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, slamp all, guys, is the name of our business.
Speaker 1: And in simple terms, what does your business do?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So we designed a manufacturer piece of fitness equipment
Speaker 2: that pretty much allows people that have got mobility issues
Speaker 2: to be able to squad and do low leg exercises.
Speaker 2: You know, it just it just helps them. So people
Speaker 2: that have got imbalances in their ankles, hips and knees
Speaker 2: alleviate that and lets them allow allows them to do
Speaker 2: exercises benefit their lower legs.
Speaker 1: And what inspired you to start your business?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So the short story behind the whole business is
Speaker 2: that I actually broke my ankle when I was eleven,
Speaker 2: can't really, couldn't really squat, suffered a lot of lower
Speaker 2: back pain because I wasn't working out my legs, so
Speaker 2: my legs were really weak. Went to a fitness camp
Speaker 2: in twenty and eighteen nineteen and there was only five
Speaker 2: of us there. Everyone else could squat. I couldn't. Five
Speaker 2: day camp and they said put some timbers undneath my feet,
Speaker 2: which I did, and I'd seen people doing it, you
Speaker 2: know at the gym, putting weights underneath their feet. But
Speaker 2: when I left the camp, I was just a chippy
Speaker 2: by trade. I said, I could probably go back to
Speaker 2: work and just build something nice offer when people come
Speaker 2: to the camp, they can actually stand on something built. One.
Speaker 2: Gave it to that guy. The other two three pts
Speaker 2: that were at the course asked for one, built them
Speaker 2: one and they shared it. I didn't have any social
Speaker 2: media or anything. They shared it online and it just
Speaker 2: went viral over in America. So kind of quit my job.
Speaker 2: So it was never small business was never really the
Speaker 2: plan for us. Just I just I was in construction
Speaker 2: for probably fifteen twenty years and then yeah, finally quit
Speaker 2: my job and went into this full time, and now
Speaker 2: we sell the product from here on the Gold Coast worldwide.
Speaker 2: I think there's still that stigma around that, you know,
Speaker 2: that it's so risky to go out and start your
Speaker 2: own business and kind of give up on everything and
Speaker 2: just start that. So I think, yeah, there'd be a
Speaker 2: huge percentage of small businesses that are around that people
Speaker 2: kind of like just stumble across the idea why they're
Speaker 2: still doing their nine to five or their typical job,
Speaker 2: and then find their passion for it. And I think
Speaker 2: once you get started, I think I'd find it very
Speaker 2: hard to go back to a nine to five. Now,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, I would if I had to,
Speaker 2: But you'd probably start another business or give something else
Speaker 2: another crack. So it's definitely different. We get these stories
Speaker 2: of people that are forty fifty sixty and just like, oh,
Speaker 2: thank you so much, Like this this has changed my life.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't think that something so simple want change my life.
Speaker 2: And that's the rewarding bit for me, you know, like
Speaker 2: as calls is to go, oh yeah, Lebron James or
Speaker 2: whoever they are in the NFL, whatever it is, Well,
Speaker 2: that's really cool, and we get to meet some of them.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's just really rewarding to
Speaker 2: know that someone down the street or just the everyday
Speaker 2: person benefited by using our product.
Speaker 1: What's the most rewarding part of being a small business owner.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's just the reverse of them challenges,
Speaker 2: Like you know, you're faced with We're on a multinational
Speaker 2: corporation that have got like people for every position, so
Speaker 2: it's just like you've got to kind of wear every
Speaker 2: single hat and every day there's problems. Like there's not
Speaker 2: a day that there's not a problem, but it's super
Speaker 2: rewarding to walk out here at the end of the
Speaker 2: day and just go, Okay, we come up with a
Speaker 2: solution for that, right Like as now, they like you
Speaker 2: learn that mentality that like whatever comes your way, it
Speaker 2: might be hard, might be really difficult, but like, no
Speaker 2: matter what I think, as a small business entrepreneur, you
Speaker 2: kind of just find your way through it and find
Speaker 2: a way of dealing with it and like getting an
Speaker 2: answer or which is really good. What I say is
Speaker 2: that like for every problem we come across that we fix,
Speaker 2: it's actually benefits us in the long run because we
Speaker 2: come across it again and we know where we've got
Speaker 2: to go or we've got to do. So that's kind
Speaker 2: of I don't know if that answers your question one
Speaker 2: hundred percent, but it's just like that's what I find
Speaker 2: most rewarding. Anyways, we hit with so many challenges every
Speaker 2: single day, but to be able to do what we
Speaker 2: do and then think that I don't know that we're
Speaker 2: just a husband and wife team on the Gold Coast
Speaker 2: that have supplied you know, probably up to eighty thousand
Speaker 2: boards now all around the world in some of the
Speaker 2: biggest sporting clubs in the world. I don't know, it's
Speaker 2: a pretty pretty decent achievement.
