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 yours chands
Speaker 1: to make your voice count. We want to hear from
Speaker 1: 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 is
Speaker 1: the name of your business and in simple terms, what
Speaker 1: does your business do?
Speaker 2: Yep, my name is Anthony Lloyd and our business is
Speaker 2: Lloyd's Building a construction we are we're subcontractors, so we
Speaker 2: specialize in commercial carpentry fit outs and we basically contract
Speaker 2: to the head contractors doing the carpentry components, which is
Speaker 2: just based off based off tendering for the project, putting
Speaker 2: it out bit submission and then you were successful. We
Speaker 2: end updooring commercial office fit out, schools, various various elements.
Speaker 3: In that commercial sector.
Speaker 2: And I'm the managing director along with my wife as
Speaker 2: she's not a director, but she's in charge as well.
Speaker 3: So as a family.
Speaker 1: Run business, where was your business founded and where is
Speaker 1: it located?
Speaker 3: Found in Camera?
Speaker 2: So I should state that as well, where a camera
Speaker 2: based family company started that in twenty twelve. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: can give you a bit more background if you want to. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's still located in Camera. It's probably been twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: So would you say fourteen fifteen, sort of years now
Speaker 2: we've been doing it. I started off in my carpentry apprenticeship,
Speaker 2: did then decided to do a bit of work as
Speaker 2: a subcontractor, and then decided to go and start my
Speaker 2: own business, probably in twenty twelve. And so I started
Speaker 2: that and started with me on the tools with one
Speaker 2: other person give me a hand, and sort of built
Speaker 2: it up from that.
Speaker 3: Just hard work.
Speaker 2: And I'm off the tools now our project manage and
Speaker 2: in the office full time.
Speaker 1: So and what inspired you to start your business?
Speaker 2: Basically it all started Originally I was with my grandfather
Speaker 2: that said he like construction, so, you know, stupidly, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a great idea. I wanted to be a fighter pilot,
Speaker 2: but that ended up being a bit hard.
Speaker 3: So he was kind of my inspiration.
Speaker 2: And then I was always always liked men hands on
Speaker 2: and seeing what I produce, and like, you know, it's
Speaker 2: a pretty cool thing. So that's what inspired me to
Speaker 2: do subcontracting. I guess, I guess I'm just just sort
Speaker 2: of I'm not afraid of hard work. I just like
Speaker 2: to get in and work, So you know, it's at
Speaker 2: the time I wouldn't if I forecasted it I was
Speaker 2: doing this. I don't think that's what my plan was, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we did.
Speaker 2: I started doing housing, residential housing, frames, trustes and that,
Speaker 2: and then just ended up going into more commercial just
Speaker 2: camera based. There's a lot of commercial office use and
Speaker 2: sort of found a niche for that. And I said,
Speaker 2: I hated commercial carpentry, but I'm still doing it. Say
Speaker 2: there's it's good, good money in it's hard work, but
Speaker 2: it's yeah, it definitely pays a bill.
Speaker 1: So how is your business doing right now?
Speaker 2: I'll give you a bit of an array. It's quite interesting.
Speaker 2: There's a bit of a bit of a background to us,
Speaker 2: so we got caught up. So the business now, so
Speaker 2: circumstances now, it's it's quite hard at the moment. I'll
Speaker 2: give you a bit of a little bit of a
Speaker 2: brief on where we are now and then how it's
Speaker 2: been the past two years leading up to where we
Speaker 2: are now. We're probably in the best position we are
Speaker 2: now for you know, since COVID we've finally got some
Speaker 2: sustainable work. But still, you know, they only lasted a
Speaker 2: couple of months where waiting for this selection to get called.
Speaker 3: Because we find a lot of.
Speaker 2: The decisions around work based on what we do is
Speaker 2: sort of getting put on hold and decisions aren't being made.
Speaker 2: So camera market at the moment is probably the quietest
Speaker 2: it's ever been, to be perfectly honest with you, It's
Speaker 2: usually quite consistently busy with the commercial, but everyone's struggling
Speaker 2: a bit at the moment and just sort of it's
Speaker 2: kind of I guess for us as a business, I'm
Speaker 2: having to work harder to keep the work in front
Speaker 2: of the boys. I call it chasing a biscuit. It's
Speaker 2: like you know that this is always chasing work, chasing work,
Speaker 2: and it's mentally training. So that's where at the moment,
Speaker 2: like as I said, it's still good. But as a
Speaker 2: business now, if you're not prepared putting the extra work,
Speaker 2: it's you're going to get yourself undone. So I guess
Speaker 2: leading up to sort of where we are now, we've
Speaker 2: obviously it was off the back of COVID trying to
Speaker 2: run a business. We got caught up by three builders
Speaker 2: going into administration. So we got caught up getting basically
Speaker 2: not paid FO one hundred and forty thousand dollars. So
Speaker 2: that was the past probably over the past two years
Speaker 2: so the past two years have basically been passed down,
Speaker 2: bum up, and just work your ass off to basically
Speaker 2: dig out of a whole someone else has created for us.
