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 other
Speaker 1: things can you enlighten us about what it's like being
Speaker 1: in the small business community. This is your as to
Speaker 1: make your voice count. We want to hear from all industries,
Speaker 1: from those struggling, from those who feel overlooked, or those
Speaker 1: who have something to say but haven't had the platform
Speaker 1: to say it. I'm going to continue hosting the Mental podcast,
Speaker 1: but the Small Business call Out will be uploaded between episodes.
Speaker 1: So let's get into this week's edition of the new
Speaker 1: Small Business call Out. What is the name of your
Speaker 1: business and in simple terms, what does your business do?
Speaker 2: So I'm Renee Williams from the Real florest We are
Speaker 2: a cafe florist here in Aubrey in the Aubrey CBD,
Speaker 2: which is beautiful, connecting peace in our community, which I love. However,
Speaker 2: we also concentrate on weddings corporate events and now we're
Speaker 2: moving into florestry education, which has been a really wonderful
Speaker 2: path for us to be able to take.
Speaker 1: Where was your business founded and where is it located?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the business was actually founded in my kitchen actually,
Speaker 2: so I was I'm a single mum of two little
Speaker 2: girls and at the time I was working in my
Speaker 2: kitchen with my babies by my side, doing weddings on
Speaker 2: the weekends and working a couple of other jobs. So
Speaker 2: I'm a qualified florist and did my florestry training over
Speaker 2: over a three year period and then I had children,
Speaker 2: so it was just something I was kind of doing
Speaker 2: on the side as a bit of a side hustle,
Speaker 2: and then it just kept growing from there. We went
Speaker 2: from my kitchen to our garage and cleared everything out
Speaker 2: of the garage and then we built a website and
Speaker 2: it's been gangbusters since then.
Speaker 1: And what inspired you to start your business?
Speaker 2: So I did a florestry apprenticeship when I was and
Speaker 2: you know, being a florist was the only thing I
Speaker 2: can remember wanting to ever do. I remember my grandma
Speaker 2: or my old life said to me when I was
Speaker 2: about four years old, Oh, she's a beautiful flower, and
Speaker 2: that stuck with me my whole life. And my dad
Speaker 2: had a small business as well, so he was had
Speaker 2: a nursery that he was working from from home. So
Speaker 2: growing up, that's what I knew and I loved. I
Speaker 2: would wag school, you know, chuck asiki so that I
Speaker 2: could stay home with my dad and help him go
Speaker 2: and do his deliveries and water the plants and you know,
Speaker 2: replant the seedlings. And I just loved that environment growing up.
Speaker 2: So when it comes to studying my own family, I
Speaker 2: wanted to be able to do that with them and
Speaker 2: have them work by my side. And being that I
Speaker 2: had this apprenticeship under my belt and this skill set
Speaker 2: that was just kept continuously going. So I was just
Speaker 2: doing my friend's weddings on the weekends, and from that
Speaker 2: then you know, the next bridesmaid would contact me and
Speaker 2: asks me to do there, and it just kept going
Speaker 2: and going to the point where I was doing thirty
Speaker 2: weddings on a weekend as a year as my side hustle,
Speaker 2: and I thought, this probably isn't so much of a
Speaker 2: side hustle anymore. This is a full fledged business and
Speaker 2: I can really provide something to the people that I
Speaker 2: love that they're looking for, which is such an amazing experience.
Speaker 2: I was working, as I said, a couple of other
Speaker 2: jobs and I was looking to start moving on from weddings.
Speaker 2: I was getting a lot of people calling me to
Speaker 2: do everyday kind of deliveries for them, and so I
Speaker 2: was startying to I was like, I really need a
Speaker 2: website for people to be able to touch base that way,
Speaker 2: because I can't keep answering my phone when I'm at
Speaker 2: work at my other job and we're having that conversation around.
Speaker 2: I was working with a friend and I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, what do I do? How do I go
Speaker 2: about promoting that that's what I want to be able
Speaker 2: to do is to provide real flowers for real people
Speaker 2: that I know without offending them and saying sorry, I
Speaker 2: can't it to my phone. I'll have to call you
Speaker 2: back at six o'clock when I finish my shift. Anyway,
Speaker 2: my little girl was there with me at the time,
Speaker 2: and she was four years old, and I was saying,
Speaker 2: I want to make real flowers for the real people
Speaker 2: that I love every day, not just when they're getting married,
Speaker 2: which is beautiful in itself, but the demand is growing.
