Speaker 1: Small businesses now.
Speaker 2: They are the backbone of our country and I know
Speaker 2: firsthand how tough it is, long hours, constant hurdles, and
Speaker 2: too often feeling like you're in it alone. And what
Speaker 2: I keep hearing from you is that small business owners
Speaker 2: don't feel heard. My team and I are paying close
Speaker 2: attention to our small business community and the feedback that
Speaker 2: comes to us through the Mental podcast.
Speaker 1: Now, one thing is clear.
Speaker 2: You want to hear from more businesses beyond Sydney, from
Speaker 2: across the country, and especially those that are doing it tough.
Speaker 2: That's why my team and I are launching the Small
Speaker 2: Business call Out. The Small Business call Out, which will
Speaker 2: be under the Mentor channel, will talk to business owners
Speaker 2: all over the country every single week, no matter where
Speaker 2: you are.
Speaker 1: We want to hear from you.
Speaker 2: What's working, what's not working, What do you need from
Speaker 2: the government to actually succeed? What are the things can
Speaker 2: you enlighten us about what it's like being in the
Speaker 2: small business community. This is yours to make your voice count.
Speaker 2: We want to hear from all industries, from those struggling,
Speaker 2: from those who feel overlooked, or those who have something
Speaker 2: to say but haven't had the platform to say it.
Speaker 2: I'm going to continue hosting the Mental podcast, but the
Speaker 2: Small Business call Out will be uploaded between episodes. So
Speaker 2: let's get into this week's edition of the new Small
Speaker 2: Business call Out. What is the name of your business
Speaker 2: and in simple terms, what does your business do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so my name is Mark. I'm from will Dura
Speaker 3: Waste and Recycling and also bis and Waste and Recycling,
Speaker 3: where a waste and recycling collection company is the bulk
Speaker 3: of our business, and we provide services to domestic customers
Speaker 3: all the way through to your big corporate customers and
Speaker 3: everything in between, including mum and dad, more to medium
Speaker 3: sized businesses. Yeah, and that includes general waste, cardboard, scrap, metal,
Speaker 3: all those kind of different waste streams from the smallest
Speaker 3: of customers from a two forty liter bin right through
Speaker 3: to big hook bins.
Speaker 1: And what inspired you to start your business?
Speaker 3: There's a couple of different answers to that, and I'll
Speaker 3: take you back to when I started. When I was
Speaker 3: at school, I used to joke with some of my
Speaker 3: mates that'll be a garbologist, not actually thinking that that
Speaker 3: would ever actually happen. And then I was involved in
Speaker 3: the transport industry for quite a few years, in demolition
Speaker 3: and other aspects of transport, and the opportunity came to
Speaker 3: work for a company in waste and I thought, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: that'd be a great feeling. But it turned out to
Speaker 3: be something that really resonated with me. And once you
Speaker 3: get it in your blood, you can't get it out,
Speaker 3: so to speak. And when our business started, me and
Speaker 3: my wife could see a gap in the market. Only
Speaker 3: had corporates in the market and was lacking a local competitor,
Speaker 3: someone who could provide a premium service at a fair
Speaker 3: price and build relationships with customers. And I guess that's
Speaker 3: the opportunity we saw. And we started off with a
Speaker 3: very small little truck and one hundred bins and you know,
Speaker 3: the first six months very challenging. You think to yourself,
Speaker 3: you know, have we made the wrong move here? You
Speaker 3: know we've bitten off more than we can chew. You know,
Speaker 3: this is this really going to work? And I guess
Speaker 3: you just never give up and keep pushing forward, one
Speaker 3: foot in front of the other and really set some
Speaker 3: ambitious goals. And I guess that's got to where we
Speaker 3: are today. I guess I'm a charismatic type and enthusiastic
Speaker 3: about the business type of person, and I guess I'd
Speaker 3: like to bring people on that journey with me. And
Speaker 3: so it's been a hell of a ride and quite
Speaker 3: a hell of a journey. And I guess you know
Speaker 3: that doesn't happen on its own. You know, it takes
Speaker 3: a lot of blood, sweat and tears and determination to
Speaker 3: get there. And yeah, I guess you know, people that
Speaker 3: are close to me will understand that that, you know,
Speaker 3: I live and breathe it and yeah, that's it's it's
Speaker 3: part of my life and part of my wife's life too.