Speaker 2: So that's been a hard thing to stomach, to be
Speaker 2: honest with you, But at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: no one's actually going to get you out of it
Speaker 2: except for yourself. So yeah, I've managed tome luck in
Speaker 2: a privileged position to get over that hurdle.
Speaker 3: And now we're.
Speaker 2: Kind of and that's also due to me having the
Speaker 2: business for fourteen fifteen years, Like it's kind of not
Speaker 2: fair that I've built it up since then. I've had
Speaker 2: to take a bit of a hip of that hard work.
Speaker 2: You know, that's the only thing that's kind of got
Speaker 2: me through. So that's yeah, that's sort of kind of
Speaker 2: where we're up to now with work in sort of things.
Speaker 2: So just trying to basically, you know, wake up and
Speaker 2: generally was sort of like, well, I'm just going to
Speaker 2: make twenty twenty five, like my bitch, just have a
Speaker 2: good crack at it. So yeah, it's kind of where're
Speaker 2: up to at the moment. You know, I've got not
Speaker 2: that it's a thing. I've got it, you know, adhd
Speaker 2: as well as a business owner. So I've got you know,
Speaker 2: that gives me my superpower to drive. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's pretty much no sugarcoating it. It's just like twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, it's been a hard couple of years. Just
Speaker 2: you know, get out and just as I said, make
Speaker 2: it my bitch. That's just but you could put it
Speaker 2: in a better, better terminology. It's a tradesman. It's a
Speaker 2: tradesman sort of just keeping it real sort of thing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, what challenges have you faced as a small
Speaker 1: business owner and how do they impact your business and
Speaker 1: how did you overcome them? Did they affect your family members,
Speaker 1: did they affect your relationships? How did you solve them?
Speaker 3: So I guess.
Speaker 2: Challenges are and we've been doing a bit of advictousy
Speaker 2: stuff myself, mainly my wife.
Speaker 3: She's very inspirational.
Speaker 2: So challenges, the main challenges where you found was sort
Speaker 2: of started all back with COVID, just with.
Speaker 3: Just with all the work and elements like that. It
Speaker 3: was I'll go back to that, so I think I'm
Speaker 3: thinking in my head.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so we found COVID just trying to keep
Speaker 2: everyone employed and the arm.
Speaker 3: Try to put notifications on, so we had COVID.
Speaker 2: Trying to keep people employed during that process and just
Speaker 2: trying to keep the work up to it was quite challenging,
Speaker 2: and we kept all of our staff employeed just due
Speaker 2: to the fact that it was hard for everyone at
Speaker 2: that time challenges out of that, we thought, yelp, the
Speaker 2: COVID is done. And I don't like talking about COVID
Speaker 2: because it's been and done thing, but it's it had
Speaker 2: an effect on the businesses a lot of them just
Speaker 2: with cash flow, that free cash that you had before
Speaker 2: that period of time you've kind of spent getting through
Speaker 2: the COVID period, so you know, the residual cash and
Speaker 2: you know the I say cash bank balance that you had,
Speaker 2: you kind of was chewing through that to try.
Speaker 3: And just get through the other side.
Speaker 2: So you get through that, and then you know your
Speaker 2: near as challenges. Our interest rates rise than which is
Speaker 2: a which is a thing for everyone as a challenge personally,
Speaker 2: but as a business owner as well, you know, it
Speaker 2: affects us because you know people aren't We're not so
Speaker 2: direct to clients, but you know, even the government stops
Speaker 2: spending money like small little office fit outs and little
Speaker 2: alterations that they used to do. You know, they've stopped
Speaker 2: spending money on that type of things here, I guess.
Speaker 2: And other challenges are and you know a lot of
Speaker 2: people work from home now, so it's shifted. So government
Speaker 2: office fit outs used to be consistently doing fit outs
Speaker 2: and remodifying the surroundings and offices and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: That's sort of you know, had a limitation as well. Challenges.