Speaker 2: And she said, Mammy, you were a real florist and
Speaker 2: I said yeah, Darlan, And she's like, but a real
Speaker 2: one and I was like, yeah, I'm a real florest
Speaker 2: And then from that conversation then I was like, the
Speaker 2: real florest encapitulates everything that I do, right, I want
Speaker 2: to be able to make real flowers for real people.
Speaker 2: Buy a real florist, and I am a real qualified florist,
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what we're going to do. So it
Speaker 2: all just kind of built from there and we just
Speaker 2: kept growing, it growing, which has been amazing. However, I
Speaker 2: was doing that and the website was going really well,
Speaker 2: and I quit my other three jobs to be able
Speaker 2: to do this full time, and then COVID hit and
Speaker 2: you know that changed everything. Weddings and events stopped, but
Speaker 2: the demand for Florestry increased because there was a need
Speaker 2: for connection. And florestry really is an emotional conveying conveyor, right,
Speaker 2: What we do is we convey other people's emotions at
Speaker 2: a time of need. So that increased, and so luckily enough,
Speaker 2: I had not long built the website, and we went
Speaker 2: from doing you know, one or two deliveries a day
Speaker 2: to doing twenty or thirty a day from my garage.
Speaker 2: And I was hiring all of my friends to come
Speaker 2: and do deliveries for me so that because they all
Speaker 2: weren't working, so that I could get all of that
Speaker 2: connection out to people. And it was it was crazy.
Speaker 2: And so for me here I just happened to I'd
Speaker 2: walked into the space that we have the real florest
Speaker 2: Aubringing now the Cafe Florist, and it used to be
Speaker 2: a cafe and I loved it, and I walked in
Speaker 2: and I just said, I love that space. Would make
Speaker 2: the most beautiful cafe florist. And wouldn't florishry and a
Speaker 2: cafe go so well together? Because it's that memory recall
Speaker 2: and that sensory smell. You walk into a florist and
Speaker 2: you remember those smells the same thing as when you
Speaker 2: walk into a cafe. So I was like, why don't
Speaker 2: we do both and put them together and just start
Speaker 2: this little three month pop up shop. And it's been
Speaker 2: five years and we're still here.
Speaker 1: What's the most rewarding part of being a small business owner?
Speaker 2: I think small businesses start from a skill or a
Speaker 2: need or a want to be able to contribute in
Speaker 2: a way that's meaningful not only you, but to your community. Right,
Speaker 2: So then that's where we all kind of begin, and
Speaker 2: any big business started as a small business. So it
Speaker 2: is one of those things where it's such a special
Speaker 2: thing to be able to do working, you know, from
Speaker 2: home with your family by your side. But then as
Speaker 2: that grows, that growing demand is really quite difficult to
Speaker 2: deal with. But at the same time, that's you know,
Speaker 2: the dream, right is to be able to build what
Speaker 2: you love into something that you can do every day.
Speaker 2: I think the most routing part is the connection to
Speaker 2: our community, being that it's a cafe people walk in
Speaker 2: every day to get their coffee on their way to work,
Speaker 2: and then they you know, grab some flowers for the
Speaker 2: girl that's having a birthday in the office, or for
Speaker 2: you know, someone who's had a baby or family member
Speaker 2: that they love. So we get to literally speak to
Speaker 2: community people every single day in what we do, and
Speaker 2: we get to provide that connection for them. So it
Speaker 2: really has been just such an amazing experience. And then
Speaker 2: I got to set that up so it worked around
Speaker 2: my family. So you know, my kids are a really
Speaker 2: integral part of what I do here, and my customers
Speaker 2: know them by first name, and you know, they'll go
Speaker 2: up the road to the other shops down the road
Speaker 2: and do a little drawing on the sidewalk with chalk
Speaker 2: for them, or you know, take them a coffee and
Speaker 2: drop it off to their office for them, or So
Speaker 2: being able to design my business around my not only
Speaker 2: my skill set, but my community and my family has
Speaker 2: been just so rewarding.