Speaker 3: She's heavily involved in the business. And yeah, perhaps it's
Speaker 3: probably too involved in our lives, but it's got that's
Speaker 3: the way it's got to be. It's got to be
Speaker 3: your passion and you'll get more out of it. Turned
Speaker 3: out to be accurate what we saw in the market.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where was your business founded and where is it located?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, Maldura Waste and Recycling was founded in Moldura,
Speaker 3: as the name suggests, and in the last twelve d eight
Speaker 3: en months we've recently branched out into the Riverland area
Speaker 3: and we rebranded the business as Bison Waste and Recycling.
Speaker 3: The bison is on all our bins and on all
Speaker 3: our trucks, and it's on everything, and a lot of
Speaker 3: people ask what the bison is about, and that's my
Speaker 3: favorite animal, but it also is a great branding eye
Speaker 3: catcher that really draws people in. And so yeah, our
Speaker 3: brand outside of Alldura is Bison waste and Recycling, which
Speaker 3: is universal. Yeah, and it resonates with our core animal
Speaker 3: that we have on all our bins. Yeah.
Speaker 1: How is your business doing right now.
Speaker 3: At the moment, we're tracking Well, it's it's a consistent
Speaker 3: business the waste industry, as is other core service industries.
Speaker 3: So we don't see don't seem to see the ups
Speaker 3: and downs that other industries experience. What I we have
Speaker 3: a very broad range of customers and you know, I
Speaker 3: get to talk to a lot of different people in
Speaker 3: a lot of different places. And the economy is slow
Speaker 3: has slowed, and there is people feeling the pain, particularly
Speaker 3: with interest rates. So we see that and you know,
Speaker 3: we work with customers through some of those challenges. But yeah,
Speaker 3: as a whole, our business is tracking well. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: it's consistent. It's probably the best word to describe it,
Speaker 3: but it is a consistent type industry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what challenges have you faced as a small business
Speaker 2: owner and how do they impact your business and how
Speaker 2: did you overcome? Did they affect your family members, did
Speaker 2: they affect your relationships, how did you solve them?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the challenges we've faced over the years has been
Speaker 3: a few different ones. And obviously we started right at
Speaker 3: the beginning of COVID, So one of the first challenges
Speaker 3: we faced was lockdowns and things like that, being in Victoria,
Speaker 3: and so the challenges to work through that was hard,
Speaker 3: you know, and a lot of small businesses copped the
Speaker 3: brunt of that, and a lot of our customers copped
Speaker 3: the brunt of that, being cafes and restaurants and other
Speaker 3: businesses that you know, we provide services too. And I
Speaker 3: guess in small businesses, the key to survival is being
Speaker 3: and it's also the I guess you're one up on
Speaker 3: your competition is the ability to pivot very quickly in
Speaker 3: a changing market, be able to read the play, understand
Speaker 3: what that means for your businessiness, and respond to it
Speaker 3: with an appropriate response or what you're offering to the market.
Speaker 3: And we saw that happen with a lot of businesses,
Speaker 3: with cafes and restaurants, they had to change the delivery
Speaker 3: model to work with inside the boundaries they had, but
Speaker 3: also remain sustainable and try and make a profit hard
Speaker 3: in those times. So that's one of the challenges that's
Speaker 3: definitely faced a lot of businesses, including our own, during
Speaker 3: that time. And then I guess from another challenge that
Speaker 3: has faced our business, where our businesses faced is the
Speaker 3: price of steel in the market. And a lot of
Speaker 3: people go, how would that affect your business? But a
Speaker 3: lot of our bins are made of steel, and so
Speaker 3: our biggest cost is buying bins, whether the hook bins
Speaker 3: or frontlift bins, they use up a lot of steel
Speaker 3: and so we've seen a doubling in cost over the
Speaker 3: last five years is in buying those products, so that
Speaker 3: that's our capital doesn't go as far when we're buying products.