Speaker 2: The biggest thing in the construction industries are basically the
Speaker 2: materials have gone up massive, massive amount. Luck it's jip
Speaker 2: rocks doubled in price. You know, for example, like plasterboard
Speaker 2: you've put in your house.
Speaker 3: You know, you've got.
Speaker 2: All your supplies. The main big supplies are still increasing
Speaker 2: as of now, and even with inflation, and it's sort
Speaker 2: of struggling to see how they can increase it. So
Speaker 2: much like this consumer wise, it's just it's ridiculous. So
Speaker 2: as a business owner, you've also got labor's fluctuating as well,
Speaker 2: with the price of leaving is going up as well,
Speaker 2: and people just think that as a business owner you
Speaker 2: just put your ais up.
Speaker 3: It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2: Kind of business owners now, I would say running on
Speaker 2: tighter margins than they were before, So the margins are
Speaker 2: NEETs to nowhere near what the margins haven't changed since
Speaker 2: COVID basically, and since inflation, Like you know, they've gone
Speaker 2: up a little bit in terms of materials.
Speaker 3: But because it's so competitive with the.
Speaker 2: Inflation and all the things that's happening in the world,
Speaker 2: it's it's really if I want to put my prices up,
Speaker 2: I won't win as much work. But then you need
Speaker 2: to win work to keep people employeed. So I find
Speaker 2: a lot of businesses as well, and people going into
Speaker 2: you And this might not be one hundred scent crept,
Speaker 2: but there I feel like people there'll be more business
Speaker 2: going into administration, and that because you don't have the
Speaker 2: time and effort to put into your business at the moment,
Speaker 2: it kind of that's where you get undone. So before
Speaker 2: you could have been a bit lazier and have a
Speaker 2: blowout with some materials and you know it'd be all
Speaker 2: right covered here and there. But because because you've got
Speaker 2: so many different challenges that you're having to deal with,
Speaker 2: it takes a lot more of my time now to
Speaker 2: run a business. And you go, well, that's your decision,
Speaker 2: Yes it is, But some of the things that you're
Speaker 2: having to you know, it's just a simple things like
Speaker 2: checking your materials that don't blow out, checking your labor
Speaker 2: costs because you're trying to operate on a less of
Speaker 2: a margin. So you know, you put all of that
Speaker 2: into into play and you know that's your day done.
Speaker 1: Twil The thing, how confident are you in Australian government's
Speaker 1: ability to support small businesses effectively?
Speaker 2: That is a great question. That's a stark question, stick
Speaker 2: question for me. At the moment, I could confidently tale
Speaker 2: you and I'm just going to be perfectly honest, they're
Speaker 2: doing nothing.
Speaker 3: There are I don't know.
Speaker 2: The statistics as such, but the small businesses in Australia
Speaker 2: are quite a massive amount of the revenue for the
Speaker 2: government and there's no support.
Speaker 3: Like it's.
Speaker 2: What would you say, like, why don't they support us?
Speaker 2: It's just you know, I lost that as an example,
Speaker 2: I lost that money and there's literally no one, no systems, know,
Speaker 2: nothing to help me at all. Like literally I could
Speaker 2: have lost my house, I could have lost everything, just
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: For the for I was just lucky.
Speaker 2: I was in the position that I've worked hard and
Speaker 2: I had to take some equity out of my home
Speaker 2: to pay back the tax office for instance, like even
Speaker 2: even like the I guess the tax office like stuff
Speaker 2: like that. We found with them, they're getting stricter and
Speaker 2: stricter and getting back. You know, if you say, as
Speaker 2: a company you haven't had a tax debt over the years,
Speaker 2: you're lying because during COVID everyone was putting on payment
Speaker 2: terms and stuff with it with the ATO. So the ATA,
Speaker 2: I guess they are government based. You know, the government
Speaker 2: could be talking to the AhR of somewhat assisting with
Speaker 2: that because they're quick to tax you on it and
Speaker 2: take your money off of you. But then the circumstances
Speaker 2: are we didn't get paid for one hundred and forty
Speaker 2: grand I still had to pay all.
Speaker 3: My tax based on the job that we did.
Speaker 2: But I didn't get paid it, and I still had
Speaker 2: to technically pay that, and it hurt.
Speaker 3: We had a tax debt.
Speaker 2: We had to pay basically down a lot of money
Speaker 2: for the banks to remortgage to restructure my house because
Speaker 2: I had an ATO debt.
Speaker 3: So that's a big thing for businesses.