Speaker 1: How is your business doing right now?
Speaker 2: So in complete honesty, we had had such a surge
Speaker 2: after COVID that now we're kind of on a downward
Speaker 2: projectory because we went from you know, just doing flower
Speaker 2: deliveries and coffee every day, and then when the COVID
Speaker 2: restrictions really reduced weddings and events and everything. We're back,
Speaker 2: so we had that to contend with as well, so
Speaker 2: we almost tripled our workload for about three years. It
Speaker 2: was a backlog of weddings and a events that weren't
Speaker 2: able to happen during COVID, and so we're kind of
Speaker 2: through all of that backlog now and we're back to
Speaker 2: pre COVID trading. I believe with the added struggle of
Speaker 2: increased costs of everything that we do. So to be
Speaker 2: honest with you, I think we're doing much better again
Speaker 2: in the last day three to four months than what
Speaker 2: we were, say, six months ago. Unfortunately, I had a
Speaker 2: team here of amazing staff, but the you know, the
Speaker 2: rising cost of living and expenses in this economic time
Speaker 2: that we're in or went up and trade went down
Speaker 2: at the same time. So because that discretionary spend was
Speaker 2: people were holding tight on their money. They weren't doing
Speaker 2: it right. So we really had to change the structure
Speaker 2: of the business. Unfortunately, having to let a couple of
Speaker 2: our full timers go to try and content contend with
Speaker 2: how difficult running a business in this economic time is.
Speaker 2: So we did all that. We changed the structure of
Speaker 2: the business and now it's running much smoother, which is wonderful,
Speaker 2: but it was quite a difficult time to try and
Speaker 2: get through.
Speaker 1: What challenges have you faced as a small business owner
Speaker 1: and how do they impact your business and how did
Speaker 1: you overcome them? Did they affect your family members, did
Speaker 1: they affect your relationships? How did you solve them?
Speaker 2: So running a small flourishry business or any business is
Speaker 2: challenging at the best of times. As I spoke about before,
Speaker 2: the cost of goods is still soaring right, So importing
Speaker 2: and exporting is all part of our business. The best
Speaker 2: way we could get around that is to support local
Speaker 2: growers so that we could make sure that a we
Speaker 2: were being able to get the supply that we needed
Speaker 2: that was necessary to run the business, but also to
Speaker 2: try and support other local businesses whilst we do so.
Speaker 2: So that was a really integral change in our business
Speaker 2: to kind of try and make sure that our cost
Speaker 2: of goods wasn't too high. But you know, in the
Speaker 2: flores street industry and any industry, the cost of goods
Speaker 2: is just extronomical and it's quite hard to deal with.
Speaker 2: The other things is like the spikes and demand are
Speaker 2: quite hard to deal with when you have reduced, like
Speaker 2: myself reduced my staffing to try and deal with that,
Speaker 2: because again everything rate rised, so the cost of wages
Speaker 2: went up, super went up, insurance went up. All of
Speaker 2: those things soared at the same time as sales declined.
Speaker 2: So having to try and deal with all that is very,
Speaker 2: very difficult. When your profit margins in a small business
Speaker 2: can be quite minimal and then the price of everything
Speaker 2: else goes up. How do you deal with that in
Speaker 2: a very efficient manner. It is a hard thing to
Speaker 2: deal with, I think for myself though, I have dealt
Speaker 2: with a fair few quite large challenges in my business.
Speaker 2: So as I said before, I was a florist, I
Speaker 2: was working three other jobs, and I don't have a
Speaker 2: business background. I just I have a skill set like
Speaker 2: most small business people do. And so the advice I
Speaker 2: was given by my amazing accountants who are wonderful, was
Speaker 2: you need insurance. You need to get all the right
Speaker 2: people on your bus to help support you open this
Speaker 2: business and open a legitimate business. So that's what we did.
Speaker 2: And so I contacted an insurance company, to an insurance
Speaker 2: broker to try and help me navigate that particular part
Speaker 2: of running a business, which is difficult on its own.
Speaker 2: And when I did so, they came and seen me
Speaker 2: and went over all the difference of different sets of
Speaker 2: insurance that I was going to need, which was mind boggling.