Speaker 1: What is one thing you wish you knew before you
Speaker 1: even started your business.
Speaker 2: I think what everyone sees is everyone sees the good
Speaker 2: times behind small business, You're right, but they don't see
Speaker 2: all the stress. It's just myself and my wife that
Speaker 2: run the business. We live it and breathe it every
Speaker 2: single day. And then even because it is based a
Speaker 2: lot of it's based in the US, so like we
Speaker 2: work out nine five here, but then we go and
Speaker 2: do a nine to five America kicks off. Then we're
Speaker 2: in America doing what we're supposed to be doing in America. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so there's no kind of like real switch off for us.
Speaker 2: And I guess people don't see all that. So it's
Speaker 2: just like, while you can be walking around the job site,
Speaker 2: think and I should just invent this. If it was easy,
Speaker 2: I think like a lot more people be doing it.
Speaker 2: But it's super super hard run and running a small business.
Speaker 2: The stress is stresses right there. I like working for myself.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, when you're doing nine to five,
Speaker 2: you can kind of finish your job, switch off, go home,
Speaker 2: have time when you've got your own business, doesn't it
Speaker 2: doesn't really work that way.
Speaker 1: Where was your business founded and where is it located?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, so originally I was in Sydney when I
Speaker 2: built the very first board, but then we redicated from
Speaker 2: Brisbane to the Gold Cut from Sydney to the Gold
Speaker 2: Coast and then yeah, we actually manufacture everything here on
Speaker 2: the Gold Coast, fill up shipping containers and then send it.
Speaker 2: We're going to warehouse in Ohio. We would distribute all
Speaker 2: of America from Ohio. So we've got a warehouse here
Speaker 2: distributes Australia and New Zealand and kind of the rest
Speaker 2: of the world here and then America for itself. But yeah,
Speaker 2: everything's manufactured and putting containers and filled up from here.
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 family members, did they affect your relationships?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I guess when you start small business, everyone wants
Speaker 2: to be busy, right. We start the business because we
Speaker 2: think we're going to make money and we want to
Speaker 2: make money to survive. The biggest, biggest thing that kind
Speaker 2: of surprised us and shocked us is that we grew
Speaker 2: so quick. It was kind of probably detrimental to the business.
Speaker 2: You know. And obviously, like I said, if people go, oh,
Speaker 2: if you get you know, five hundred sALS a day,
Speaker 2: you'd love it, and it's like, yeah, we would. But
Speaker 2: if you're not actually set up for that and your
Speaker 2: business is too young in the early stages, it can
Speaker 2: be detrimental and it can affect your business. So we
Speaker 2: kind of you know, when we first come on board,
Speaker 2: we started the business. In the first month, we went okay,
Speaker 2: And the second and third month, you know, we're doing like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, in excess of three hundred and three
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand a month, and we didn't even
Speaker 2: have a warehouse. We're doing it on our garage out
Speaker 2: in the front of our house, on our driveway. So
Speaker 2: it was like we didn't have machines that we'll cut
Speaker 2: all the timber, but my handcut. So we got to
Speaker 2: like two thousand, just over two thousand orders behind. So
Speaker 2: then you know, a lot a lot of pressure come
Speaker 2: from that because then you know, people going where's my staff?
Speaker 2: I ordered it, and again we didn't. We didn't know boxing,
Speaker 2: we didn't know shipping, we did we didn't know any
Speaker 2: of that stuff. So I guess when the surprise was like,
Speaker 2: we wanted it to be so busy and grow, but
Speaker 2: now when you look back at it, it'd be good
Speaker 2: to we just have lots of substantial growth, you know,
Speaker 2: that you could actually maintain and then just work towards
Speaker 2: you know, because after that growth, we had to go
Speaker 2: out and buy machinery, we had to have extra stuff,
Speaker 2: we had to have extra warehouses. So we did all that,
Speaker 2: and then as soon as you have a little bit
Speaker 2: of down downturn, then it's just like, well what do
Speaker 2: you do? Do you keep? Do you keep with stuff?