Speaker 2: I guess that's what governments could do is look at,
Speaker 2: you know, the taxing of the businesses. I know, they're like,
Speaker 2: because of what's happened, they're coming after small businesses now
Speaker 2: more than ever that owe money to the tax office
Speaker 2: and those putting some people. Yet you've got to pay tax,
Speaker 2: as simple as that. But there's circumstances like ours that
Speaker 2: you know, there could be a bit more accommodating. But
Speaker 2: like I said that, the tax office and stuff is
Speaker 2: like they're like robots. It's just like there's no there's
Speaker 2: no there's too many. Like everything's like straight one eighty.
Speaker 2: But then once you look at the whole, be a
Speaker 2: picture of what's happening in the world. People are doing
Speaker 2: wrong things left right and center, and you know, it's
Speaker 2: sort of yeah, I feel like the governments could be
Speaker 2: doing a lot more to support small businesses, even like
Speaker 2: even through the tough times like now, like.
Speaker 3: It just seems no.
Speaker 2: Like we've been trying to work with them and stuff,
Speaker 2: like even our local like federal governments be really good.
Speaker 2: Working a bit with my wife, the Act government. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you what they do not give two you know
Speaker 2: two f's about.
Speaker 3: Us.
Speaker 2: We've tried to reach out to them, they're not interested.
Speaker 2: They could be doing a lot more to support businesses
Speaker 2: as well, like I think businesses in general, like the
Speaker 2: Australian dream is to work, wake up, own a business,
Speaker 2: make good money, fend for your family. It's like should
Speaker 2: be the Australian dream that you get paid to have
Speaker 2: a business and the hard work.
Speaker 3: But there's just there's no support.
Speaker 2: Like literally, we're the only support we had was with
Speaker 2: that little COVID incentive money for a business, you know.
Speaker 3: That's all. That's all we've had. There's been no.
Speaker 2: Just yeah, I guarantee if you speak to every business
Speaker 2: owner in Australia, I can tell you right now that
Speaker 2: they're they're hurting and they're sort of feeling the same
Speaker 2: thing about the government.
Speaker 1: It's just yeah, if you could advise Australian government on
Speaker 1: one acur to take to better support small businesses, what
Speaker 1: would it be.
Speaker 2: I'd be suggesting, like, you know, a bit of tax relief,
Speaker 2: you know, in terms of that, Like it's it's looking
Speaker 2: at some businesses, like some people do the wrong So
Speaker 2: it's like looking at the people that are doing the
Speaker 2: right thing and working with them rather than you tightening
Speaker 2: it up and making it a harder situation. It's even like,
Speaker 2: you know, the government has nothing to do with inflation
Speaker 2: or anything like that.
Speaker 3: But it's that they say they don't.
Speaker 2: They say it's the main bank that they've guaranteed you
Speaker 2: right now, they've got, they've got they're involved in that somehow.
Speaker 2: You know. It's just just other things like even like
Speaker 2: just the economy and stuff like that. Just at the moment,
Speaker 2: there's no influx. There's no like, there's no influx in
Speaker 2: terms of like the work. They could be sort of
Speaker 2: putting out a bit more work, spending a bit more.
Speaker 2: They seem to not be spending any money either. Like
Speaker 2: it's just with this election, it just seems everything is
Speaker 2: so stagnant, so like for the construction industry and things
Speaker 2: to start booming again, I feel like that they could
Speaker 2: be or sort of not sitting on their hands and
Speaker 2: sort of releasing money on the projects and getting through
Speaker 2: the projects to stimulate the economy again. Because at the moment,
Speaker 2: everyone's sort of construction wise. You speak to everyone, they're
Speaker 2: not that busy. So to help us out it would
Speaker 2: be to you know, they're in a deficet I understand,
Speaker 2: but they've put themselves in that situation. But the biggest
Speaker 2: thing is the construction industry. I guess in general, is
Speaker 2: the biggest thing. So you get busy with construction. People
Speaker 2: are making money in construction, and they start spending money
Speaker 2: in terms of retail, and they start spending money at
Speaker 2: cafes because across the board even cafe shops and stuff.
Speaker 2: Now you can notice that they're not as busy because
Speaker 2: people don't have the money to spend it. And I
Speaker 2: guess that's all to do with inflation. But once again,
Speaker 2: the government's got you know, it's a I think listening
Speaker 2: to something, the major banks have a stronghold on everyone.