Speaker 2: And I'm dyslexic as well, so reading the fine print
Speaker 2: in that was quite difficult. So I signed it, I
Speaker 2: trust them, assigned it, sent it off great. And then
Speaker 2: one of my staff members here actually had an incident
Speaker 2: where I had to call work cover. She was working
Speaker 2: and dropped scissors into her foot and needed to go
Speaker 2: to hospital, and I said, you go to hospital. I'll
Speaker 2: call the insurance company and we'll work it out from there.
Speaker 2: And when I called eye care to find out what
Speaker 2: to do next, they said, we don't have a policy
Speaker 2: for you, and I was like, what do you mean?
Speaker 2: So then I called called the insurance company and they said, no,
Speaker 2: you needed to take out that policy. We don't do
Speaker 2: that policy. And I said, well, we spoke about that's
Speaker 2: the insurance that I need. Why why would I hire
Speaker 2: you to do that job if that's not what you
Speaker 2: do And they said, oh, because that's a job that
Speaker 2: you have to do as the business owner. And I
Speaker 2: wasn't aware that I didn't have cover. I just genuinely
Speaker 2: thought I did so. Needless to say, I ended up
Speaker 2: with a two thousand dollars fine I know, sorry, twenty thousand,
Speaker 2: not twenty twenty thousand dollar fine for negligence in my business.
Speaker 2: And then, of course, not only does that impact me financially,
Speaker 2: impact my family, impacted my staff member greatly. And then also,
Speaker 2: you know, that imposter syndrome set in and I thought,
Speaker 2: I'm not cut out for this. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: be a good business owner. You know. I remember literally
Speaker 2: being on the floor crying and calling a helpline and
Speaker 2: they said, we can't help you because you're the employer.
Speaker 2: We're here to help employees. And so finding support in
Speaker 2: that moment was really really did be caught. However, I
Speaker 2: do have great people around me, and that has been
Speaker 2: my saving grace. So I know, rang, and I rang,
Speaker 2: and I rang anyone and any everyone that would give
Speaker 2: me advice and help me navigate that. And I just
Speaker 2: put one's foot in front of the other and I
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, so what I can do. What's the
Speaker 2: next best thing I can do? And that is how
Speaker 2: we got through it. And I created a safety process.
Speaker 2: I created a staffing process. I created a contract for
Speaker 2: anyone that walked in my store that was coming to
Speaker 2: do any type of work experience or workshop here that
Speaker 2: made sure that they are aware of all the safety
Speaker 2: aspects of walking into my store before they even get
Speaker 2: in the door. So, you know, as much as that
Speaker 2: was really hard, I learned a really valuable lesson. And
Speaker 2: I suppose at the end of the day, creating those
Speaker 2: you can't succeed if you don't fail at some point.
Speaker 2: But that was extremely difficult to get through, but it
Speaker 2: taught me something in that. It taught me that I
Speaker 2: am capable of dealing with really hard things, and it
Speaker 2: taught me to create processes when I make a mistake,
Speaker 2: to create processes around those mistakes to make sure that
Speaker 2: that doesn't happen again. So, you know, I see other
Speaker 2: florists and obviously watch their Instagram reels and stuff, and
Speaker 2: they've all got their cute little sandals on and their
Speaker 2: little day dresses and they look beautiful on Instagram, and
Speaker 2: I think, oh my god, what if you drop something
Speaker 2: onto your foot put them shoes on, you know, so
Speaker 2: just little things, and I think that's going to help
Speaker 2: me and then other business owners as I go along
Speaker 2: my journey of helping them make sustainable florestry businesses to
Speaker 2: make sure that they're putting the right processes in place
Speaker 2: to you know, make sure everybod is safe and that you,
Speaker 2: as a business owner are doing the right things by
Speaker 2: your employees.
Speaker 1: How confident are you in Australian government's ability to support
Speaker 1: small businesses effectively?
Speaker 2: I would say it's probably a three, which I think
Speaker 2: is pretty generous to be honest, because I do think
Speaker 2: that there is support there if you're actively looking for it.
