Small Business Banter

@DarrenBourke is a #businesscoach and #mentor to #smebusiness #owners.

He's worked as a chartered accountant with @Deloitte and @pitcherpartners, had a #HR startup and authored @thefourthmoon.  

In this episode we talk about #employeeincentiveschemes, we cover;

• different kinds of incentive schemes 
• the quantitative and the qualitative aspects of looking to engage, empower, motivate, and most importantly, retain our existing labor, but also to attract new talent
• some of the common forms of  pushback and objections, both from employers and employees
• why your focus needs to be on your brightest, your best and most loyal ongoing team members. 
• the 3 tier hierarchy;
  1. #bonuses ( then target bonuses, then kicker bonuses)
  2. #profitshare
  3. equity or share of the business 
• when and how to introduce them 
• how a bonus scheme is an entree to moving forward with these incentive schemes. 
• employee incentives leading into a #businesssale
• the role and importance of non-financial benefits 

www.darrenkbourke.com/

@Sri Govindaraju and her husband are co-owners of @Zealandia Honey in New Zealand. 

Sri recently published an update on #linkedin, a very honest, open and honest and personal post,  about being in #smallbusiness with her husband.

It's a ripping and wide ranging conversation about;

•  #familybusiness
• leaving the security of a #paypacket to into business
• moving to New Zealand from India in 2007 
• her educational background in #foodscience and #technology 
• upskilling in business communication
• her first business (Flavours Authentic Indian Food) - started while she still had her job and her children were still young
• finding strengths she didn't know she had 
• the start of Zealandia Honey
• the why for starting - to export #manukahoney to India because India was at that time (and she still thinks) is the diabetic capital of the world
• wanting to make difference to people's lives by introducing honey  
• the #pressurecooker of starting a business 
• entertaining the idea of going back to work last year, because last year (Covid19) was a pretty low point
• listening to the universe's way of saying stick it out 
• #teamwork - understanding that not everyone who's a visionary can do the operation side, and not everyone who's in the operations can be a visionary
• how the ebbs and flow of business impact my children 
• deciding why it's best to never getting into another business with my husband (REMAINING A FAMILY)
• her lifetime ambition is to be of service to people and create #impact 
• #inspiration from her #dad a warehouse manager at Indian Railways who saw a lot of both misery and happiness coming through that warehouse (caused by financial pressure) that he overcame by creating an innovative financial system  - he touched so many hundreds of people's lives through that
• empowerment of women in my community
• #businessmentors
• her lessons for other business founders 

@DarrenBourke is a #businesscoach and #mentor to #smebusiness #owners.

He's worked as a chartered accountant with @Deloitte and @pitcherpartners, had a #HR startup and authored @thefourthmoon.  

In this episode we talk about the post pandemic shift in power from employers to employees. In past more than 50% of his  conversations were about people - internal, sometimes external, sometimes partnership or family business issues. But what's happened is that people issues have probably 10X'd through the pandemic. His work went from consulting, coaching and mentoring through the pandemic to basically welfare and checking in on my owners and helping them hold the fort together. Since coming out of the pandemic Darren (and his clients) have been struck by this incredibly new emerging workplace, the virtual or #hybridworkplace, and the issues that came out of that.

And of course, there was no roadmap for that. In our discussion we talk about;

• the shift in power 
• the 8 to 10 years leading up where we didn't have a lot of real wages growth
• how we have fast forwarded 10 years plus of workplace evolution in 1 to 2 years
• working remotely
• tree change, sea change
• changing the way our family or household dynamic interacts with work
• the many challenges for the employer to catch up, how they marry up their offering to their employee cohort based on these new expectations, wants and demands of the employee cohort.
• the splintering of the connectivity between owners and management, and their operational frontline workers
• #productivity 
• #virtualworkplacer
• the value of having that human, in-person contact
• the reset of the traditional #orgchart 
• the end of the master servant relationship, and move to a more collaborative, consultative, fluid working model
• #marketsalaries as a north star, and paying at or above market salaries
• merit-based increases 
• non-financial benefits - travel exposure to industry events, professional development, flexible work, a more specific 3-to-5-year career path
• creating a sustainable path to success

www.darrenkbourke.com/

@RenéeHasseldine is the #ceo and #founder of @ThinkRAPT Systems, an award winning #pitching and proposal system using #VisualModels. The system organizes the #intellectualproperty in service-based business.  Like many businesses the business was born out of experiences as a service-based business owner.