Speaker 2: I think mister Barrus that as well. He was quite
Speaker 2: you know there that they dictate to the government. You know,
Speaker 2: so it's like, wasn't the government take a bit of
Speaker 2: their own terms back and sort of start putting things
Speaker 2: in place to you know, like another thing too, is
Speaker 2: I guess to help business as well. We exit I
Speaker 2: don't know exactly, but we export a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: overseas and that sort of thing, like you know for
Speaker 2: businesses itself and Australia and STUFFI is like, what are
Speaker 2: they doing to bring more back into like manufacturing in
Speaker 2: Australia and everything like that. And I understand that probably
Speaker 2: circumstances that we don't manufacture a lot of it is
Speaker 2: because our labor labor rates a lot higher and there's
Speaker 2: a lot more cost to do any internal manufacturing. But
Speaker 2: once again that that can be the government. Why can't
Speaker 2: the government be sort of putting in schemes or you know,
Speaker 2: waiving some tax incentives or something like that to be
Speaker 2: you know, start smaller businesses to be manufacturing again in Australia,
Speaker 2: producing your own thing, like we live. We pay so
Speaker 2: much for everything. It's ridiculous because we get it all
Speaker 2: from everywhere else because where you know, I still reckon
Speaker 2: for Australia going forward and stuff like that. Manufacturing and
Speaker 2: doing all of that something that the government needs to
Speaker 2: focus on as well, which gives more jobs, even the
Speaker 2: construction industry, Like what could they do to help us?
Speaker 2: The the reason why everything costs so much is because
Speaker 2: there's limits and tradesmen like the trades when are going
Speaker 2: to be the million dollar trades. Eventually there is not
Speaker 2: enough labor, so you as a homeowner will be feeling
Speaker 2: the price of additional building costs and everything like that.
Speaker 2: It's just because that's just the nature of how hard
Speaker 2: it is. So there's a lot of things that the
Speaker 2: government have control over that they could be you know,
Speaker 2: just a you know, like it's just it's just I've
Speaker 2: kind of lost more confidence with it. To be honest
Speaker 2: with our life, I'm kind of if you're waiting for
Speaker 2: the government to help you along in.
Speaker 3: Life, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: You know. My advice to you is be an honest
Speaker 2: person and work hard and you know, do what you
Speaker 2: need to do, because that's the only thing that's going
Speaker 2: to get you through. If you're going to wait for
Speaker 2: at the moment, if you're waiting for a handout from
Speaker 2: the government or any assistance, then they're not there for that.
Speaker 2: It's you know, there's some different agendas going on and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. But businesses, small businesses in Australia are
Speaker 2: really starting to struggling fall behind.
Speaker 3: It used to be the powerhouse of our economy.
Speaker 2: Like I'm pretty sure I don't know the statistics, but
Speaker 2: you look at how much small businesses contribute to the
Speaker 2: growth of Australia, that should be their fourth foremost of
Speaker 2: their agenda to get back on, you know, even terms.
Speaker 2: I guess the thing to say to them too is
Speaker 2: like we're finding a lot of the government and politicians
Speaker 2: stuff are removed from the normal world. Like you speak
Speaker 2: to some of them and about circumstances, and the actually
Speaker 2: don't understand how bad things are, Like just even explaining
Speaker 2: to them as a business and there's like, oh, what
Speaker 2: do you mean, you're not going to get that money back?
Speaker 2: You should get that money back, Like you're a politician.
Speaker 2: You guys make the rules. You're the ones that have
Speaker 2: put everything into place and created all the loopholes for
Speaker 2: people that.
Speaker 3: Are doing the wrong thing to get around.
Speaker 2: And that's how people don't pay you the money because
Speaker 2: there's too many loopholes and you're like, well, you guys,
Speaker 2: should you guys made the rules, you should know about it.
Speaker 2: That's it's even I guess a good example of like
Speaker 2: just speaking to someone in hospitality. They're sort of changing
Speaker 2: just the way casual workers are and everything like that.
Speaker 3: Like I think from my.
Speaker 2: Understanding, they've changed the rules now that we work for
Speaker 2: a certain period of time as a casual you have
Speaker 2: to there's no obligation, but you have to put.
Speaker 3: Them on as full time.
Speaker 2: So even as a small business and cafes and that
Speaker 2: sort of stuff, the fluctuation of works just so up
Speaker 2: and down at the moment that you can't afford to
Speaker 2: have full time staff on all the time because it's
Speaker 2: just so inconsistent. So you know, they're having to employ
Speaker 2: casual employees. But now there's a bigger picture of that
Speaker 2: now because they're changing the rules. They're getting pushed to
Speaker 2: put people on full time when theoretically you can't afford
Speaker 2: to put them on full time, but you have to
Speaker 2: because that's the rules that they've got. That's you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of I find like even with us now,
Speaker 2: it's just the industry so like it's like a rollercoaster.