Speaker 2: So it was just it was kind of that was
Speaker 2: the biggest surprise to us, I'd say. I mean, don't
Speaker 2: get me wrong, everyone wants to be busy, and it is.
Speaker 2: It's a good hype, but at the same stage, if
Speaker 2: you're not set up for it, then it can be
Speaker 2: just as detrimental or it could theoretically make business fail.
Speaker 2: So that'd probably be the biggest biggest lesson we've had
Speaker 2: to them. Us is like a little bit challenging in
Speaker 2: a way because we manufacture also, so we're not just
Speaker 2: purely and solely e commerce important from overseas and then
Speaker 2: on selling we manufacture. So the biggest biggest challenge for
Speaker 2: us is has been everything in Australia in the last
Speaker 2: since we started the business has become so expensive, like
Speaker 2: our materials increased thirty thirty five percent. This is something
Speaker 2: that we can't pass on to the end user, right,
Speaker 2: So it's just like you've got to find and that's
Speaker 2: why I said about every day you're trying to find chat.
Speaker 2: There's new challenges, but we've got to find different ways
Speaker 2: that we can, you know, make the business sustainable day
Speaker 2: in day out. And I think I'll probably make it
Speaker 2: a little bit harder on myself because I've always wanted
Speaker 2: to keep manufacturing in a Astralia just because I think,
Speaker 2: you know, you see that we see our careers every day,
Speaker 2: they've got their own small business picking up our parcels.
Speaker 2: I touched on it a little bit on our first
Speaker 2: time we talked. But it's like our own little ecosystem,
Speaker 2: and I think people don't realize what that ecosystem supports
Speaker 2: further up the network, but what I do find is
Speaker 2: that we kind of feel like the middleman. So our
Speaker 2: supplies still they every time they get a price increases,
Speaker 2: just gets passed on to us, right, so they're still
Speaker 2: making their own margin, but our margin just gets chewed up,
Speaker 2: tued up and tewed up, and you've got to find
Speaker 2: different ways to be able to navigate that. So that's
Speaker 2: probably one of the biggest challenges that we come across.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't, Yeah it is. It's the biggest
Speaker 2: change because our price hasn't gone up, right in four years,
Speaker 2: So there's not many businesses that would still be around
Speaker 2: that their price hasn't gone up in four years. But
Speaker 2: it's only through ways that we make the product less
Speaker 2: people want efficient or effective ways that we can do it.
Speaker 2: That we've been able to survive. So that's the most
Speaker 2: challenging part, i'd say being in Australia, and that's to
Speaker 2: keep manufacturing here. The easy solution would be to take
Speaker 2: everything overseas important from overseas, not have a warehouse, drop
Speaker 2: shit the product. You could do that, but at the
Speaker 2: same time it's it's not really what sits close to
Speaker 2: my heart, So I don't know. Some people might watch
Speaker 2: this and just say he's a little bit silly, but
Speaker 2: it's just it's just what resonates with me. And again,
Speaker 2: you know, we suffer a team who come on board
Speaker 2: and team who will selling stuff for like five and
Speaker 2: ten dollars, and yet all these people at write comments too,
Speaker 2: so you've got to deal with that every day. But
Speaker 2: at the same time, it's just like, well, you've just
Speaker 2: got to stay true to your vision and that's what
Speaker 2: our vision.
Speaker 1: Is, and how did you overcome them.
Speaker 2: A couple of the things we've been doing is like
Speaker 2: we've been actually for us because we manufactured. We we
Speaker 2: buy the raw material and then we're going to make
Speaker 2: the board, right, so by the time we get it in,
Speaker 2: it's probably about four to six weeks before we actually
Speaker 2: make all the stuff to then onsell it. So we've
Speaker 2: been talking to a couple of our supplies and lucky
Speaker 2: we've got good relationships with them where we can have
Speaker 2: accounts and like you know, thirty sixty day accounts, so
Speaker 2: at least we could kind of like get the stuff in,
Speaker 2: build it and start selling it before you know that
Speaker 2: money goes back out of the business. Just it's just
Speaker 2: cash flow, right, doesn't end up helping your top end margin,
Speaker 2: but at the same time just maintains cash flow. So
Speaker 2: that's been you know, that's been a pretty positive thing.