Speaker 3: So that's been that's been an enormous challenge, especially when
Speaker 3: you're growing very quickly to keep up with that. I
Speaker 3: would say that's been an enormous challenge. The impact it
Speaker 3: has on family, particularly my immediate family, is real. You know,
Speaker 3: you see that, and there is sacrifices made by myself,
Speaker 3: my wife, and my kids for the greater good of
Speaker 3: the business. And you know, I guess you've got to
Speaker 3: try and get the balance right with that, because you know,
Speaker 3: without getting the balance right, it doesn't work. And one
Speaker 3: of the things that we've found, so we only work
Speaker 3: six days a week, not seven, so we've got one
Speaker 3: day a week all the staff off. That way, you know,
Speaker 3: you can do what you want to do with your
Speaker 3: family and friends and have that time to you know, rejuvenate, relax,
Speaker 3: rejuvenate for the week coming. So that's that's part of it,
Speaker 3: you know, the making time for holidays and getaways, even
Speaker 3: if it's only for three days or a week, and
Speaker 3: even when you think you can't afford it or the
Speaker 3: cash flow can't afford it, it's important to get that
Speaker 3: time away. And holidays don't always have to be an
Speaker 3: expensive holiday. They can be simply you know, get go
Speaker 3: camping down the river for a few days or things
Speaker 3: like that, and that helps reset, spend time together to
Speaker 3: offset some of the other times when you may not
Speaker 3: be around. So I found that and that helps prevent
Speaker 3: burnout as well for myself. Burn out's a real thing
Speaker 3: in small business. In really every small business owner would
Speaker 3: understand that, and so you know, try and find the
Speaker 3: thing that gets you rejuvenated and make a conscious effort
Speaker 3: to lean on that. It definitely helps, and it also
Speaker 3: helps the team around you, because if you're in burnout mode,
Speaker 3: the team around you will notice that and it transfers
Speaker 3: into your business. So for the greater good of everyone,
Speaker 3: it's important to watch that and make sure you're on
Speaker 3: top of it. So there's some of the challenges I
Speaker 3: guess we've faced, and you know, the challenges that we're
Speaker 3: facing right now is small businesses are hurting. Some of
Speaker 3: our customers are really hurting, and we're seeing a few businesses,
Speaker 3: you know, not making it and that that's hard to
Speaker 3: watch because a lot of businesses we've grown up with
Speaker 3: or they've started when we did, or before us or
Speaker 3: after us, and you build relationships with these people and
Speaker 3: so you know, that's hard to watch. But there, you know,
Speaker 3: there's challenges on that front, you know, on a personal level,
Speaker 3: but also at a business level, because it's it's really
Speaker 3: not what you want to say see happening. And some
Speaker 3: of those challenges have been brought about by the state
Speaker 3: of the government or the way the country is being run.
Speaker 3: And perhaps you know that's that has been definitely an
Speaker 3: influencing factor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how confident are you in Australian government's ability to
Speaker 2: support small businesses effectively.
Speaker 3: I'm not a person that likes to complain much, and
Speaker 3: I don't like to be a negative person. I'd really
Speaker 3: like to be positive about things. However, my confidence in
Speaker 3: the government to support small business is I would have
Speaker 3: to say zero. I really don't see any support or help,
Speaker 3: not just for my business, but for a lot of
Speaker 3: other businesses. And it's a real shame to see because
Speaker 3: I think, you know, the small businesses of this country
Speaker 3: do a lot of heavy lifting, you know, paying a
Speaker 3: lot of time acts and processing a lot of revenue
Speaker 3: for the tax office, and employ a lot of people
Speaker 3: in this country, you know, which ultimately puts money in
Speaker 3: the government's pocket. And I don't see it being spent
Speaker 3: effectively or used effectively, and it certainly does not come
Speaker 3: back to help those that are that are generating it,
Speaker 3: and that is disappointing to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you could advise your strain government on one action
Speaker 2: to take to better support small businesses, what would it be.
