How Bad can Government Small Business Regulation Get?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

The Minister for Small Business Dr Craig Emerson has written a good article describing the economic basket case that is California, where their public service is paid with IOU’s. Yes seriously. Silicon Valley and Hollywood pay their public servants with IOU’s. How can they do this? They expect that the rest of the US will bail them out, just like Greece expects the EU to bail them out – a giant Ponzi scheme. (Greece expects Germany to increase their retirement age from the current level of 68, so they can continue retire at 58 and receive 14 months pay every year. What can possibly go wrong with that plan?)

Of course that’s Greece. But what about the Californians – don’t they own the internet? California has got to the point where increasing taxes just turns their most productive entrepreneurs into boat people. So the government instead increases regulation with a multitude of permits required to operate a business. Of course each permit requires a fee – a hidden tax that is ultimately passed onto the consumer. So why would you set up a business in California if you can provide a similar service over the internet, immune from the Californian regulation shakedown. California has reached a tipping point where they are all service without productive economy. (You can’t afford to produce anything there.) A service economy cannot exist without production somewhere in the chain. Which is why the public servants in California receive IOU’s.

Australian, on the other hand, is third OECD in the shortness of time it takes to start a business. Dr Cameron is right, for most businesses it is pretty easy. He also goes on to say that he wants to keep it this way. I believe Dr Emerson is passionate about small business, and I congratulate him for writing this article, and I want to be fair and show the other side after my earlier post on Does the Australian Government Hate Small Business?

Dr Cameron warns against “Californian Dreaming”. While I believe Dr Emerson means everything he says, it is some of his colleagues I am more concerned about!

If you have any comments on small business regulation in Australia, good bad or ugly, please share them in the comments section below.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Start-Ups: Are You Serious?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

As a business coach I get approached by lots of people who are thinking of starting a business, or who have just started. There is one thing in common with all start-ups: they either don’t have much money, or don’t want to spend any. This is understandable. They don’t know whether the business will actually work, and how much time and resources they will devote to it.

So the start-up tries to save money by printing business cards on their home inkjet printer using pre-perforated cards from Office-works. They have a hotmail email account, or maybe their home Bigpond account- only marginally better. Their only phone number is either a mobile, or a home phone number that goes to an answering machine when they are not there. The address is a home address or a PO Box.

All these cost saving attempts scream AMATEUR!

It is not just about the money, it is also about the time. So people may try to start a business while holding down a fulltime job. How do you do that? Make calls from your office in the boss’ time- what might potential clients think when your ringing phone is answered by reception, or worse, picked up by your boss because you are not at your desk? Are you only able to meet your clients during lunch-time or after work?

This just informs your potential clients that you are so lacking in confidence in your business’ survival that you are keeping up your day job. Would you want to do business with someone like that?

Although it is hard starting up, you have to convince people you are serious. That you have made the commitment to make your business a success. This means being available to talk and meet with clients at times that suit them, and to invest in your business infrastructure.

In a new business you can expect to spend $10,000 in the first year in the establishment of your business infrastructure. You don’t need to spend this all up front, but there are things you should invest in as early as possible such as:

• Professionally produced business cards and stationery
• A proper email address based on your business name
• A basic website
• Simple advice for start-ups from both an accountant and a coach

So dedicate the time and create a budget of a third of your expected annual spend to make your business look professional and build your own confidence right from the start as you make those first scary steps into your marketplace.

The very fact that you invest your time and money in your new business will increase your commitment to the success of your business. Your potential clients will see this, and be far more confident in dealing with you and be prepared to become one of your first clients.

None of this need to cost a lot of money, but you must be prepared to make these investments, or else no-one will take you seriously and like many business intenders, you will learn the hard way, intentions are not enough.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Google has evicted us

Google has changed its rules again, and now no longer allows you to host your own blog on your own website. We have, therefore, had to transfer this blog onto Google's servers. Google claims all links will be presevred, and so will our Page Rank. We will see.

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Missing Your Marketing Bus

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Ever have a marketing plan that seems a great idea at the time, only to see it fizzle and even backfire through circumstances beyond your control? A great example of that landed in my mailbox a day or two ago. (I have cut off the name of the business- which is a well known handy man franchise.)