Speaker 2: That's been able to help us again being able to
Speaker 2: make it more effectively and efficiently with our CNC machine
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. So but again you've got to
Speaker 2: invest in new machines to be able to do that,
Speaker 2: So it takes a year or two before you start
Speaker 2: seeing that change. But the last thing, and the most
Speaker 2: concerning thing is is that if it continues to go
Speaker 2: the way it goes, then there's two options, and it
Speaker 2: will be to you know, to not have the business anymore,
Speaker 2: or to move the business overseas, which, like I said
Speaker 2: to you before, is something that I don't want to do.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, it's just I
Speaker 2: just find it's an going issue over here because you know,
Speaker 2: wages that we have to pay, you know, are super
Speaker 2: high compared to other places in the world. And I'll
Speaker 2: get it because cost of living. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: it's just like this constant squeezed and I feel like
Speaker 2: small business is just in the middle and everyone else
Speaker 2: is just making their margin doing what they want to do.
Speaker 2: People come in to work, and they've got to get
Speaker 2: paid their wages. They've got to pay their wages, and
Speaker 2: then whatever's left in the middle is just you, you know,
Speaker 2: and deal with it.
Speaker 1: How confident are you in this training government's ability to
Speaker 1: support small businesses effectively?
Speaker 2: I got my wife in the background laughing, I should
Speaker 2: be blake, I'll be blatant. Honestly, I'm not. Like, I
Speaker 2: just don't think they I just don't think they get
Speaker 2: the pictu up, to be honest, I was trying to
Speaker 2: look up some statistics before I jumped on today. But
Speaker 2: I have seen it in the media and I have
Speaker 2: seen it like online. But I think the amount of
Speaker 2: small businesses shutting each week at the moment is like phenomenal,
Speaker 2: like it'd be so high and that's ridiculous. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, there's no support there, Like there is
Speaker 2: literally none. You know, we're a profitable business, but even
Speaker 2: for us to go to a bank and to do
Speaker 2: some lending, like the amount of loops like and everything
Speaker 2: you have to jump through is phenomenal, Like it is crazy,
Speaker 2: and it's just like it's nearly almost like you can't
Speaker 2: be making one hundred or two hundred thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2: You've got to be making ten million for them to
Speaker 2: lend to you or nothing. There's no in between. That's
Speaker 2: how I feel at the moment, and it's just yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's really deflating. So like to answer
Speaker 2: your question zero, like I just do not think this
Speaker 2: government is interested in helping small business. And that might
Speaker 2: come across I don't know, you might might get a
Speaker 2: few people that don't like that opinion. That's just me
Speaker 2: being in the position that I am. I just can't
Speaker 2: handle it. It just annoys me a lot. I think
Speaker 2: they should needs to be like a lot more funding,
Speaker 2: a lot more assistance, like government grants, Like we're manufacturing
Speaker 2: in Australia, sending like thousands of products overseas. We should
Speaker 2: be getting like there should be government grants like well,
Speaker 2: we're keeping the work in Australia, like small businesses like
Speaker 2: running like giving so many people jobs. It's employing so
Speaker 2: many people. But we're never like you know, all these
Speaker 2: old multinational companies and I don't know that they have
Speaker 2: all the people in place for assistance where they know
Speaker 2: they can go and get grants and they know they
Speaker 2: can get this funding and they know that there's you know,
Speaker 2: the Australian Government's going to do this for people that
Speaker 2: are earning so much money. But it's just like a
Speaker 2: small business, it feels like there's nothing out there for us.
Speaker 2: Like I know there's like little bits and pieces, but
Speaker 2: are talking about you know. Like I said, I just
Speaker 2: get passionate about it because it's like the easy thing
Speaker 2: for me to fly over to China, get my stuff
Speaker 2: made in China, flight over here and sell it. But
Speaker 2: at the same time, like we should be doing it
Speaker 2: and keeping it here. But it's just the cost is
Speaker 2: blown out, so like you either got to make a
Speaker 2: decision to survive or just to stop. It's more than
Speaker 2: obvious as I mean, there's just nothing there, you know.