Speaker 3: That's a really good question. And there's a couple of things,
Speaker 3: and it doesn't necessarily gravitate around money, because at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, a small business needs to be
Speaker 3: profitable and stand on its own two feet. I am
Speaker 3: a big believer of that. Handouts is not something that
Speaker 3: I think which a lot of people gravitate too. And
Speaker 3: yes they help, but you know, you shouldn't rely on those.
Speaker 3: Something that I've found that I've been able to get
Speaker 3: and it has helped me immensely. There's a few people
Speaker 3: that are in similar businesses to what I'm in and
Speaker 3: that are what I consider ten, fifteen, twenty years ahead
Speaker 3: of me, and so I guess I lean on them
Speaker 3: as a mentor and for support and or the term
Speaker 3: trauma bonding, because when you're going through some challenges that
Speaker 3: somebody else has been through, it really helps when you
Speaker 3: can bounce that off somebody that understands it. So I
Speaker 3: guess if there was like a mentorship program system collaboration
Speaker 3: perhaps for industries or small businesses that was organized perhaps
Speaker 3: by government organization, then I think that a lot of
Speaker 3: people would get help out of that, because, like I
Speaker 3: said earlier, it's not all about the money, but it's
Speaker 3: about not feeling alone. I think in a small business
Speaker 3: is everybody working as hard as me to achieve. The
Speaker 3: answer is yes, people are working very hard in their
Speaker 3: small businesses and you would never have believed how much
Speaker 3: time and effort it would take to run a small business.
Speaker 3: And maybe that's a good thing, because if you knew
Speaker 3: that at the start, you may not start. But I think,
Speaker 3: you know, if there was if there was have to
Speaker 3: break it down to one thing. I think if there
Speaker 3: was a mentorship program, that would be of great benefit,
Speaker 3: and particularly for younger people wanting to start business. You know,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of things that you might not understand. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I think getting people out of the real world
Speaker 3: that have actually run businesses to be part of that program,
Speaker 3: I think would be a really good way to make
Speaker 3: that work. Not not just people that think they know
Speaker 3: how business has run, but people that actually know our
Speaker 3: businesses deliver.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's the most rewarding part of being a small
Speaker 2: business owner?
Speaker 3: So the most rewarding parts for me, there's a few
Speaker 3: different things that have really been a standout for me.
Speaker 3: I feel the networking and the relationships that I've built
Speaker 3: with other business owners and customers has been a great
Speaker 3: part of it, and I feel that other business owners
Speaker 3: enjoy that aspect. Of it as well, and part of
Speaker 3: it can be because we're all going through similar challenges.
Speaker 3: Even though it's different businesses, similar challenges pop up. So
Speaker 3: I think the networking and they're getting to know other
Speaker 3: people and their business has been really really rewarding. The
Speaker 3: other parts that I feel is important and has been
Speaker 3: really rewarding is watching, particularly in our situation, when people
Speaker 3: choose to spend local and support local industry, watching that
Speaker 3: dollar go around in other local businesses to build a
Speaker 3: circular economy that stays and supports the people that live here.
Speaker 3: That's been really cool to watch happen, and you know,
Speaker 3: great to be a part of it and promote it,
Speaker 3: and you know to the point where you know, we
Speaker 3: get a lot of our bins manufactured hook bins manufactured
Speaker 3: in Maldura. So then you watch that dollar go around
Speaker 3: and you know, there's lots of different ways you can
Speaker 3: spend your money, and you can find cheaper ways, and
Speaker 3: it usually means supporting offshore, out of town companies, whereas
Speaker 3: if you can spend it a little bit extra and
Speaker 3: support the local economy, you can watch how that supports
Speaker 3: lots of different sporting clubs, you know, different industries and
Speaker 3: you know, actually supports real people and that that's probably
Speaker 3: one of the more exciting things about it. And I
Speaker 3: guess watching your staff grow as well when they come
Speaker 3: on board. You know, some of them have had no
Speaker 3: experience in the industry that we're in, and then they
Speaker 3: learn and absorb and take all the information on and
Speaker 3: make it their own. Watching people grow, I think that
Speaker 3: that's a really cool thing to watch as well. And
Speaker 3: see them develop and turn into better versions of themselves.
