The Australian Small Business Show

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. We're well into the final quarter of the calendar year, and after one of the toughest years we've seen for small business in a long time, plenty of owners are running on empty. In this episode we talk about how to get through Q4 without dragging yourself to the finish line. For tradies, retail and hospitality, this is often the busiest stretch of the year. For others it's a quiet period, a time to ride things out or a chance to get ahead. Neither is wrong, but they call for very different priorities. If it's your busy season, the focus is delivery. Get as much work done and invoiced as you can, keep your rosters tight, know your penalty rates so you don't get caught out, and chase your debtors before the break so clients aren't left waiting and you're not left short. If it's your quiet season, Q4 becomes project time: reviewing your website and content, sorting out your marketing, and getting next year's plan done before Christmas rather than losing January to it. Either way, we suggest picking three priorities for the quarter and letting the rest go. We also talk through the realities of a Christmas close-down. There are notice requirements for staff, and some awards limit your ability to close if employees want to keep working. Payroll, super and lodgement deadlines don't stop because you're on a break, so check with your accountant about what's due and have someone on call for anything urgent. Then there's cash flow. Two weeks closed, two weeks of catching up, then waiting to be paid means the real pinch often doesn't land until February or March, unless you plan for it. Finally, we look at why January is resignation season. People take stock over the holidays, and if their last couple of months with you were rough, they'll be thinking about a move. Q4 is the time to put real effort into looking after your team, thanking them, and communicating clearly with employees, customers and suppliers about what's happening over the break. Have you been asking yourself what you should actually be focusing on before the year wraps up? This episode helps you work out what kind of Q4 your business is having, so you can set the right priorities and finish the year on your terms. Key Takeaways: Work out whether Q4 is your busy or quiet season, then plan around that rather than a generic year-end checklist. Choose three priorities for the quarter so you're not pulled in every direction. Plan for the cash flow lag of a Christmas close-down, which can hit in February or March, not January. Check your award obligations and notice requirements before announcing a close-down. Put effort into staff engagement and recognition now to reduce the risk of January resignations. Tell customers, suppliers and staff early what will look different over the break. We want to hear from you: How are you approaching Q4 this year? What's different from previous years, what's stressing you out, and what are you looking forward to as things wind down? Let us know on our socials. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Nobody hands you a playbook for being the boss, and this episode is about owning that role, and the mental load that comes with it, on your own terms. Most of us go from being told what to do to being responsible for everything almost overnight, usually without any leadership or management experience in between. Every decision, every supplier negotiation and all of the risk now sits with you. And this isn't only about leading a team. Solo operators often carry even more decisions, and those decisions can weigh more heavily when they're tied directly to paying the mortgage or the rent. The rewards aren't guaranteed either, especially in the early years or in the tougher seasons every business goes through, no matter how experienced you are. We share how we each handle it. Getting support is a big one, from networks of other business owners to specialists who know more than we do. So is grit: being able to keep going and try again when things aren't going well, with the attitude that most problems have a solution. We also talk about making decisions quickly rather than sitting on them, remembering that the decision you make today isn't a forever decision, and moving away from measuring your success by how busy you are. As the boss, results matter more than activity, and being less busy through better systems is a goal worth chasing. (We also explain why decision fatigue makes choosing what's for dinner so hard at the end of the day.) If you have a team, there's the added pressure of setting the tone and culture, even on the days you're not in the mood for it. If you don't set a clear vision, someone else will, or five people will take your business in five different directions. We finish with what mastering the mental game actually looks like: owning the role rather than running the business by committee, being yourself as a boss instead of trying to become a different personality, putting the right structure in place, and surrounding yourself with the right people. That means your team, but also advisors, mentors, networks and suppliers who will tell you honestly when something isn't landing. Not everything will go perfectly, and a bad decision or a bad day doesn't mean your business is failing. We also share details of the PowerBoss Experience, 30 days of live small group