The government cancelled the home insulation scheme over a month ago, and I still received this offer. When you receive such a flyer in your mail, what do you start to think about the provider of this service? “Are they one of the dodgy firms that caused it to be closed down?” Even if it was just poor timing, it is not a good look and reflects poorly on the business to be associated with such a disreputable scheme.

To be fair to the business, there would be timing issues here beyond their control. There is the printing lead time for a large number of flyers. There is also the distribution lead time. However, they would still have had time to withdraw this ad, even if there may have been significant cost penalties; but they proceeded with this promotion, presumably because of their financial commitment. Perhaps they figured it would still provide some brand recognition.

What they didn’t consider was possible brand damage. Now if you were a franchisee paying marketing fees to this franchisor, would you believe your money was being well spent?

Sometimes when the marketing bus pulls out and leaves you behind, you are just better off cutting your losses and choosing another route rather than trying to climb back on to a bus to nowhere.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Australian Landscape Photography

Some Autumn Scenery for your enjoyment. Another Australian Landscape Photograph kindly provided by Pele Leung Photography.

Alfred Nicholas Gardens - Victoria

The Australian Small Business Blog

Benchmarking Your Business Performance

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

How do you know how your business compares with others? You can ask your competitors, and they always say business is great. Why wouldn’t they, after all, when they ask you, you tell them the same thing!

Well there is a way to see how you are going against others. The Australian Tax Office have released performance benchmarks for 50 types of businesses. Their purpose, as you might expect is not totally altruistic. Their objective is to identify businesses outside the performance norms so they can target them for tax audits. However, you can use these benchmarks to see how you are doing against others.

For different types of business and turnover ranges, the ratios of cost of goods sold, labour and rent to turnover are presented. As a word of caution- the ATO excludes from the labour ratio the wages of owners. However, you can get an idea of the gross margins on which others are operating for different sizes of business.

To use these benchmarks, select your industry, the turnover range that applies to you and pick an average value of the ratios. For example, if you have a plumbing business turning over $200,000 per year, materials costs average 38% and labour costs (excluding the owners’ wages) are 15%. The ATO note that most plumbers do not report rent as presumably they run their businesses from home. Therefore, the gross margin before general overheads and owners’ wages is 47%.

There is, of course a range of gross margins for plumbing businesses of this size of 36%-58%. Well run businesses with good marketing will be at the top end of this range.

Where does your business fall within this range? This will give you an idea how well you are doing and provides a performance benchmark for your business.

If your business is at the bottom end of the range, you need to understand why. “The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success” is a great resource to understand where the performance gaps are in your business.

Now you know where you stand, what are you going to do about it?

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Does the Australian Government Hate Small Business?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

The government is currently considering a change in tax regulations that will bind small business in red tape that will make the GST look like a picnic. It is certain to cause people to close their businesses, particularly older business owners.

This change is driven by two things- the union’s hatred of independent contractors, and the government’s insatiable desire to increase taxes. An alignment of planets you might say.

Firstly the unions want to force independent contractors into a unionised workforce. However, the very existence of this sector is largely an arrangement of mutual convenience particularly in project based industries where workforce needs in any business may change dramatically. It offers the business the opportunity to bring in skills as a project demands without the additional cost commitments that placing people on staff has. This keeps project costs down.

For the contractor, it gives them the flexibility to work with businesses where the activity is, and decline work they don’t want but may have to take on if they were employees. This independence is highly valued by these contractors who contract with a variety of businesses in the course of a year. They bid for work like any other small business, putting in quotes, taking care of their own professional development and building their own reputation or brand.

Yes there is probably some rorting of the arrangements with some contractors really being employees, but the existing tax arrangements look through this to see how many clients a contractor may have in a year. If it is just one, they are taxed as an employee.

So how will it affect other businesses? Robert Gottliebsen gives some examples:

“Each plumber or computer consultant in Australia will need to differentiate between their income from capital (spanners, shovels and computers) and their income from labour (digging the ditches and writing software).

Under the Sherry (Nick Sherry- Deputy Treasurer) -blessed plan, part of the income derived from labour would be attributed to the person who supplied the labour and those people would be treated as employees – not business people. The income earned on capital could be returned to the owner(s) of the capital, which may differ from the person who provided the labour. Have you ever heard of anything more stupid? But the Sherry-blessed plan gets worse.