Speaker 3: I think that's really that's been really good as well,
Speaker 3: and that helps, you know, having that attitude I think
Speaker 3: helps build better team culture and better team.
Speaker 2: What is the one thing you wish more people knew
Speaker 2: about your business? What is one thing you wish you
Speaker 2: knew before you even started your business.
Speaker 3: Yeah. One of the misconceptions in the industry that we're
Speaker 3: in is that the bigger, the bigger the business or
Speaker 3: the corporation, shall we say, the better service you would
Speaker 3: get or they'll be there in your time of need.
Speaker 3: And that is probably the biggest misconception I see in
Speaker 3: our industry. And the easy way to test that if
Speaker 3: you're a business owner and you've got a waste provider,
Speaker 3: call them on a Saturday night at ten thirty and
Speaker 3: see who answers and see who will help you out
Speaker 3: when you really need them the most, and then you
Speaker 3: will know who the business, the business that will actually
Speaker 3: respond or preempt or have the ability to answer your
Speaker 3: questions versus the bigger companies, which they will leave you
Speaker 3: high and dry because yeah, they don't have any invested
Speaker 3: interest in supporting the customer. And so I guess that's
Speaker 3: probably one of the biggest things I'd want people to
Speaker 3: know about our business is that it's a relationship. We're
Speaker 3: there for you, and service is what we do. Also,
Speaker 3: another thing that I wish customers knew is you don't
Speaker 3: need to sign a contract or a service agreement for
Speaker 3: a rubbish bin. It's not needed. We don't have them. Ah,
Speaker 3: you don't need to sign one ever, And that's.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I wish people knew what they were signing when they
Speaker 3: were signing contracts for a rubbish bin. And I guess
Speaker 3: over time we do educate the customers on that and
Speaker 3: people learn through different different ways on that front, but
Speaker 3: eventually people do come with realization that they do not
Speaker 3: need that and it's certainly not for their benefit. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So sorry, that's two answers to the question. But yeah,
Speaker 3: but yeah, that in our industry getting contracts, you know,
Speaker 3: people use all sorts of tactics to get customers signed
Speaker 3: up in a contract for a rubbish bin. And people
Speaker 3: think that that's a fixed price service for that period
Speaker 3: of the contract, and it's not. It's written in a
Speaker 3: way that benefits the provider and they can shift the
Speaker 3: goalpost when it suits them, but the customer has to
Speaker 3: stay for the journey and that can be up to
Speaker 3: four and five years. And yeah, the amount of people
Speaker 3: that I talk to and deal with on a regular
Speaker 3: basis that wish they'd never signed that or didn't know
Speaker 3: they were signing that. Yeah, it's it's it's sad to
Speaker 3: see in the industry and that and that's why we've
Speaker 3: we've gone down the path of no contracts for any
Speaker 3: of our bins. Build a relationship with the customer and
Speaker 3: give them a fair price and fair and good service
Speaker 3: and rely on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where can people find you and your business?
Speaker 1: Let us know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're very active on our socials, So on Facebook
Speaker 3: or Instagram. If you find us on there, you'll find
Speaker 3: a lot of content there that some of it's interesting,
Speaker 3: some of it's funny, but there's a lot about our
Speaker 3: business on there, or our website is quite easy to find.
Speaker 3: If you google Modial Waste and Recycling, you'll find us there.
Speaker 3: You'll also see all our five star reviews from our
Speaker 3: valued customers. Have a read through them that tells you
Speaker 3: more about our business than you need to hear from me,
Speaker 3: and compare it with our competitors. You know, and hear
Speaker 3: it from the Hear it from the people that actually
Speaker 3: get to experience it.