Speaker 2: It's like there's just up and down and up and down.
Speaker 2: It's like one day busy, one day or not. And
Speaker 2: then you have to be diverse and move people on
Speaker 2: and you know, try and keep the good people. But
Speaker 2: then you know, you get put into positions that you
Speaker 2: shouldn't have to as a business say enough that you
Speaker 2: never used to before, even just I guess a bit
Speaker 2: of education too, and just it's just yeah, it's just no, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's very just it.
Speaker 3: Doesn't make me want to go and just shut up shot.
Speaker 2: And go work for someone because it's easier, you know,
Speaker 2: that's kind of and if the government's not careful, a
Speaker 2: lot of people are starting to get out of the
Speaker 2: I know, the trade because they're sick of just chasing
Speaker 2: the work, sick of having all the difficulties and the
Speaker 2: hardship materials costs. People are qualified tradesmen getting out to
Speaker 2: go and work for people on a full time basis
Speaker 2: because it's less stressful. It's which you know, at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, you turn up and you get
Speaker 2: paid to do you know, eight hours and you get
Speaker 2: to go home and then actually spend time with the
Speaker 2: family and do the things. You're like, well, why wouldn't
Speaker 2: you do it? There's there no incentive there anymore to
Speaker 2: have a small bit business.
Speaker 1: You know what's the most rewarding part of being a
Speaker 1: small business owner?
Speaker 2: I guess the perfect example if my son had his
Speaker 2: regional swimming carnival, which is then yet step up, so
Speaker 2: I was able to sit with him for most of
Speaker 2: the day and watch him do his swimming. So, you know,
Speaker 2: those those rewards of the flexibility you work hard but
Speaker 2: then gives you the opportunities to spend that time with
Speaker 2: your children and to be honest, you know, even providing
Speaker 2: for my children like it's my children are very luckily lucky, privileged.
Speaker 2: But you know, I wouldn't be able to do that
Speaker 2: if I didn't have a small business as such, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't have the flexibility to do a lot of the
Speaker 2: things I have in life. To be perfectly honest with you,
Speaker 2: if I didn't have a have a business, it's definitely
Speaker 2: given me a lot of opportunities in life. And to
Speaker 2: be honest, it's a positive. I look at it and go,
Speaker 2: would I do it again?
Speaker 3: Probably not? But would I do anything different? No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: Like it's I have no times, a bit tough at
Speaker 2: the moment, but I still have no regrets doing it.
Speaker 2: Like I'm telling you, if you've got a hard work
Speaker 2: ethic and you want to get a head in life,
Speaker 2: it's definitely that's the way to do it, is by
Speaker 2: having your own business and getting out there and putting
Speaker 2: yourself out there. So I wouldn't you know, as I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot of it's a lot of negatives around it,
Speaker 2: But there as you said, there's a lot of positives too,
Speaker 2: like and I guess you know, to elaborate off it two,
Speaker 2: there's been a lot of negatives. I've done a bit
Speaker 2: of soul searching myself. I've done some men's mental health
Speaker 2: these days is bigger than ever. I was lucky that
Speaker 2: I found Heart Led Warriors, which was run by Dan,
Speaker 2: and I had that through the tough times of my
Speaker 2: business and even our marriage. They have his wife, Nadine
Speaker 2: has a Nadine and Dan Muller have they have they
Speaker 2: do workshops and stuff, and we did that for our
Speaker 2: marriage as well, and you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Our marriage is better as well. You could say me
Speaker 2: and my wife Amy, our marriage is better. It's we've
Speaker 2: you know, you could say that that is a positive
Speaker 2: as well, Like we've some of the stuff that we've
Speaker 2: gone through, many people wouldn't be together any more. So
Speaker 2: I guess you could say we've grown with each other
Speaker 2: with that as well, we've grown with our kids. We
Speaker 2: sort of yeah, that sort of explains that. But yeah,
Speaker 2: there's there's a lot of positives. And I've tried to
Speaker 2: change my mind thought from being negative to being because
Speaker 2: to be honest with you, there's more positives and negatives
Speaker 2: these days. But the negatives are the ones that stick
Speaker 2: with you and burn you up inside. And that's the thing.