Speaker 2: And that's that's what I say. Is like when times
Speaker 2: are good, you know, and this is they're so frustrating,
Speaker 2: but it's just like they've got to pay yoursue, but
Speaker 2: you've got to pay this, you've got to pay that,
Speaker 2: like and you continue to pay all that, right, but
Speaker 2: then at the same time when times are tough, there's
Speaker 2: no assistance there to get you through. Like we just
Speaker 2: had we just had a really close friends kind of
Speaker 2: started business the same time as us, in the same
Speaker 2: niche exploded went really really well, I lost everything. They
Speaker 2: shut down at the end of last year and lost everything.
Speaker 2: And it's just like it might have just been like
Speaker 2: we're some some kind of assistance where I believe the
Speaker 2: government should have some kind of assistance package for small
Speaker 2: business to say, okay, like let's jump in and help
Speaker 2: you guys and then get you through this tough period
Speaker 2: and then you know, further down the line like this
Speaker 2: whatever the plan is. But it was just like, okay,
Speaker 2: we can come in and help you survive. Now we're
Speaker 2: going to put a plan in place, and it needs
Speaker 2: to be X, Y and z, so then however we
Speaker 2: help you is then paid off in whatever amount of years.
Speaker 2: But it gets you through just that hard period, just
Speaker 2: gets you through that that little hard period that you
Speaker 2: need because it could be the matter of a business
Speaker 2: survivan or a business just just disappearing. And it's not
Speaker 2: I look at my friend's business and just go, that's fine.
Speaker 2: He had a wife, two kids, a couple of employees,
Speaker 2: so that's five or six people that it's affected directly.
Speaker 2: But then you look on top of that, it's just
Speaker 2: like the courier that picked up your stuff. The people
Speaker 2: that supplied their boxes, like that small business that no
Speaker 2: one really ever thinks about or the government doesn't really
Speaker 2: care about because there are any turnover two three million
Speaker 2: dollars a year, it's not significant to them. Really supports
Speaker 2: fifteen to twenty people, you know, and directly then five
Speaker 2: or six people don't have a job in the stress
Speaker 2: and everything like that. But secondly it's like the couriers
Speaker 2: and all that. It might only be one hundred dollars,
Speaker 2: but that's like one hundred dollars a day, that a
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars a week that they don't have anymore,
Speaker 2: that they've got to find somewhere else. So cooks very
Speaker 2: very quickly, and we speak to the couriers that are
Speaker 2: picking up, you know, and you just go from a
Speaker 2: year year and a half ago to having full vans
Speaker 2: and doing like two runs a day to like picking
Speaker 2: up and some days their vans are half empty, right,
Speaker 2: And it's just like, so who supports all that? And
Speaker 2: it's just like, well, it's because all the small business,
Speaker 2: all the multinational companies and the ones that are big,
Speaker 2: they don't really care. They'll go to Australia Post and
Speaker 2: do it will do with a straight post or whatever
Speaker 2: courier service they do, and it's not really available to
Speaker 2: the career that owns the run because the deal is
Speaker 2: done in the background of oh, you'll get thirty cents
Speaker 2: a pass or whatever. It's all the small business that
Speaker 2: don't get to have them big deals that actually pay
Speaker 2: two dollars or three dollars a pass or whatever it
Speaker 2: is that that career makes. It actually makes the career money.
Speaker 2: So I just I get frustrated that there's there is
Speaker 2: no support and it should be you know, we do
Speaker 2: everything for three or four years and everything's by the
Speaker 2: book and you're paying taxes and you do everything, and
Speaker 2: then the one time that things are tough, there's no
Speaker 2: support that it's just like go with clothes business, you know,
Speaker 2: because you don't have family behind you or anyone behind
Speaker 2: you with a bit of money that can ride the
Speaker 2: cash flow. And then your business first and foremost is
Speaker 2: like our family, right, like we work hard and the
Speaker 2: business is there to support our family. But then like
Speaker 2: people that work for us, they've got families, so like
Speaker 2: you feel pressure there because you know they've got kids.