The plumber and computer person must make an annual report to the ATO so that the ATO can match data to see how many clients they have had in a year. If more than 80 per cent of the business income came from one group then whammo! You are an employee.
And once the plumber and computer consultant are deemed to be employees, all their business deductions will be looked at in a different light. Their customers may be required to deduct tax when they pay the invoice.

And, oh yes, every business must have two employees to be a business.”

So how will that work for your business? How much time and cost will it take you to get some kind of exemption if the rules don’t apply to you? I predict a paper nightmare. Gottliebsen predicts a 1 term Labor government.

This is now part of the governments top secret Henry Tax Review. (It was completed last year and the government refuses to say when they will release it.) We will know for sure come May when the budget is brought down or before the election later this year whether the Government really hates small business. If you would prefer that this does not become policy, contact the “advocate” and minister for small business in the government Dr Craig Emerson and let him know what you think of this proposal.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Do Your Customers Fight Like Cats and Dogs?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

One of the most popular articles I have ever written was Are Your Customers Cats or Dogs? In it I warned that businesses can have both Feline (High Value Customers) and Canine (Budget Customers) but you need to ensure that you keep them apart. After all, we know what happens when you put Cats and Dogs together. (I am talking about market segmentation!)

If your segmentation is poor, you find that your customers are looking over the fences and seeing that the grass appears greener on the other side. Perhaps your budget offer might appeal to the customers you previously thought to be premium.

In market segmentation, I often like to compare Qantas and Jetstar. Both, of course are owned by the same company, but one is cheap and cheerful, and the other is focused to the business traveller. While the business traveller is still cost conscious, they want reliability and flexibility. Jetstar does not offer this, with delays far more frequent.

However, within Qantas you have a choice of classes, within which the Jetstar vs Qantas reliability does not exist. Whether you are at the front of the plane or the back of the plane, you arrive at the same time, even though it may take you a bit longer before you are at the taxi rank.

For international flights, this becomes even more difficult to justify in the difference between Business and First Class especially since fierce with competition Business today, is as good as First ten years ago (the margins were very high). About the only reason you would fly First internationally today is because you can’t afford your own private jet (Loser!).

So now we see Qantas is dramatically reducing its first class offer. As a result of competition, the segmentation between First and Business has collapsed and companies find it harder to justify the premium for First except for the very top executives.

How does this relate to small business owners, who are still weighing up the cost of Jetstar vs back of the plane Qantas? In fact it does not just apply to small business.

There was a situation where there was a confrontation between the Australian Government and Bonds on closing down an Australian plant because high union rates of pay had made them unprofitable, and they transferred their production offshore. There was an awkward situation when the minister and the CEO where on the same plane. However, there was no meltdown on the plane, as the minister was seated in first class and the CEO was travelling economy. (Your taxes at work.)

For small business, the message is that if you have both Feline and Canine customers, that they can’t look over the fence. While you have competitors, it is unlikely to be as ruthless as the international aviation industry which is highly subsidised and dysfunctional.

So you can offer both Premium and Economy services, just as long as you can keep the cats and dogs apart.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Breaking the Link between Cost and Price

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Businesses often use simple formulas to calculate their prices. Usually based on some on some mark-up, so in a store all items might be priced with a 60% mark-up on cost with the 60% covering wages, overhead, and hopefully profit.

In a businesses where prices are easy to compare, this practice is rife, but for more complex services or businesses which package their products in ways that can’t be compared, this restraint need no longer apply.

Many years ago in Melbourne, I heard Kevin Dennis, the used car king, being interviewed about how he started in the auto industry when he left school. He always had a passion for cars, and had the opportunity to be interviewed by the principal of two different car dealerships for a job. One was a new car retailer, and the other was a used car dealer.

He found out where they lived and saw that the used car dealer was far wealthier than the principal of the more prestigious new car business. Which is why he went into used cars.

New cars are commodities. Used cars have histories that make them difficult to compare and value, and so the margins are far higher. The used car dealer also gets to bargain twice, when buying and when selling. Quite often a new car dealer can make more money from the trade-in at their associated used car lot than they can from the new car where margins are fixed.

Pricing on value also depends on being able to sell to those who value the utility of the product rather than the cost of supplying it. This is beautifully illustrated in the video below (caution some mildly strong language).



While this is of course exaggerated, a similar shop in a less wealthy area with the items poorly presented would not be making the margins of the store in this video. Environment, presentation and packaging are all important elements in the establishment of value.