mentoring that works through three foundations: understanding your own boss style, designing the right team structure for your business, and getting the right people in the right roles. Find out more at https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience Have you been asking yourself why being the boss feels so much heavier than you expected? This episode is a reminder that nobody starts out knowing how to do it, and that owning the role, in your own way, is something you can learn. Key Takeaways: Why the jump from employee to owner leaves most of us without a playbook for decisions, risk and responsibility How to make decisions faster, knowing you can change course if one doesn't work out Why results, not busyness, are the right measure of your day as the boss Why setting a clear vision matters, and what happens in your team when you don't How to own the role of boss without changing who you are Why the right people around you include advisors, mentors and networks who will be honest with you, not just tell you you're doing great Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we are welcoming Kate Toon back to the show. After 15 years running a successful digital marketing education business from a hut in her back garden, Kate recently purchased Umina Beach Book Nook, a 20-year-old independent bookshop on the NSW Central Coast. The previous owner was ready to close the doors, Kate's accountant and financial advisor both told her it was a terrible idea, and she bought it anyway. She's refreshingly honest that she knew nothing about retail, leases, stock or the software going in. The results so far are a mixed bag, and Kate doesn't sugar-coat any of it. Revenue lifted 42% in the first year and the shop was tracking at around 8% net profit, which is solid for retail, before a forced relocation and renovation swallowed those gains. She ran a crowdfunding campaign to fund the move, raised around $10,000, and copped criticism for it. We talk about why sharing the hard stuff openly on social media built a community that rallied around the shop, and why so many people who never like or comment are still quietly watching. We also dig into why customers are walking past cheaper, faster options to buy locally. Kate's view is that the shop survives on community rather than books: story time, book clubs, cheese and wine nights, and a space that adds something to the town. She makes a strong case that the only real edge a small business has over big brands is that there's an actual person behind it, so be as quirky and real as you can rather than settling for mass-produced "quirk". And if you're thinking about buying a retail business, Kate's advice is to go in with your eyes open. Selling might take up 20 to 30% of your time. The rest is marketing, community building, events, partnerships and coming up with the next idea. Kate Toon is an award-winning business mentor, digital marketing coach and author of several books. British-born, she moved to Australia at 24 and has worked in advertising and digital marketing ever since, building a successful online courses and membership business before buying Umina Beach Book Nook. Connect with Kate Toon: Visit Umina Beach Book Nook on West Street, Umina Beach, a short trip from Woy Woy Station. Have you been asking yourself whether your small business can really compete with bigger, cheaper, faster competitors? This episode is a reminder that people still want to deal with a real person, and that being honest, human and a little bit different is an advantage big brands can't copy. Key Takeaways: Get advice before you buy a business, and expect to keep learning on the job even when you've done your homework. Sharing your challenges openly can build a loyal community, and for every person who comments, many more are watching. Customers will pay more and wait longer to support a local business that adds something to their community. Your edge over big brands is that you're a real person, so lean into what makes you different. In retail, selling is a small part of the job; most of your time goes into marketing, events and community. As AI-generated content grows, there's a real opportunity in offering the human connection people are craving. If you're on the Central Coast, pop into Umina Beach Book Nook and follow Kate and the bookshop on socials to show your support. https://uminabeachbooknook.com.au/ https://www.facebook.com/UminaBeachBookNook https://www.instagram.com/uminabeachbooknook/ Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. If your team brings you every problem, every decision and every disagreement, the standard advice is that you need to delegate better. In this episode we argue that delegation usually isn't the real problem, and that delegating more can leave you doing even more hand-holding. We compare it to a trapeze: you hold a team member's hand to swing them to the next platform, then you have to catch them again for the one after that. We unpack the three underlying reasons business owners end up as the bottleneck. The first is not understanding how you naturally operate as a leader. We walk through four boss styles: the Driver (direct, wants people to get on with it), the Cheerleader (makes work fun and inspires the team), the Peacekeeper (avoids conflict and wants everything calm) and the Perfectionist (loves data, analysis and detail). Every style has blind spots. A Driver, for