Prior to that she had a diverse career with experience as an author, writer, career-coach@IBM executive, auditor @PWC and skiguide @mtbuller.

After a lot of learning and constant recalibration she has what many aspire to have - a business that works for her (and not the other way around).  She's in a good place and in this episode freely shares her;

• Experience from starting the business to getting it to where it is now, and
• Three biggest lessons for to help other business owners get to where they want to get faster and with less stress;

1. Being brave by choosing that #idealclientavatar and then having a tight #niche,
   1. "0vercoming the fear that I had, and I know that many people have is that, Well, if I cut down to this niche, I'm going to cut everybody else off. But actually, you're much better off owning that space where you decide to niche, or where your specialty is than trying to appeal to everybody in a much broader audience especially in a service-based business"
2. Market research. 
   1. "I think it's very important to do the market research and to understand the #painpoints that the clients, the audience has, and you've got to start there and find out. Is the audience actually also willing to spend money on the problem that they've got?" There's no point in deciding, Oh, well, my target audience, my solution is, single mums who are struggling. If they have no money to pay for your $20K product."
   2. "Do the #marketresearch and understand the problems and the wants of the target audience, and also, if they're willing to spend money on this problem. Even if it is painful because some people won't"
   3. "Take it from me, one of my crazy ventures was, I opened a vegan cafe in 2002 in West Footscray. I didn't do the market research and let me tell you, I was 20 years ahead of my time"
3. The value of #Mentors. 
   1. "I resisted having a mentor or mentors or surrounding myself with other people for a very long time. I very much believed that I could do it and I could do it on my own because I'm smart enough, I'm serving enough, I can work it out and I will work it out and I'm determined, and I will get there because I will just keep going and I'm ambitious" 
   2. The value of #businessowner #networks
      1. The Institute for Learning Professionals, 
      2. The Xfactor Collective
   3. "Getting emotional support because the people in your family don't understand the challenges that you face as a founder. Only other founders get it. And you can speak to them in a way that you can't speak to your brother or your mom or your sister or whoever. They're not the same to talk to you about the challenges you face on a daily basis unless they're also business owners"
   4. #soundingboards - the power of someone that you can talk to about the challenges that you're facing, whether that's paying payroll this month or even a trouble that you're having with a particular staff member or "Oh, we had our best month ever, but I don't want to brag to my non-business owner friends"
       

@FrancisLoughran generously shares his personal journey founding @FutureFood and then making the decision to move on from the business after more than 30 years. He started by spotting a market gap and then combined a passion for his work and industry with a lot of hard work to start FutureFood,  a pioneering #foodandbeverage #consultancy. 

In our discussion we cover;

• The process of #businessbuilding and #exitplanning in preparation for leaving
• Turning your passion into your own business
• The #businessoffood and the development of Future Food
• How Future Food was developed to meet the demands of Australia’s rapidly growing #tourismindustry
• How important food and beverage has become as a key revenue stream in diverse industries including #aviation #education #sports
• What is involved in taking a business from #australia to the #internationalstage
• Making the decision to leave the business you founded
• Starting to think about about next steps
• The importance of having open discussion during the process of leaving your business
• What advisors and other business professionals were involved in moving on from his business

@FrancisLoughran generously shares his personal journey founding @FutureFood and then making the decision to move on from the business after more than 30 years. He started by spotting a market gap and then combined a passion for his work and industry with a lot of hard work to start FutureFood,  a pioneering #foodandbeverage #consultancy. 