These are just some of the steps to take to break the link between cost and price.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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How Do You Charge Your Customers?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

We had just finished a meal at a restaurant, which while quite reasonable, was not otherwise memorable. The bill came to a little over $100. I would have normally left a tip of around 10%.

As we were on holidays I wanted to preserve my cash, so I offered to pay by credit card. It was then I was informed, that yes they did accept credit cards, but there would be an extra 1.5% charge added to the bill.

This restaurant was in a resort area (in Australia), and none of the other establishment we had visited had charged extra for credit cards. For them it was just seen as a cost of doing business, with a recognition that people were more likely to buy something if they did not have to pay cash.

As someone ‘in the game’ I like to look at what is done well, and what is not. If it is done well, I like to recognise it, if not, I like to recognise it.

So I made the point that I would have been happy to have paid a 10% tip, but since they were slapping a 1.5% charge on the bill that no other restaurant did, I did not think any further additions were necessary. So they lost 8.5% by trying to recover 1.5%.

These sort of imposts just annoy customers, especially if you are the only one doing it. Phone companies can do this as all their competitors do it, and their margins are nowhere near the size of those of a restaurant and savings on credit card costs are a significant bottom line addition for them. Further, they offer many other payment options other than just cash. Phone companies even charge you for sending you their invoices, because that is the standard. This leaves the field open to a company that offers a service with no extra charges as a point of difference!

For the restaurant, the equation is different. Do they think that they will save more money by applying this charge than they might lose by turning off customers? If they were concerned about the 1.5% credit card charge, why not just put up their prices by 1.5%? Do you really think that someone would cross the street to another restaurant because their prices were 1.5% dearer? Could they even tell, given that the menu was unlikely to be similar enough to compare prices?

At a restaurant, the meal is meant to be an experience. As you leave in good humour, and perhaps a little light headed after a glass or two of wine, you don’t want to affect the tip because you appearing to be cheap (particularly if your average bill is around $100).

Personally, I am happy to take most credit cards in my business, even Amex with its 3% fees! I want it to be as easy as possible for clients to pay me. (As an aside, I used to accept Diners Club, but only 1 person in 3 years ever used the facility, but boy was he excited to find someone who actually took the card. Perhaps I should have charged extra!) I believe these charges are a small price to pay to complete the sale.

Costs are always important in any business, but the way you charge can affect your image almost as much as what you charge.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Business Systems- When the Cat’s Away

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

What Happens When the Cat is Away in Your Business?

When the cat’s away, we all know what the mice do, but what do your staff do when you’re away? If yours is like most businesses, not a lot. Generally, they just go through the motions.

Why do the mice play when the cat is away? It is because there are no order or control systems in the barn if the cat is having a nap. The cat is the system. In its absence, the mice make their own rules and look after themselves. They pursue their own goals. While it might look like anarchy, there is still an element of self preservation. They would, for example, be careful not to disturb the cat’s slumber. When the cat awoke, they would return to their normal routine with the cat in control as if nothing had happened while it was asleep.

Does this sound like your business?

A client of mine who ran a membership business found after returning from a four week overseas holiday, not a single new sale was made. Sure the existing clients were looked after, but her staff actually claimed that there were no new enquiries during her absence, in spite of the fact that she had prominent advertising which generated a constant stream of leads, both before she left, and after she returned.

Sound familiar?

Like the cat, she was the system. When she was absent, none of her staff thought to disturb her on vacation to say they weren’t making any sales. Whenever she made contact from the other side of the world, she was assured that everything was fine. And of course things were fine. Her staff were having a holiday too!

At this point she realised that she was never going to have a business that ran without her without developing a Business Management System. Which included a robust sales pipeline.

Her staff were provided an Operations Manual with a complete documentation of her business systems along with reporting and performance measurement systems.

Her final step was to ensure that her staff were fully trained in the operation of these systems and were appraised on the basis of objective performance standards with appropriate rewards for excellence.

Now when the cat’s away, the cat can play!

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Home Based Business Australia

Barbara Gabogrecan

Would you like to have dozens of new potential clients to add to your list this month?

Would you like to access over $6,000 in prizes that are of real value to your business?