Speaker 2: So for myself in the lead up to this podcast,
Speaker 2: for example, I contacted business in South Wales because I'm
Speaker 2: an inquisitive person and went to them and asked them, Okay,
Speaker 2: what are you putting forward to support small business in
Speaker 2: our regional area to the government, and you know, we
Speaker 2: sat down had a fantastic conversation about there's grants being provided,
Speaker 2: there's some you know, tax incentives, there's loan programs. They're
Speaker 2: trying to get rid of the red tape that is
Speaker 2: surrounding small business and the information that's provided there. But
Speaker 2: when things are changing, it's such a rapid pace in
Speaker 2: the economics times that we're in, how does a small
Speaker 2: business stay above all of that and stay across all
Speaker 2: of that, like it's not possible. You know. There's so
Speaker 2: many emails that go into our emails every day, you know,
Speaker 2: and I will open the ones that come from Business
Speaker 2: South Wales or my business or my gove obviously because
Speaker 2: I'm inquisitive and I want to know, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: most small businesses do. They want to know. But what's
Speaker 2: happening is is everything is changing so quickly and so
Speaker 2: often that the current support system that we have leaves
Speaker 2: small business kind of gappling with the lack of access
Speaker 2: to these an awareness to these changes, and it is
Speaker 2: so complex to apply for any of them and for
Speaker 2: like you know, for a grant or financial assistance, for
Speaker 2: tax relief or for solar panels, whatever it is might
Speaker 2: be that the government are trying to do to help that.
Speaker 2: The lack of time and awareness is the blockage there.
Speaker 2: They're run by, you know, they're influenced by big corporation,
Speaker 2: but where is the small business voice in there? Because
Speaker 2: small businesses. As a small business owner, we don't work
Speaker 2: to work, We work to live. We work to support
Speaker 2: our family and provide our skills and provide something to
Speaker 2: our communities, which is quite literally integral to the business
Speaker 2: world and into employment and you know, to life satisfaction.
Speaker 2: Why are we not setting up our small businesses to
Speaker 2: succeed in the first place from the very get go. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1: If you'd advise your strain government on one action to
Speaker 1: take to better support small businesses, what would.
Speaker 2: It be Automatically support them, don't make them have to
Speaker 2: go looking for the support because we don't have time.
Speaker 2: I work six days a week at the summer, single
Speaker 2: mom with two kids, and I start work at six
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning and I finished just before school
Speaker 2: bell goes, so that I can pick them up from
Speaker 2: school every day. And then I'm doing the mum things,
Speaker 2: you know, so by the time I get into bed
Speaker 2: by the time and I do my invoicing and my
Speaker 2: social media and you know, all the things that need
Speaker 2: to be done to keep my business rolling, finding things
Speaker 2: that could help me run my business and structure my
Speaker 2: business better, and you know, investigating the changes of legislrate legislations,
Speaker 2: and you know, tax reform and all of those things.
Speaker 2: I don't have the time to do all of that.
Speaker 2: I am working in my business every day and when
Speaker 2: I'm not here, my time needs to be spent with
Speaker 2: my family. I think there should be some kind of
Speaker 2: It's hard because there's so much that needs to be
Speaker 2: done to help small businesses, so knowing where to start
Speaker 2: is quite difficult. But if there was some kind of
Speaker 2: online portable like you've got portal like for us there's
Speaker 2: businesses New South Wales and our local chamber websites that
Speaker 2: help give you direction. But again, if you're not actively
Speaker 2: seeking that, how do you know. So when you register
Speaker 2: your business, why don't you get a starting small business
Speaker 2: pack sent to you? Because you've registered it. You've registered
Speaker 2: your business so the government know that you're starting a
Speaker 2: new business when you do so, right, So why is
Speaker 2: there no package sent out even in the sense of
Speaker 2: an email or you know, in the mail of you're
Speaker 2: starting a small business, here's the things that you need
Speaker 2: to know before you open a door to a customer.
Speaker 2: I think that is really missing. I'm sure you know
Speaker 2: when you've got these big corporations, they have people they've
Speaker 2: employed to do all of that for them. But as
Speaker 2: a small business, you are one person and your time
Speaker 2: is minimal, so making sure that you do it correctly.
