started our first sort of
Speaker 2: venture with the dealership. I think that we would have
Speaker 2: been much better off and done a lot better out
Speaker 2: of it. But now we are starting to put those
Speaker 2: small things in and we do find that I can
Speaker 2: see things going upwards from him, and.
Speaker 4: I think too, like we're more open to letting jobs
Speaker 4: eventually go as well. Like back in the days when
Speaker 4: we did have the dealership, we wanted to do every job,
Speaker 4: you know, we didn't want to put stuff on you know,
Speaker 4: we could do it all, whereas now we're more open
Speaker 4: to getting you know, investing in programs and that that
Speaker 4: can make it make your job easier. And just to
Speaker 4: know that you can't do everything, but you know you
Speaker 4: can be good that you can't you can't do everything,
Speaker 4: yeah yeah, not forever, yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: And you do.
Speaker 1: How confident are you in Australian government's ability to support
Speaker 1: small businesses effectively?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So.
Speaker 2: Our biggest thing as far as how confident I am
Speaker 2: in the Australian government supporting small business, I've got absolutely
Speaker 2: zero confidence in it. Keep in mind, though, we are
Speaker 2: very positive people, and that's one of our biggest things
Speaker 2: we've wanted to change around. But I'm going to be
Speaker 2: a little bit negative at the moment, but zero confidence.
Speaker 2: They always seem to be when you turn on the
Speaker 2: news and you look at the TV, it seems like
Speaker 2: they're always supporting you know, all these other types of things,
Speaker 2: but we get absolutely completely overlooked. We can't even call
Speaker 2: and get a simple answer about a question without being
Speaker 2: handed handballed around all the time. It seems like many
Speaker 2: small business owners, it seems like with the research I've done,
Speaker 2: they just want to do good for their community and
Speaker 2: good for their you know, whatever their target market is.
Speaker 2: But yet the government that just seems to treat small
Speaker 2: businesses as the enemy and not speaking about us, but
Speaker 2: speaking about people that there's small businesses that employ people,
Speaker 2: which we deal with a lot of them. They're all
Speaker 2: good people. They're supporting you know, the postman, they're supporting
Speaker 2: their staff, all those sorts of things. But they just
Speaker 2: don't seem to do enough for those sorts of businesses,
Speaker 2: which is a real shame. It does seem when you
Speaker 2: do a little bit of research on government websites and
Speaker 2: government grants and that sort of thing, that if you
Speaker 2: do fit into a specific minority or category, it does
Speaker 2: seem like there's a few grants in that available, But
Speaker 2: for the everyday person, it just doesn't. For the overday
Speaker 2: business owner, Sorry, it just doesn't seem to be there.
Speaker 4: I guess, yeah, yeah, it's just everything, even like little
Speaker 4: things like we went to the bank not that long ago,
Speaker 4: just about it's something to do with business, and even
Speaker 4: to get anything out of them at the moment, it's
Speaker 4: just painful.
Speaker 3: It's just a long winded thing. And it's you know,
Speaker 3: it's like.
Speaker 4: What Mark Morris and you know you guys are sort
Speaker 4: of doing with this podcast if you're giving small businesses
Speaker 4: a platform to sort of stand up and you know,
Speaker 4: say how they feel and giving them an opportunity of
Speaker 4: foreign voice, because that's what small business needs, Like we
Speaker 4: need to be you know, talking to people that actually
Speaker 4: have run businesses and are actually they're not people that
Speaker 4: you know, just assume that they they know and like well,
Speaker 4: and we've always liked that about Mark Morris is we
Speaker 4: feel that, you know, he does a lot for small business.
Speaker 3: So it's good to have an opportunity just to yeah,
Speaker 3: sort of have a voice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, we are in the process of looking
Speaker 2: at what it costs to get our product made in China,
Speaker 2: and I've got multiple quotes from Chinese companies on how
Speaker 2: much it costs to have it in a box done
Speaker 2: and we can just send it and that will allow
Speaker 2: us more access to different parts of the world if
Speaker 2: we want to go that way, so we are already
Speaker 2: in the talks of it. I would much rather keep
Speaker 2: it here though, because I love walking in the door
Speaker 2: of you know, someone who cuts the material for us
Speaker 2: and looking them in the eye, and you know, knowing
Speaker 2: that our money is going towards them, the post people.
Speaker 2: It all goes, It all filters through, but at the moment,
Speaker 2: if we don't have any support. Sometimes I think a
Speaker 2: lot of businesses and even listening to him last week
Speaker 2: on the podcast, he was mentioned in his sort of
Speaker 2: product that he could easily and looking at the product,
Speaker 2: he could easily go and get it done somewhere else
Speaker 2: and you know, potentially maybe make more money or be
Speaker 2: better off, or you know, his life might end up better.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I definitely think it's on the cards for
Speaker 2: a lot of business, isn't it. It's scary to think
Speaker 2: of what that filters down. We need to remember that
Speaker 2: all these people that are employed by the business have families.