The fastest growing business sector in Australia is the home based business sector. If you are not one, then you should at least be targeting the sector to sell your product and services to. At the beginning of each year hundreds of people decide to start their own work from home business.

Mums finally have their youngsters start school (or leave home); employees get retrenched (or decide they want a new start); husbands want to watch their children growing up; people just don’t want to travel in the heat and don’t need the huge cost of petrol or public transport; they may just decide that they want to be their own boss – whatever the reason, there will be many ‘start up’ businesses from home this year.

Home Based Business Australia will become a very important portal for this growing sector, especially as the re-vamped website is already acquiring enormous interest – even before it is launched.

Home Based Business Australia is offering over $6000 of prizes during its launch. Starting at January 25th. There is no ‘Mickey Mouse’ hype here. The launch will provide prizes of REAL value to your business. If you wish to offer a prize and increase traffic to your website, please visit the Home Based Business Australia website and enquire directly.

So do your business a favour and check out Home Based Business Australia.


Barbara Gabogrecan is the President of Home Based Business Australia.

Australian Landscape Photography

Happy New Year to all business owners. Please enjoy another Australian Landscape Photograph kindly provided by Pele Leung Photography.

Hill Inlet Whitsundays, Queensland

The Australian Small Business Blog

Small Business Owners Christmas Party

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

At this time of year, we hear of all the extravagances of the corporate Christmas parties. Who says the self-employed can't have fun as well?

May Your Christmas Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Small Business Blog in top 75 Globally - Breaking News

Thanks to our contributers, readers and commenters, The Australian Small Business Blog was ranked as one of the Top 75 Business Blogs Globally. (We came in at 43 and represent Australian/NZ. Not sure how the Kiwis will react.) And a special Thanks to Google!!

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Dr Greg Chapman
Author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success

Owners Get Lost! And Grow Your Business.

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

An Interview with Dr Greg Chapman on taking time off for small business owners. The interviewer was Donna Page of Nett Magazine.

Q. The experts say taking a break is essential for mental well being and family life- how difficult can this be for small business owners?

Most small businesses depend on their owner’s being there- when they are not nothing happens. The staff look to the owner to solve all the problems and the owner brings in the business. So if the owner is away, sales fall and problems requiring the owner’s attention can’t be fixed until they return. That’s why so many businesses close over Christmas- it is the only time the owner can get away, and their staff must take their leave then as well.

Q. Can you please detail some reasons why small business operators don't take breaks?

Most business owners are micro managers- if they give someone else the work, they mess it up, and the owner spends twice as long fixing things. So that get in the habit of doing most things themselves, and anything they give to staff, they have to look over their shoulder to make sure that things are done they way they want. Even if they only go away for a short time, things don’t get done properly.

This is the owners fault as they don’t have systems in their businesses so their staff can run things when the owner is absent.

Q. From your experience, what are the problems associated with small business owners who do not take breaks and do you believe many do take holidays?

If the owners don’t take breaks, they end up burning themselves out. So most do take breaks, but their businesses do suffer when they are away.

Q. What strategies can be put in place by small business owners to ensure breaks are taken?

If owners put in place systems in their business, they can give much of the work they presently do to others. They also need reporting in their businesses to ensure that the work is being done when they are not there. All big businesses already have systems and reporting in place- or else they would still be small.

Q. Is slowing down the business a good strategy?

If you mean slowing down the business so they can take a break, that’s a cost to the business. So while the store is closed for business, you are still paying rent. If you can keep it open, and have staff properly trained in your systems, you can be making money while you take a break. After all staff get paid when they are on holidays, so why not the boss?

Q. If the owner takes a break, how can that help their business?

There is an old saying that owners need to work on their business rather than in it. When they take a break, they are not faced with the day-to-day pressures of their business. This gives them time to think. Not just about their business, but also their life goals. The break will also allow them to re-energise. Owners tend to come back from breaks with a new ideas and a new enthusiasm to implement them.

Q. What are the top 5 ways to make sure you get the break you deserve.

1. Start to delegate as many tasks as you can to your staff
2. Monitor your staff’s performance and provide training to support them
3. Create reporting systems – what gets measured gets done.
4. Have systems for all tasks in your business
5. Take short breaks before trying to take a long break

Q. Any final thoughts?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Remember all big businesses started as small businesses facing all the problems about taking leave from their business that you are. Everyone of them would have sort advice at some stage. Yes you will have to work to put all this in place, but then, you can take a holiday!