Speaker 2: Of course you want to do it correctly, But as
Speaker 2: I said, you don't know what you don't know, and
Speaker 2: most small business owners don't have business degrees, so they
Speaker 2: don't know they what is needed to be able to succeed.
Speaker 2: So I think just as simple, you know, I get
Speaker 2: it when I do my own personal insurance. Have you
Speaker 2: got eye ear cover? You know, maternity cover? All these
Speaker 2: things that are offered to you, Why isn't that sent
Speaker 2: to you when you register at a business. Because of my
Speaker 2: experiences and the hardships that I've been through in my business,
Speaker 2: I think the a as I said before, sending out
Speaker 2: a you've registered a business, this is what you need
Speaker 2: to know and do package to every single person that
Speaker 2: registers a business, whether it goes ahead or doesn't, is
Speaker 2: probably the best place to start. I think it's a
Speaker 2: no brainer to make sure that you're giving them the
Speaker 2: support they need from the get go. So I think
Speaker 2: that would be something that the government definitely could put
Speaker 2: into place to make sure that all small that small
Speaker 2: businesses are given the right tools to succeed. However, from
Speaker 2: a personal experience point of view, I think insurance reform
Speaker 2: needs to happen. I think it's a growing burden on
Speaker 2: small businesses. The amount of insurances that we need to
Speaker 2: have before we even open our doors, and the education
Speaker 2: around that is minimal unless you're actively seeking it out.
Speaker 2: So I think it's a really overlooked form of support
Speaker 2: that the government could be giving. You know, by the
Speaker 2: time we have our you know, window insurance, of personal insurance,
Speaker 2: and now there's mandatory cyber insurance, not to mention that
Speaker 2: insurance has all gone up over thirty percent. So as
Speaker 2: a small business, when you're making a small profit margin
Speaker 2: already just by needing to have those you have to
Speaker 2: have those insurances before you can do anything. I think
Speaker 2: being able to kind of look at maybe an overall
Speaker 2: small business insurance package that covers you for all of
Speaker 2: those things. And as you grow and as you you know,
Speaker 2: put on more staff for the more money you make,
Speaker 2: then that can kind of push out. But I just
Speaker 2: think it's quite a burden on small business when small
Speaker 2: business in itself is kind of starting to become unsustainable.
Speaker 2: I think the government could help in that one or
Speaker 2: two ways by making sure that we are better supported,
Speaker 2: rethinking insurance policies and capping them at a at a
Speaker 2: certain premium. I think if we can do that and
Speaker 2: subsidize that for small businesses, it's a really great place
Speaker 2: to start, and it would significantly significantly reduce the burdens
Speaker 2: on small business owners. I don't I think it's becoming
Speaker 2: increasingly unsustainable to run a small business. As we said before,
Speaker 2: the profit margins and the small business are small and
Speaker 2: unless like for myself, I create recipes for my flowers
Speaker 2: so that I know I'm making a profit margin, but
Speaker 2: that's through trial and error, that through failure and procedure, right,
Speaker 2: So for myself, I kind of come at my business
Speaker 2: as a system based approach where I combine process and
Speaker 2: creativity together so that I can make sure that we
Speaker 2: are always sustainable in what we do and making sure
Speaker 2: that we're making a profit margin of what we do.
Speaker 2: But that profit margin is only small, and when things
Speaker 2: like insurances go up, and pay grades go up, and
Speaker 2: super and all of the things that we need to
Speaker 2: have to run our small business, rent is extronomical at
Speaker 2: the moment. So when all of that goes up, and
Speaker 2: if you're not on top of it, you can quickly
Speaker 2: lose your business. And as I said, I speak to
Speaker 2: small business owners every day and I haven't spoken to
Speaker 2: one single small business owner who is not finding this
Speaker 2: current moment in our economic time that we're in the
Speaker 2: hardest to deal with that. It's harder right now than
Speaker 2: it was during COVID, and that was difficult. You know,
Speaker 2: people shutting their doors left, right and center because just
Speaker 2: the rent alone, like my rent when I started working here,
Speaker 2: has gone up so I've been here for five years,
Speaker 2: has gone up by four hundred dollars a week in
Speaker 2: five years. So how and I run, as I said,
Speaker 2: a system based florists. So I know how much it
Speaker 2: costs me per arrangement that I make on an average
Speaker 2: sale to make sure I cover my rent, my salary,
Speaker 2: you know, all of the sundrys that I need to
Speaker 2: run my business, my insurance, all of that I work
Speaker 2: out to it a figure and I put that onto
Speaker 2: every arrangement that I make. But there's so much more
Speaker 2: that goes into it, and I just I feel sorry
Speaker 2: for people that don't understand that they need to have
Speaker 2: those processes to make sure they make a profitable business.