Speaker 2: You know, they have their house at home that they're
Speaker 2: paying for. Yeah, and I don't think there's enough large
Speaker 2: companies that are going to employ all these people that
Speaker 2: might be out of jobs, out of businesses if it
Speaker 2: was to go that way, which is a real shame.
Speaker 2: So it definitely pushes us towards yet looking at other options.
Speaker 2: Even just a small thing of an insurance problem that happens, well,
Speaker 2: I can just eliminate that whole problem and go get
Speaker 2: it done in China and I won't need that manufacturing insurance.
Speaker 2: So that is definitely a thing that we can do
Speaker 2: that will make it a lot easier. But once again,
Speaker 2: I think most small business people and like us, we
Speaker 2: think we're good people. Like we like to we like
Speaker 2: to do business on a personal level, we like to
Speaker 2: sort out problems nice and easy, and we all love Australia.
Speaker 2: Like Australia is the best country going around. So yeah,
Speaker 2: why wouldn't we want to build our own product here.
Speaker 2: We've got a lot of smart people here. There's no
Speaker 2: reason why we can't keep going and keep doing it.
Speaker 2: But we need that input from the government to help
Speaker 2: us out. I don't think that. I don't think every
Speaker 2: small business he's expecting the government to come around and
Speaker 2: give everybody a million dollars in each That's not what
Speaker 2: they're saying. Just something, even if it's you know, it
Speaker 2: just needs to be a little bit more than what
Speaker 2: they're doing, because they're doing absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1: If you'd advise your trained government on one action to
Speaker 1: take to better support small businesses, what would it be.
Speaker 2: So as far as one action for me, my number
Speaker 2: one thing would be make it the grants more accessible overall.
Speaker 2: So don't, yeah, don't put that grant just to one
Speaker 2: category of person. We need to stop segregating each other
Speaker 2: and separating each other. I guess why wouldn't that just
Speaker 2: be one grant for all businesses to oral businesses of
Speaker 2: a certain size to apply for, or you shouldn't have
Speaker 2: to tick the box on it's very hard to We've
Speaker 2: looked into that for a few things we've wanted to do,
Speaker 2: and it's never going to suit our situation. I guess
Speaker 2: that's what I feel like. And one thing that they
Speaker 2: could do is we do it with everything else. Look
Speaker 2: at how America supports small businesses. As I said, we
Speaker 2: watch a lot of American business TV, and obviously they're
Speaker 2: a lot further advanced than us, and they're a bigger
Speaker 2: country and that sort of thing. They could really look
Speaker 2: at what they do over there and implement that over here.
Speaker 2: They seem to have a lot of support and business
Speaker 2: communities over there, so I guess that's probably pretty easy.
Speaker 2: Just and yeah, they seem to be the American way
Speaker 2: seems to be encouraged of doing business, whereas over here,
Speaker 2: I guess it feels like you're not really encouraged. It
Speaker 2: feels like we're not wanted. It's almost like we don't
Speaker 2: want you to go and work for a big corporation
Speaker 2: or something like that. That's what it feels like. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what a bit, and probably.
Speaker 4: Just have small support in the early days, like just
Speaker 4: touching on our own experience and the challenges that we're based.
Speaker 4: There's no real guidance for starting a small business. And
Speaker 4: then when issues do come up and you're sort of
Speaker 4: doing the research out there, nothing really comes up. You've
Speaker 4: just sort of got to figure it out yourself and
Speaker 4: take your own path.
Speaker 3: And like we said.
Speaker 4: Before, now you know, we're only just starting to make
Speaker 4: smart business decisions. But if we had the support at
Speaker 4: the start and more resources at the start, we feel
Speaker 4: that that would be fast trapped.
Speaker 3: Just yeah, I have more support, Yeah, just for.
Speaker 4: People really because they want to do good, like the
Speaker 4: only you know, want a better better themselves and better
Speaker 4: the community.
Speaker 2: So as far as us being in Victoria, if they
Speaker 2: had once every six months or once every year, they
Speaker 2: had a small business ex bowl or seminar in Melbourne
Speaker 2: where everybody from Victoria got invited and it was up
Speaker 2: to you whether you want to go or not, and
Speaker 2: they had a list of speakers or you know, some
Speaker 2: stalls with guidance and that sort of thing there. I
Speaker 2: reckon that would go really well. We've actually been to
Speaker 2: a few private events with that sort of thing and
Speaker 2: we got stuff talking to Like there was a lady
Speaker 2: beside I think she was a hairdresser or something like that.