In our discussion we cover;

• The process of #businessbuilding and #exitplanning in preparation for leaving
• Turning your passion into your own business
• The #businessoffood and the development of Future Food
• How Future Food was developed to meet the demands of Australia’s rapidly growing #tourismindustry 
• How important food and beverage has become as a key revenue stream in diverse industries including #aviation #education #sports
• What is involved in taking a business from #australia to the #internationalstage
• Making the decision to leave the business you founded
• Starting to think about about next steps
• The importance of having open discussion during the process of leaving your business
• What advisors and other business professionals were involved in moving on from his business

@GeoffHetherington from @EliteBusinessInstitute teaches #businessowners how to build their business around their life so they stop feeling like an employee and live on their terms, make more money, have more fun & spend more time with those that matter most.

Inspired by childhood family friends he outlines in this episode the case for taking your #retirement early and in instalments (i.e. not waiting and assuming you'll get to the end of a linear #careerpath or #businessownership and assuming/hoping you'll still be able to enjoy it!).  

The retirement in installments story was based on a family he knew. They would go in and buy a #milkbar, and then work virtually seven days a week for two years, bank as much money as they could, and then sell anywhere from two to three years later before then having an extended overseas adventure and buying the next milk bar. 

This family didn't follow the well travelled linear pathway (taught all the way from primary school) to "go to high school. If you get lucky, go to Uni, but whatever, get a job, work for 40 years, retire, happy days."

More and more people are aware of the fact that waking up tomorrow is really not a given. We don't know what's going to happen.  We chatted about;

• getting your business to work for you
• the three levels;
  1. Detangle - get people very clear on where they come from, where they are, where they want to get to, and what areas of their business need the most urgent work on
  2. Designing - designing their business, so it sits around the outside of their life instead of their life being around their business
  3. Dominate - dominate their market place and put together the next strategy.
• #worklifeseparation
• why #worklifebalance as a concept doesn't work
• why 'pretending' you're going to #sellyourbusiness in 3 months (whether you really intend to or not) can make your business more efficient and effective
• why it's so important to ask yourself a fundamental question - "How much is enough?
• misalignment of personal and business goals 
• why you should cascade from your personal and professional goals down to your business goals, down to your #KPIs
• It's really about clarity. I mean, the first thing I try to help my clients do is stop defining themselves by the work they do.
• They define themselves by the work they do. I try to say, "Well, define yourself outside that, if you stop work tomorrow, who would you be?" That's a really challenging thing to do. A lot of people don't do it, but it's still something I asked them to consider
• @theEMyth

Matt Davis, Jayne (his  wife) and daughter left Paris to buy a book shop in Queenscliff Victoria  @BookshopatQueenscliff  

It was a hell of a move! Matt shares the background on why coming back to Australia made sense, seeing a @facebook ad for a #businessforsale and his experience in the process of #buyingabusiness

Matt and Jayne had lived in Paris a long time and their daughter. Matt made music, Jayne wrote and both worked in #advertising  &  #copywriting (English for French brands) which enabled them both to do their creative work. But they weren't such lovers of the school system and came to see Paris as a city built for adults. 

They all decided it was time to move back. They saw the ad of Facebook, bought the business while still in Paris and then made the big move back to a new life and business in late 2019. In our discussion we cover;

• finding meaning in a business
• crafting a living
• the attractions of a #bookshop #small #humble #oldschool
• the upside of a #treechange or #seachange
• how #smallbusinesses are so vital for the vibrancy of #regionalcommunities
• his financial criteria for buying the business
• understanding your personal financial needs from a business
• the bookshop as an important institution in the town
• buying the business 3 months prior to the #globalpandemic
• the upside being that it gave them a chance to sort of figure out how to run it
• the reality of buying myself a job but with real meaning for me, for our family and for the town
• the 3 years since
• why he truly believes in books and how magic books can change your life
• placing a really high value on meaning

www.facebook.com/bookshopqueenscliff/

www.instagram.com/thebookshopatqueenscliff/

www.kerrcapital.com.au

@andygowers  is a #successionplanning and #wealthmanagement  expert. 