Speaker 2: They're doing something that they love and they want to
Speaker 2: be able to contribute, but they're not being able to
Speaker 2: do it in a way that provides harmony in that
Speaker 2: work life balance manner. So businesses are closing their doors left,
Speaker 2: right and center, or they're taking their businesses home because
Speaker 2: they cannot afford they have to take something away, so
Speaker 2: they can't afford to run their business sustainably anymore. So
Speaker 2: for myself, I had to let go of my staff
Speaker 2: as I mentioned before, which was absolutely heartbreaking, not only
Speaker 2: for me but for them and took a mental toll
Speaker 2: on myself and my staff at the time. But that's
Speaker 2: what I needed to do to succeed in my business
Speaker 2: because if I go down, we all went down, you know.
Speaker 2: So I needed to make sure that this was staying
Speaker 2: sustainable so that I could support me and my kids. However,
Speaker 2: I was open to the idea of this isn't a failure.
Speaker 2: If this change doesn't work, this isn't a failure. It's
Speaker 2: a learning curve and I had to really keep telling
Speaker 2: myself that or through that process. But it is hard.
Speaker 2: It is hard for small businesses. I was speaking to
Speaker 2: someone the other day that said they asked someone for
Speaker 2: the money that there they were outstanding for an invoice,
Speaker 2: and not long after somebody, the person that was owing
Speaker 2: them the money committed suicide because we're all doing our
Speaker 2: very best. But as I said, in small business, the
Speaker 2: profit margins are so low and the price of everything
Speaker 2: keeps going up so fast, the cogs are just extronomically
Speaker 2: increasing that how do you not only run your business
Speaker 2: and make sure that you're looking after your everything involved
Speaker 2: in your business, but your own mental health at the
Speaker 2: same time. So I think we have a real problem
Speaker 2: in our community, small business community, in making sure that
Speaker 2: we are all sustainedly working and living for a greater
Speaker 2: purpose and not running ourselves into the ground where we
Speaker 2: think that's the only answer. It's heartbreaking for myself when
Speaker 2: I was in that space, and I was there, it
Speaker 2: was very difficult. I contacted all my creditors and I said,
Speaker 2: I'm restructuring my business. I'm doing something I don't want
Speaker 2: to do in letting my staff go. This really wasn't
Speaker 2: what I wanted to have to do. But I had
Speaker 2: bills to pay, and I had outstanding, very significant outstanding
Speaker 2: bills to pay, and so I just contacted them. I said,
Speaker 2: I know that this isn't okay, and I believe I
Speaker 2: am a good business owner and a very intelligent business woman.
Speaker 2: I know all of that, and I'm here anyway. I'm
Speaker 2: at this point of very low where I owe more
Speaker 2: money than I can think of how to get out of.
Speaker 2: So I just want and I said to all my creditors,
Speaker 2: I just want you to know that I'm restructuring my
Speaker 2: business in a way that means that I can continue
Speaker 2: to do what I do and make sure that I
Speaker 2: pay you back as soon as I possibly can. And they,
Speaker 2: because I had such good rapport with them, they were
Speaker 2: all like, that is okay, we'll see you next month
Speaker 2: and we'll talk about it then, you know. But building
Speaker 2: really good relationships with the people around you and making
Speaker 2: sure you have the right you know, people on your
Speaker 2: bus is integral to making sure that you get through
Speaker 2: the hard times in your business.
Speaker 1: What is the one thing you wish more people knew
Speaker 1: about your business?