Speaker 2: Just what I want to speak to yourselves. Is just
Speaker 2: to sort of say that, you know, we're on the
Speaker 2: other side of what we're being through and to be honest,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what not a lot of people in
Speaker 2: life go through that at the age that we are, and.
Speaker 3: The fact that we could get through that is a
Speaker 3: testament to ourselves. But then.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of other people like myself. I'm just
Speaker 2: I just you know, I've got ADHD or nothing wrong
Speaker 2: with it. I just like having a bit of an opinion.
Speaker 2: I like putting myself out there. A lot of people
Speaker 2: I think you'll find won't be as open and as
Speaker 2: willing to sort of elaborate on what they've done, which
Speaker 2: is the worrying thing because you know, the rates of
Speaker 2: suicide and mental health illness and stuff from running a
Speaker 2: business is I guarantee you very high, and it's very
Speaker 2: concerning at the moment as well. So you just kind
Speaker 2: of want to reach out and tell people like it's okay,
Speaker 2: like go and talk to people, let them know how
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 3: It's kind of you know, it's.
Speaker 2: That's I guess if you go back to the government,
Speaker 2: back to that, But what could they do, Yeah, probably
Speaker 2: more more awareness around mental illness and you know sort
Speaker 2: of stuff around running a business and the mental toll
Speaker 2: it takes on yourself. Like, as I said, there's not
Speaker 2: a lot of people I'll tell you what I'm kind
Speaker 2: of so I still pinch myself and go, how'd I
Speaker 2: get through that period of time? Like I honestly didn't
Speaker 2: plan or didn't have a plan of how, but I
Speaker 2: just group my teeth, shut up, get it done. But
Speaker 2: there's a lot of people that are in worse situations
Speaker 2: than us, and it's not as easy as just com down,
Speaker 2: head up, Like it's literally they've lost everything. So I guess, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just want to keep getting the word out there
Speaker 2: and telling people it's it's okay, it's okay. If you're
Speaker 2: not doing okay, there's But I guess the thing is,
Speaker 2: you guys given this opportunity, and like what are the
Speaker 2: opportunities I guess to speak outside of outside of it?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, Like who's who can you
Speaker 2: go to talk to I guess about it, or who
Speaker 2: can you go assistance? You know, I'm just, as I said,
Speaker 2: lucky that I've put a bit of work into myself
Speaker 2: to get through it. But other people do need that assistance.
Speaker 1: What is the one thing you wish more people knew
Speaker 1: about your business?
Speaker 2: I guess that probably you know, just the stuff that
Speaker 2: we kind of do. I guess because as a business,
Speaker 2: where like we've done some pretty cool stuff like bill wise,
Speaker 2: but you know it comes under the head contractors, but
Speaker 2: realistically we're a big part of delivering that. Like as
Speaker 2: I said, that's kind of the reason why I got
Speaker 2: into it was you know, we've.
Speaker 3: Done some clubs, like some clubs in Canberra.
Speaker 2: I've done the National Museum, We've done various you know
Speaker 2: our kind of colamb works at landmarks in Canberra. Like
Speaker 2: there's like a regatta point and it's quite cool now
Speaker 2: that's sitting on the lake there and people come in
Speaker 2: and have weddings and all that sort of stuff. But
Speaker 2: we've done like all the carpentry where there and the
Speaker 2: hard work that goes into that. Like it's as a trade.
Speaker 2: It's a business. Obviously you get paid to do your trade.
Speaker 2: But just even sometimes it's cool that what we've done
Speaker 2: and what we actually build in the community, like which
Speaker 2: I guess is kind of you know, it's kind of
Speaker 2: like you say to people, oh we did that mate.
Speaker 2: As soon as you say that, like, what did you
Speaker 2: really I didn't know if that's what you do, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, that's the type of stuff you do so
Speaker 2: without you know, wanting to blow your horning or anything
Speaker 2: like it's kind of you get paid to do it,
Speaker 2: but it's still you're still shaping the way of camera up.
Speaker 2: You know, definitely that's we're camera based. It's just you're
Speaker 2: still shaping and you know, like a pretty cool thing
Speaker 2: we did was like fitz Roger Billion, where everyone goes
Speaker 2: to someone AT's every year. It's a big car festival.
Speaker 2: We did a pavilion there and it's scrubbed up quite well,
Speaker 2: and you know how I walk in there with my
Speaker 2: family and go, yeah, we're responsible for doing all the
Speaker 2: carpentry here.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's that's that's a cool thing to sort of tell
Speaker 2: people what you've done.
Speaker 1: Where can people find you and your business?