Learn how to make your business run without you Then you can Get Lost when ever you feel like it.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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A Winning Business Strategy - Losing

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Can you imagine a strategy for your business where you deliberately decided to come last? Does that sound crazy?

Most businesses struggle with strategy. Strategy is poorly understood and even more poorly executed. Strategy is all about positioning and not trying to win, or hit a six on every ball. Sometimes it is about surviving until the right ball comes your way, and then hitting a six.

That’s the strategy that Australian Steven Bradbury adopted in the final of the men’s short track skating in the 2002 Olympics. Australia had never won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. In the pool we are great, but on the snow, we are like the Jamaican bobsled team in Cool Runnings. Our tallest mountain would be regarded as a foothill in the Swiss Alps, so our winter athletes have none of the natural advantages that the athletes in cooler countries have.

Under these circumstances, reaching the final was a great achievement for Bradbury, but he knew that he would be the slowest in the next race. He knew that on most occasions his competitors could out race him – but he also knew that in this highly aggressive sport, collisions were frequent. He was just hoping that if there was a collision taking out 2 of the skaters, he could pick up a bronze just by staying clear of the collision by holding a position at the back of the pack and waiting for his chance.

In this event, however, four skaters went down, and he was able to skate past all the fallen competitors to pick up the gold!



If this race was held again 10 times, in all likelihood he would not have picked up any medal nine of the times. He knew he could not win in a head-to-head competition with his more experienced rivals in playing their game. He would simply exhaust himself. So he played a different game. Not one that would work every time, but one that would work often enough to make it worthwhile for his more modest and realistic ambitions.

Having seen how the top skaters raced, he identified a weakness that he could exploit by positioning himself. It was not a strategy for the top ranked competitors, but one a competitor with less capacity could adopt.

Do you have a business strategy that allows you to compete with your bigger rivals, that exploits their weaknesses rather than trying to take them where they are strongest? One that does not exhaust your resources while you wait for your chance? If you deplete all your resources playing your larger competitors’ game, you will have none left to play yours.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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An Australian Landscape Scene

Please enjoy the first of a series of Australian Landscapes Photography kindly provided by Pele Leung Photography.

Lake Eildon, Victoria

The Australian Small Business Blog

How to Get the Best Marketing Advice for Free

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Is there an elephant in your industry? There is usually at least one. They spend $100,000’s on branding, customer surveys, demographic analysis and focus groups. They spend even more on campaign analysis, testing and measuring to work out what works and what doesn’t. If you are a small guy, how can you compete with that?

Well you can. Just become a flea on the elephants back. That is what “Crazy John” Ilhan did. In retail, probably the most costly decision is your location. Go for a low cost location, and you get no traffic. If you go for a high cost location, and it is the wrong sort of traffic, you go out of business. Rather than spending a lot of money on geo-demographic surveys to identify customer shifts, he waited for Telstra or Optus to open a store in a new expanding area, and then open a store opposite and offered every passer-by lower prices.

By being a flea on the elephant’s back, he let the elephant take him to the fertile feeding locations they had spent large sums identifying.

So how might this work for your business? Perhaps you have a motor mechanics business with half a dozen staff. You don't see yourself in competition with BMW, and BMW certainly doesn’t see you as a competitor. You worry about the guy who is about the same size half a kilometre away. So you spend your time checking out what he is doing. This will probably result in a me too strategy, and ultimately the death spiral of a price war.

Alternatively, you could look in another direct. You could pay the same high price marketing company that BMW uses for advice, or you could get that advice for nothing. Drop in to the local BMW service centre and look around. See how clean their service area is. Check out their comfortable waiting rooms. Look at how their staff is presented. BMW spends millions on developing their image.

Now how difficult would it be to give your garage a lick of paint. Supply clean uniforms for your staff. Clean up your waiting room and put in today's paper and a coffee machine? How much do you think that would cost you? Probably $1-2000.

You are still not trying to compete with BMW, just to learn from them. When you start to apply these ideas to your business, the guy down the road won't even be in the game. You will probably even be able to lift your prices! Savvy marketing does not mean high cost marketing.

It is always the little things that make a difference, and you can get all this high price marketing advice for nothing by just opening your eyes and turning your head in the right direction.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Defining Your Customers

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

An important part of any small business' marketing is understanding the nature of their customers. Are your customers Cats or Dogs?