Speaker 2: Well, we and myself, I say we as my company
Speaker 2: and myself as a business owner. We're so passionate about
Speaker 2: our small business community that we want to make sure
Speaker 2: that we're here to provide not only you know, our
Speaker 2: beautiful flowers to our customer base, but the support that
Speaker 2: is needed to small business. And that's what we really
Speaker 2: are aiming to do with the educational piece that we
Speaker 2: are currently working on in our business. So we've got
Speaker 2: the real florist cafe and now we've got the real florist,
Speaker 2: the real florest education support. So we run a twelve
Speaker 2: week program here which is our florestry education from beginners
Speaker 2: to intermediate florestry and now so we've been doing that
Speaker 2: for the last two years, which has been amazing. Now
Speaker 2: we've got it going into local schools and for work placement.
Speaker 2: The reason being is that you know, these in this
Speaker 2: day and age, it's so hard to get your hands
Speaker 2: on experience, so we want to make sure that we're
Speaker 2: providing that as much as possible. And I love going
Speaker 2: into schools. I've been teaching at a couple of local
Speaker 2: schools in their arts departments. I've been doing a six
Speaker 2: week program with them, and I always say to the kids,
Speaker 2: you know, push your hand up if you struggle with
Speaker 2: the reading and writing or maths, and they all put
Speaker 2: their little hands up, and I'm like saying, I am dyslexic,
Speaker 2: I've got disccalcolia and dysgraphia, and i am ADHD. So
Speaker 2: sitting down in a classroom was always so difficult for me.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm here to help you get hands on
Speaker 2: experience and something that you love and enjoy. So and
Speaker 2: just seeing the pride on their little faces. So it's
Speaker 2: beautiful teaching it to adults in our twelve week program,
Speaker 2: but really getting it into the schools has been so beautiful,
Speaker 2: such an amazing experience for me to connect with other
Speaker 2: people like myself that really struggled with you know, the reading,
Speaker 2: writing and sitting down and concentrating all the time. It's
Speaker 2: been able. I've been able to kind of gift my
Speaker 2: skill set to them and show them that there is
Speaker 2: other things that you can do in the workforce to
Speaker 2: make you know, that humus work life balance happen. And
Speaker 2: it's been so beautiful. So we're really working on that
Speaker 2: at the moment. So we've taken that two years worth
Speaker 2: of experience that we've had teaching one to one two
Speaker 2: students here at the Real Florist or in schools, and
Speaker 2: we're about to take it to an online program to
Speaker 2: help teach other people how to do what we do
Speaker 2: and that it is possible to have a job that
Speaker 2: you love every day and be able to give back
Speaker 2: in a way that's really special.
Speaker 1: Where can people find you and your business, let us know.
Speaker 2: So where the Real Florist Aubrey and you can find
Speaker 2: us in the beautiful Aubrey CBD our Florest Cafe. It
Speaker 2: is such a beautiful part of Australia, Aubrewadonga. So if
Speaker 2: you haven't been here, come because we always get people
Speaker 2: coming into our store being like oh the people in
Speaker 2: this community are so lovely and everybody's up for a
Speaker 2: chat and we really do have that kind of country
Speaker 2: hospitality here in Aubrey Wadonga with that city vibe which
Speaker 2: is so beautiful. So yeah, So we're in Swift Street
Speaker 2: four eight nine Swift Street in Aubrey at our local Aubrey, CBD. Otherwise,
Speaker 2: you can always find us on our website at www
Speaker 2: dot Therealflorist dot com dot au where you can find
Speaker 2: everything that we do here, so our education, our weddings events,
Speaker 2: corporate work as well as our local deliveries and now
Speaker 2: our teachings of the Real Florists. So our workshops are
Speaker 2: all on there, our education pieces all on there and
Speaker 2: that's where you'll find the links. Otherwise, you can jump
Speaker 2: on our socials. We've got our Instagram, Facebook, our YouTube,
Speaker 2: our LinkedIn, our tiktoks. I'm very I'm not very good
Speaker 2: at the tiktoks, but I am trying so hard. I
Speaker 2: like to call them the toctics, but you can find
Speaker 2: us on all the social platforms. The real Florest. We
Speaker 2: wanted to continue advocating for or not only the Flores
Speaker 2: Street industry, but small business in general and making sure
Speaker 2: that we are providing real time education and space to
Speaker 2: succeed in small business. And yeah, that's where we will be,
Speaker 2: thank you very much,