Speaker 2: Who's just like, well, if I just go and shut
Speaker 2: the door tomorrow, Like, yeah, okay, I can go and
Speaker 2: get a job on a construction site. But then what
Speaker 2: happens to everyone else? And then it goes on to
Speaker 2: you know, whoever else makes money like off our business,
Speaker 2: like I said, the poorers and stuff. But you know,
Speaker 2: the other thing becomes when you're in a small business
Speaker 2: is like like how long do you ride it? Like,
Speaker 2: you know, we've only been in business four years and
Speaker 2: we had some good years and the last year and
Speaker 2: a half's been super super tough and find ways to
Speaker 2: make it work. But at the same time, it's it's like, well,
Speaker 2: then you just pull the pin and it is what
Speaker 2: it is. Or you know, if you go back two
Speaker 2: years ago, our business would have been worth quite quite
Speaker 2: a substantial amount of money. So it's just like, well,
Speaker 2: then do you then try and ride through this hard
Speaker 2: period and see it like pick back up? So I
Speaker 2: think that's the hard thing in small business. And that's
Speaker 2: what I said about the support from the government. When
Speaker 2: I talk about support, I don't always just talk about
Speaker 2: monetary value. It could be anything like advisory value, you know,
Speaker 2: like why can't they get together and they could be
Speaker 2: you know, a group of advisors that can come in
Speaker 2: and look at small business and don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: that's on a huge scale, but somewhere where you can
Speaker 2: reach out and you can ask people hey like, or
Speaker 2: make it easier for lots small business to find grants
Speaker 2: to actually suit them and make the application process easy
Speaker 2: rather than having to go through this huge application process
Speaker 2: and it's just like long and draining. It's just you know,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, We've got a few and it's fine,
Speaker 2: but at the same time, it should be a lot easier,
Speaker 2: right to be able to go through and just be like, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: Actually it really need some assistance. Now, this, this and this,
Speaker 2: this is what we do. You know, why isn't there
Speaker 2: a lot of small business loans? I know they say
Speaker 2: there is. I want to ask most people in small
Speaker 2: business how they get alone. They can't, right, I find
Speaker 2: it very very hard to get like a property unless
Speaker 2: you've got all this money which people are then refinance.
Speaker 2: It's the other side of business, but super difficult. And
Speaker 2: then what does it do just create stress of the business.
Speaker 2: It's just a non file effect. And that's what happens
Speaker 2: when I see people just as their business and it's sad.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: If you could advisors train government on one action to
Speaker 1: take to better support small businesses, what would it be.
Speaker 2: I would say, obviously, grants is one thing, and that's
Speaker 2: one side of it, but don't have it so that
Speaker 2: it's just such a huge generalization with them, you know.
Speaker 2: And again I know there's thousands of small businesses, but
Speaker 2: at the same time, like just take the time to
Speaker 2: like look into the need of that specific business. There's
Speaker 2: no point putt in a manufacturing ground up for Queensland
Speaker 2: and it's a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars grand,
Speaker 2: but you've got to do ten million dollar turnover all,
Speaker 2: twenty million dollar turnover. Well, the governm that sits in
Speaker 2: and says that's a grand it is. But there's a
Speaker 2: lot of small businesses don't turn over fifteen to twenty
Speaker 2: million dollars a year that can then apply for that
Speaker 2: all right, And then the ones that do get it,
Speaker 2: do they need it? Do they really need it? I
Speaker 2: don't know. Maybe they's got people that can do the
Speaker 2: grant's really good for them and they get extra additional money.
Speaker 2: I'm saying they'd still use it towards their business. But
Speaker 2: I think there's that generalization. And I think when they
Speaker 2: say small business and how the loan goes or how
Speaker 2: the grant goes, I don't know, it's very generalized. It's
Speaker 2: as like they should look at that specifically, like not
Speaker 2: maybe on a case by case basis, but it just
Speaker 2: needs to be more specified what they're going to do.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is is like i'd say, it
Speaker 2: doesn't always. I think a huge thing the government could
Speaker 2: do to help small business is not always just monetary.