Speaker 2: She had some good tips that we implement, like we're
Speaker 2: in a manufacturing business and online we implement men and
Speaker 2: some things that she said, and then there was a
Speaker 2: few things that she was like, oh that's good that
Speaker 2: what we said as well.
Speaker 4: So and you sort of it gives you the opportunity
Speaker 4: to be in a space with people that are like
Speaker 4: minded like you, and you can talk more and ask
Speaker 4: questions to those sort of people because they can what
Speaker 4: am I try to like, They've got their own experiences,
Speaker 4: so when you're talking to them, you sort of know
Speaker 4: them on a different sort of level.
Speaker 3: So I think bringing something like that.
Speaker 4: In would be a really good opportunity for any point
Speaker 4: of business, whether you're starting or you're a bit more established,
Speaker 4: or you might be a ten twenty year old business,
Speaker 4: just having somewhere where you can go because you just
Speaker 4: you can learn something every day, like there's always something
Speaker 4: you can change or do better.
Speaker 2: And that's always a lot of a lot of these
Speaker 2: big business leaders advice seems to be get out network
Speaker 2: with other business people. So that seems to be something
Speaker 2: that we want to do more of. So if there
Speaker 2: was something that the government had set up that you
Speaker 2: could go Melbourne, it was at the Exhibition Center or whatever,
Speaker 2: and wherever it happened to be, yeah, we'd be the
Speaker 2: first there, and I'm sure there'd be a list to
Speaker 2: follow that would that would be there as well. So
Speaker 2: it'd be definitely very recommended and we all know the
Speaker 2: fundings there for it. They just need to implement it
Speaker 2: and put some heads together and make it happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One phrase that I heard someone say, which is sort
Speaker 2: of stuck with me, but when if you're going if
Speaker 2: you want to learn how to play tennis, you don't
Speaker 2: go and ask Novak Djokovic how to play tennis because
Speaker 2: you don't have access to them, So you go to
Speaker 2: your local tennis coach and ask how to play tennis.
Speaker 2: So I guess that's one thing that you go to
Speaker 2: other businesses. They're probably all on the same level as
Speaker 2: you or above you by a little bit. But if
Speaker 2: you're around like minded people. Because it is hard, you
Speaker 2: might talk to people that aren't in business and they
Speaker 2: just don't quite get it. It's nothing against anybody, but
Speaker 2: they just don't get the challenges that happen. You talk
Speaker 2: to someone that might have a little hairdressing shop or
Speaker 2: a little gift shop or something like that, they understand
Speaker 2: exactly what you're talking about when you talk about it.
Speaker 1: What is the one thing you wish more people knew
Speaker 1: about your business? Where can people find you and your business?
Speaker 1: Let us know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so one thing I wish people knew more about
Speaker 2: our business is our pricing is exactly where it needs
Speaker 2: to be to be for the business to be viable.
Speaker 2: I guess a lot of people seem to get the
Speaker 2: same thing. You know, you have your product on Facebook
Speaker 2: and you get all the ad coments of you ripping
Speaker 2: people off, but we're not ripping people off our Yes,
Speaker 2: our product is a high ticket item, but once it's sold,
Speaker 2: the profit profit market argin, after you've paid for customer acquisition,
Speaker 2: all those sorts of things, is exactly where it is.
Speaker 2: Where it's a great product. It's a well thought out product.
Speaker 2: It's a product that we warrant it for five years.
Speaker 2: Once you bolded on the front of your trailer, it's done.
Speaker 2: It's there forever. So it's something that you can have forever.
Speaker 4: And people like, they don't see the costs behind the
Speaker 4: product too, Like, it's not just a product. There's materials,
Speaker 4: there's way, there's marketing, customer acquisition costs as well. Business
Speaker 4: owners don't just put high prices for fun. They're just
Speaker 4: covering their own costs and trying to stay sustainable. And
Speaker 4: this is not so much for our business as such,
Speaker 4: but just business in general.
Speaker 3: I think more people it'd be putting more people understood.
Speaker 4: That running a business isn't just selling a product, managing
Speaker 4: so many things and wearing so many hats, and there's
Speaker 4: constant stress that comes.
Speaker 3: With that, and people don't see that.
Speaker 4: They just see the end result and just think that,
Speaker 4: you know, you're making all this money, but it's far
Speaker 4: from the truth.
Speaker 2: Yes, Our website is www dot steps dot com. You
Speaker 2: can visit our website and jump on there and have
Speaker 2: a look. If you need a hand or have any questions,
Speaker 2: just use the live chat down in the bottom right
Speaker 2: end corner and we'll get back to you and we'd
Speaker 2: be happy to connect yet