He's got a business marketing degree and financial planning diploma . His professional background includes;

• playing #AFL with @hawthornfc for 12 years (including a premiership at Hawthorn in 1991)
• senior #financialplanning roles @anz 
• founding and selling his own wealth management business

He's launched a new business in Succession Planning (with  David Naphtali) and was recently appointed #president Hawthorn Football Club.

This is part 1 of 2 episodes. Over the 2 episodes we talk a lot about succession planning and #exitplanning for private and family businesses, and cover;

• what he learned growing up in a family #smallbusiness;
  • living in an environment which was on reflection high-stress, where a lot of things that weren't  said caused more problems than the things that were said,
  • and how this led to his fascination in succession planning, and  helping as many families and businesses that he can to address these issues
• what he learned when working in the wealth management area of #ANZbank during the #GFC
• the #pyschologyofInvesting
• the #startup of his own wealth management business with a partner and selling that after 11 years
• why  the financial planning discussion was really important to get the the management of people's wealth right but recognising bigger picture to be drawn was #succession
• his mission to help #families (and avoid the potential downsides of wealth)
• #financialgreed 
• why #communication is so vital
• #entitlement and expanding families
• the mechanics of succession or exit planning
• the critical role of an independent expert to guide discussions
• the #nuclearbutton that can trigger when some sibling or a family member says well bugger you I don't care about the rest of you I'm doing this ......
• why you need honesty but you need #sensitivehonesty
• #founder #purpose
• succession in the #royalfamily #farmingfamilies
• the importance of ensuring your #shareholdersagreement is up-to-date
• #businesspartners
• #insurableexits and #uninsurableexits
• the special role of the #trustedadvisor
• setting #rulesofengagement
• the reality of true succession planning that not everybody's going to cut it

@kerrcapital

@Michael Kerr

@andygowers  is a #successionplanning and #wealthmanagement  expert. 

He's got a business marketing degree and financial planning diploma . His professional background includes;

• playing #AFL with @hawthornfc for 12 years (including a premiership at Hawthorn in 1991)
• senior #financialplanning roles @anz 
• founding and selling his own wealth management business

He's launched a new business in Succession Planning (with  David Naphtali) and was recently appointed #president Hawthorn Football Club.

This is part 1 of 2 episodes. Over the 2 episodes we talk a lot about succession planning and #exitplanning for private and family businesses, and cover;

• what he learned growing up in a family #smallbusiness;
  • living in an environment which was on reflection high-stress, where a lot of things that weren't  said caused more problems than the things that were said,
  • and how this led to his fascination in succession planning, and  helping as many families and businesses that he can to address these issues
• what he learned when working in the wealth management area of #ANZbank during the #GFC
• the #pyschologyofInvesting
• the #startup of his own wealth management business with a partner and selling that after 11 years
• why  the financial planning discussion was really important to get the the management of people's wealth right but recognising bigger picture to be drawn was #succession
• his mission to help #families (and avoid the potential downsides of wealth)
• #financialgreed 
• why #communication is so vital
• #entitlement and expanding families
• the mechanics of succession or exit planning
• the critical role of an independent expert to guide discussions
• the #nuclearbutton that can trigger when some sibling or a family member says well bugger you I don't care about the rest of you I'm doing this ......
• why you need honesty but you need #sensitivehonesty
• #founder #purpose
• succession in the #royalfamily #farmingfamilies
• the importance of ensuring your #shareholdersagreement is up-to-date
• #businesspartners
• #insurableexits and #uninsurableexits
• the special role of the #trustedadvisor
• setting #rulesofengagement
• the reality of true succession planning that not everybody's going to cut it

@kerrcapital

@Michael Kerr