Speaker 2: Could be advisory, be advisory about hey, like come in
Speaker 2: and actually like I don't know whether there's a hotline
Speaker 2: or there's a people seeing business. I mean the ATO
Speaker 2: is pretty good to being able to see everything we
Speaker 2: do anyway, but just in a way that they could go, Okay, well,
Speaker 2: actually this this and this could actually help your business
Speaker 2: get through this hard time. Might not be just manatory
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, money money is
Speaker 2: good and cashlow can keep your business going, but at
Speaker 2: some stage you've got to you've got to give it back, right,
Speaker 2: So I don't say I don't just sit in magical
Speaker 2: one and go yeah, money is money is the answer,
Speaker 2: Like it could to help a business actually survive through
Speaker 2: a hard time, but if there's no foreseeable future where
Speaker 2: they could pay that back or there's no point given
Speaker 2: them the money. And that's what I mean about maybe
Speaker 2: something advisory or something where they could come in and
Speaker 2: give some kind of advice on a business level. For me,
Speaker 2: I think it's a super lonely road. So because we
Speaker 2: do a lot of business in the US, I know,
Speaker 2: like I wish I had more spare time and we
Speaker 2: could start something and help people, you know, navigate that
Speaker 2: way to the US where it could just open a
Speaker 2: different market for them, because there's not this there's not
Speaker 2: a space where many people talk about it, right, So
Speaker 2: it's just like if you could do that and you
Speaker 2: could mentor people and go, okay, it's actually really not
Speaker 2: that daunting. You just got to X y Z. Here's
Speaker 2: the people who have used here some contacts to use.
Speaker 2: If the numbers work for it, you can do it
Speaker 2: and then it opens up into the market. There's nothing
Speaker 2: like that, And that's why I said it could be
Speaker 2: just advisory and just have you know, a network of
Speaker 2: maybe it's other small businesses, you know, maybe it's like
Speaker 2: a convention two to three times a year where like
Speaker 2: you know, the government pays for small businesses to go
Speaker 2: there and have a two or three day convention and
Speaker 2: everyone talks, and you know, there's certain topics around the convention.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but we find it super rewarding when
Speaker 2: we go and meet other entrepreneurs or other businesses and
Speaker 2: you find out little bits and pieces of ideas they do.
Speaker 2: But you know, it can be it can be super helpful.
Speaker 2: Just even I'm not going off topic, but just a
Speaker 2: small thing of like shipping. You know, no one we
Speaker 2: had to learn all that for ourselves, you know, by
Speaker 2: change in our box. I think it was like three
Speaker 2: centimeters saved seventeen dollars a parcel because we'll send them
Speaker 2: to the US now like we did twenty or thirty
Speaker 2: thousand parcels in that time. So you're talking about like
Speaker 2: two three, four hundred thousand dollars in a short space
Speaker 2: of time. But there's no one there to provide that.
Speaker 2: And that's why I said, I know, government's not going
Speaker 2: to come in and do that. But maybe if they
Speaker 2: had conventions where everyone got together and it was like
Speaker 2: a you know, a three day event three times a year,
Speaker 2: and then people got up there and there was one
Speaker 2: about shipping or there was one about moving your business
Speaker 2: into the US or now moving it overseas and opening
Speaker 2: different markets. Maybe they could do that and it could
Speaker 2: be just an educational process but funded for the small
Speaker 2: business to be able to go there. It is a huge,
Speaker 2: huge ecosystem that no one really takes into account how
Speaker 2: big it is. But it's not how big it is,
Speaker 2: it's what support it does and supports the up network.
Speaker 2: And that's what I said, like if it dies often
Speaker 2: and the way that it's going be so judgmental to
Speaker 2: austral they do not understand. And like I said it
Speaker 2: even our suppliers I speak to them, I say, like,
Speaker 2: you don't understand. And just one example is just like
Speaker 2: one of our suppliers, you know, we buy quite a
Speaker 2: fair bit of product off him. He had a multi
Speaker 2: he had a huge account and that company went broke
Speaker 2: and that they I think it was like somewhere in
Speaker 2: the city of half a million owed him. So he
Speaker 2: lost out in that half a million. But because they
Speaker 2: got such a big account, they opened up a company
Speaker 2: again and start again and he will do business with them,
Speaker 2: whereas with us, I just constantly pay our bill month on,
Speaker 2: month off, month on, month off, we'rether small guy, but
Speaker 2: we don't cause you any headaches, right, and you're still
Speaker 2: making the same margin. Yeah, not the quantity is not there,
Speaker 2: but he's still making the same margin, if not more.
Speaker 2: And it's just constantly coming in week after week or
Speaker 2: month after month. And that's what that's just asked. But
Speaker 2: that's thousands of small business every month, month or a month.
Speaker 2: The biggest one I think about his career is couriers
Speaker 2: wouldn't exist without small business. And you think how many
Speaker 2: couriers are out there, like just the little ones that
Speaker 2: go from workplace to workplace. They've all got families, they
Speaker 2: all need to they all need to eat, they all
Speaker 2: need to survive, and without small business, they wouldn't have
Speaker 2: any passes to pick up.