Speaker 2: Let us know, Well, I guess I'm not quite an
Speaker 2: income on you for a shout out, but like I said,
Speaker 2: we had camera based.
Speaker 3: We do commercial carpentry fit outs.
Speaker 2: We mainly do a lot of our work to the
Speaker 2: main head builders sort of things, so we a lot
Speaker 2: of it's sort of closed books.
Speaker 3: We tend to that.
Speaker 2: But as I said, we're always looking to expand we're
Speaker 2: looking to eventually do bits and pieces ourselves. As I said,
Speaker 2: like without stepping on anyone's toes, they said, you've just
Speaker 2: got to be a bit diverse in the market. But
Speaker 2: the main thing, like I guess, a bit of our
Speaker 2: story it's probably not the shout out for the business,
Speaker 2: but it's more so like our story we were we
Speaker 2: did me and my wife went on SBS Insight and
Speaker 2: that gave you a really good insight into the construction
Speaker 2: industry and basically elaborating on more of what we've lost
Speaker 2: and how and the circumstances, and that gives you great
Speaker 2: understanding of like what we're facing with and other things too.
Speaker 2: Is like you know, my wife's jumped on the board
Speaker 2: the Master Builders of Australia as a subing supplier rapid Camera,
Speaker 2: so she's also there too to support trades and what
Speaker 2: she can as well, so like you know, you can
Speaker 2: reach out to her as well, and she's trying to
Speaker 2: do a bit in the community with you know, we
Speaker 2: want to work with the builders as well because they
Speaker 2: give us the work.
Speaker 3: But we were kind of you know, I.
Speaker 2: Guess that this shout out is like, you know, we're
Speaker 2: around as well, like we're camera based, happy to you know,
Speaker 2: see other small businesses as well of what they're going through.
Speaker 2: And you know, I can't technically, I can't make it
Speaker 2: all happy for them, but we can be a bit
Speaker 2: of a sounding board and tell them about our experiences
Speaker 2: and how we sort of got out of situations and
Speaker 2: stuff just to help people. So yeah, as I said,
Speaker 2: my intentionity is more like we're a pretty established business.
Speaker 2: We want to keep growing the business. That's what we
Speaker 2: are in the process of doing at the moment. And
Speaker 2: they said, we're very a good privileged position, but you
Speaker 2: know there's other people that want to, you know, jump
Speaker 2: on board. And as I said, with the government, I
Speaker 2: find too like you know, shouting out. I just say,
Speaker 2: shout out with there's more, the more voices, the more numbers,
Speaker 2: the more people can get you know, amongst yourselves. Like realistically,
Speaker 2: that's you know, if you have support and support behind you,
Speaker 2: that's you're going to get changed wherever you are. That's
Speaker 2: just the way the world works. So you know it's yeah,
Speaker 2: happy to chat with anyone. I'll see where you consists.
Speaker 2: As I said, Yeah, we're sort of pretty you know,
Speaker 2: we're busy doing our own little thing. As I said,
Speaker 2: it takes a lot of time. But he said, you
Speaker 2: don't want to see anyone else go through what you
Speaker 2: shouldn't have to, so and we'll appreciate the opportunity and
Speaker 2: just hoping that this just it's a great segment that
Speaker 2: you guys are doing, because I feel like there should
Speaker 2: be more exposure to it because has said, we're all
Speaker 2: quite closed off and you know, closed doors. It looks
Speaker 2: great from you know, as I said it, has said
Speaker 2: one of the people, I'm starting to work with you,
Speaker 2: So you can't you can't it's inside. You can't read
Speaker 2: the outside the bottle. You know, you can't read the
Speaker 2: outside of the bottle sitting in it. That's not the
Speaker 2: right terminology, but you know, you kind of basically saying
Speaker 2: you can't see what's outside.
Speaker 3: So that's a that's a good thing. People just shout
Speaker 3: out and just elaborating.
Speaker 2: It's hard, and you know, maybe I know, mister Boris
Speaker 2: is always quite good for small business and stuff to
Speaker 2: and that's hence why I reached out originally, because he always,
Speaker 2: you know, he said that that's the that's the driving
Speaker 2: force of our economy as well. So just businesses, do
Speaker 2: what you can to work with each other and try
Speaker 2: and help each other out.
Speaker 3: That's all I can say.
Speaker 2: Just be fair and try and you know, this is
Speaker 2: the times that we all need to band together and
Speaker 2: get through the tough times. It will get better, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not going to be a lot this forever. But
Speaker 2: just got to work together where we can't.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm mm hmm