example, will often hand over a task and then swoop in and fix it because that's quicker, which only teaches the team to wait to be rescued. The second reason is structure. Most small business teams get Frankensteined together, adding a person here and another there to solve whatever problem is in front of you. What works with two people falls over at ten, and the org chart ends up looking like a spider's web with reporting lines crossing everywhere. When nobody is clear on who makes which decisions, everything lands back on your desk. We also talk about how good intentions, like giving people extra responsibility so they feel valued, can create double and triple reporting lines that confuse everyone. The third reason is the people themselves: lovely people hired for roles that no longer exist, the wrong personality for the job (a big-picture Cheerleader as your bookkeeper, for instance), or gaps where nobody on the team has the skills you need. We finish with the order to fix it in: get to know yourself as a leader and put practical hacks in place, build the structure your business needs right now, then find the right people to fill it. Have you been asking yourself, why does every problem still end up on my desk, no matter how much I delegate? This episode shows you where to look instead. Key Takeaways: Why delegating more won't help if the team is still relying on you for every answer How the four boss styles (Driver, Cheerleader, Peacekeeper, Perfectionist) shape the habits you create in your team Why a Frankensteined structure with unclear reporting lines sends every decision back to you How to match people to roles based on what the role actually needs, not just who you like The order to fix it in: yourself first, then structure, then the team Why taking the slower route and coaching your team to bring you solutions is a gift to your future self Free webinar: Want to go deeper on this? Join a free one-hour webinar on 13 October that walks through all three reasons in detail and helps you work out which one is affecting you most right now. Register at https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/delegation Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Last week, Loren Bartley showed us how she uses Claude Skills as her marketing team. For some listeners that was a big leap. So this week we've stepped it back and shared the everyday ways we're using AI in our own businesses, so you can borrow what works for you. We start with the one habit we'd recommend before anything else: keep your own source of truth. The tools change constantly, and custom GPTs are being retired as we speak. So every set of instructions we give an AI lives in a Word document, Google Doc or spreadsheet that we own. When the next tool comes along, we hand those instructions over rather than starting from scratch. From there we get practical. AI is now our starting point for building lead generation tools. Quizzes and calculators that once took a week or two to build, or cost over a thousand dollars a year in software, now take a morning. We use it to read our weekly Google Analytics and Search Console reports. It tells us which old blog posts are quietly pulling readers every week, shows when tools like ChatGPT have found us, and gives us a short list of actions. We've rebuilt one of our websites page by page so AI search can find it more easily, and learned a lot about the technical side along the way. We're also turning static membership templates, like a guide to difficult conversations, into tools that build a full script in the user's own style. Just as important is what we're not handing over. We don't use AI to give client advice. We've seen it make things up, and if you didn't build the advice yourself, you can't deliver it well. We're also not using it to write our thought leadership, including our weekly newsletter, because it still doesn't sound like us. We finish with a few extras. We talk to AI by voice rather than typing, including a weekly planning conversation on a Sunday walk, and the outputs are noticeably better. We also share some personal uses: fixing a struggling hibiscus, a 12-week fitness plan, and tracking the value of rookie footballers' collectible cards. Have you been asking yourself where AI should actually fit in your business, and what you should keep for yourself? This episode gives you a practical starting list, plus a simple way to protect your work as the tools keep changing. Key Takeaways: Store all your AI instructions in a document you own, so you can move them to a new tool without losing your work when platforms change. Use AI as your first stop for building lead generation tools like quizzes. Ask it to talk you through your options before you pay for software. Feed your weekly analytics reports into AI to find out which content is working, whether AI search is finding you, and where to focus next. Turn static templates into guided tools that do the implementation for your clients or members, not just the instructions. Keep advice and thought leadership in your own hands, because you can't deliver advice well if you didn't create it. Try speaking to AI instead of typing, since conversational voice notes often produce better quality outputs. Tell us how you're using AI We'd love to hear how you're using AI, in your business or at home. Come and share your tips with us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.