Speaker 1: How is your business doing right now?
Speaker 2: It's probably the hardst it's been. I'd say it's taking
Speaker 2: a massive strain on myself and the wife, especially because
Speaker 2: I think we got hit doubly hard because we're so
Speaker 2: reliant on the US, so you know, we think it's
Speaker 2: turbulent in Australia, but over there it's been a turbulent
Speaker 2: last two or three years. So it's been been super
Speaker 2: super hard. A lot of self doubt, questioning yourself every day.
Speaker 2: Like I said to you, how far do you go?
Speaker 2: Do you just? Do you keep going? Is it going
Speaker 2: to turn around? Is it not going to turn around.
Speaker 2: We're not from a business family, right, Like I said
Speaker 2: to you, it wasn't planned, Like we kind of just
Speaker 2: fell into this and then started it and it's been
Speaker 2: an incredible journey. But it's just you know, sometimes you
Speaker 2: question yourself, you know, do we keep pushing? Do we not? So, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's business isn't great the moment. We had an all
Speaker 2: right end of the year, so that's probably why it's
Speaker 2: still not too bad now. February was super challenging. So
Speaker 2: we'll just see. It would be touch and go, i'd say,
Speaker 2: for the next probably three months and see how we
Speaker 2: go from there. But yeah, I don't know. That's challenging,
Speaker 2: a little bit emotional when I talk about it, but
Speaker 2: it's just I think always just try and wake up
Speaker 2: in the morning. It's just a new start to the day.
Speaker 2: It's a positive start to the day. Remember that you've
Speaker 2: got the decision to go out and do what you
Speaker 2: love to do, and that's you know, whatever whatever business
Speaker 2: you've got, that that's it. That's to run a successful
Speaker 2: business and to be like for our product that helps people.
Speaker 2: So I just I look for every product that goes
Speaker 2: out the front door, I think that we're changing someone's
Speaker 2: life for the better. We're out there trying to do
Speaker 2: something positive. But as for business wise, I just, you know,
Speaker 2: the positive part of like about it is I get
Speaker 2: to get up in the morning and do what I
Speaker 2: love to do. I don't like the stress of it
Speaker 2: when it's when it's not good, but it's ten times
Speaker 2: better than going to a job that I'll probably enjoy
Speaker 2: every day. And I've got to get up and I've
Speaker 2: got to go and do that stuff and don't And
Speaker 2: there's there's still nothing wrong with doing that. People people
Speaker 2: will do that every single day. But the business people
Speaker 2: out there, they are struggling. I would say that. And
Speaker 2: the other thing I would say is, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: learn the limit of when it when it is too
Speaker 2: much or it's you know, because that's something that whether
Speaker 2: you want to face it or not, sometimes we've got
Speaker 2: to face. It's a sad reality of business. But you
Speaker 2: know what we said, if if our government got it,
Speaker 2: got themselves together and actually helped a few people, I'm
Speaker 2: sure would be would be talking different ways on this podcast.
Speaker 2: It should it should be. It's crazy. It's crazy to
Speaker 2: think that I see stuff on the news and see
Speaker 2: how much money they throw around to other things. But
Speaker 2: like I said, I don't think small businesses is on
Speaker 2: their on their radar. I don't think it's an importance there.
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 I guess probably the main thing I think
Speaker 2: I wish more people knew about our business is just
Speaker 2: what we do, is just all we try to do
Speaker 2: is aim to help people feel better longevity, you know,
Speaker 2: I get super I got so inspired by just getting
Speaker 2: stories of people to say that they can walk downstairs
Speaker 2: pain free. Now we don't advertise that we sell silverble
Speaker 2: or the gold lining of just this is the only
Speaker 2: way I think it's, you know, our products one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty dollars. I think that's a small price to
Speaker 2: pay to give anything to go, So I'd say, don't
Speaker 2: be so skeptical, give it a go. I think you'd
Speaker 2: be very very surprised. So that's probably what I wish
Speaker 2: to run you is just you know, I said, we're
Speaker 2: in business, but we're in business to help people also,
Speaker 2: so that's probably the biggest where you can find us
Speaker 2: at stampor Guy on Instagram. He's a big one, stample
Speaker 2: Guy on Facebook, and then our website is just www
Speaker 2: dot stamporgy dot com