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Never Forget Marketing 101

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

So Chicago lost the Olympics. What happened? Clearly there was a lot of backroom manoeuvring - offers made, deals done. Then the US President and his wife attended the final IOC pitch to seal the deal. What did they then do? They talked about what getting the deal would mean to them. This was particularly the case for Michelle Obama.

They both forgot rule 101 in Marketing.

It is not about you, it is about your buyer. It is about everyone’s favourite radio station WIIFM.
That is: What’s In It for Me?

Now probably the deal had been done with Rio well before the Obamas arrived in Copenhagen, so the final pitches were just for show and the aggrandisement of the IOC. If that is the case, the Chicago bidding team did not understand the bidding process. If the deal was already lost (and clearly comprehensively lost to be eliminated in the first round) they played their trump card for nothing, and in the end, humiliated the Obamas. Do you think Chicago will get any support for future bids or favours?

The Chicago bidding team were clearly not listening to the signals. They would have been there. You have to remember in any bidding process, the buyer will want the losers to stay in till the end, so they can extract the best deal from the winner, so they would be saying encouraging things even if they knew you had lost. Before they played their biggest ace, the bidding team should have known that they had the deal whether the Obamas were present or not, and their presence was just a payment of respect to the IOC for awarding them the bid.

It appeared, however, the Chicago bidding team must have really believed that great speeches by the Obamas would get Chicago over the line. If the speech was the thing that was going to change people’s mind and win the bid, it was the wrong speech. While the Obamas have a lot of goodwill in the international arena, the IOC still listens to WIIFM. Even the international general goodwill the Obamas have is based on WIIFM.

It is useful for small business owners to remember the lessons that too often the big guys forget. The same rules apply, no matter who you are.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Advertising - Can We Live Without It?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Imagine you walked into a supermarket, and you recognised almost none of the brands. There was aisle after aisle of goods to purchase, and you had to stop to read every single packet to see whether you would like this cereal or those biscuits.

This could only occur if you had not been exposed to any advertising before you walked into the supermarket. In our current world, of course, that is impossible, as we grow up with advertising around all around us, but yet this has happened to me.

I have encountered this situation a number of times when I have shopped in a supermarket in another country. I had no exposure to the local advertising and was confronted by a large variety of brands which were literally foreign to me. I was overwhelmed by choice. A simple buying decision, which might have only taken me a few minutes at my local supermarket while I located my favourite brands of particular categories, was greatly extended while I tried to determine which of these new brands would satisfy my needs.

Without the advertising, I did not know what the benefits of each brand were. I couldn’t find out the ingredients without lengthy label examinations. In a number of cases I just opted for the cheapest because I didn’t want to waste more time.

This is an interesting experiment you can try if you are travelling internationally, and you are looking after yourself, rather than just living in a hotel where everything is provided. I believe you cannot understand a country if you have not done your weekly shopping in one of its supermarkets.

Without advertising, there would be no range. Most products would become commodities with no points of difference. There would be only the most basic features. There would be no niche products for special needs. We would be unaware of all the benefits. Prices would probably be higher as there would be no competition.

So when your product is discovered on a store shelf, or on your website, can your buyers readily determine the benefits your product provides and for whom and your points of difference? Is your offer clear, and do you have a call to action? Ideally when they have found your product, they will have already been exposed to your advertising, so the final decision is quick and painless unlike the confusing frustrating ones I had to make without the benefit of advertising.

Enjoy this wonderful paean to Advertising – but a strong language warning at around second 6, after which all is ok and very funny.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Making Your Business Run Without You

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Most business owners waste their time doing low value work. They spend dollar time on penny jobs. Find out what brain surgeons do, and then change your business and your life.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Growing Your Business by Accident

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

All businesses go through predictable changes throughout their lifecycle. From being a solo-preneur to having 20 or more people in the business. At each stage there is a step change in the way the business needs to be managed, and until these changes are made, growth will be difficult. Many businesses have stopped growing and have deliberately shrunk because the owners did not know how to make these changes and how to handle the resulting stress. Unable to cope, they have retreated to the comfort zone that existed in the time when their business was smaller and easier to manage.

Often growth is accidental, not planned, and the owner starts employing many others to get the work done without having in place the structure to manage them. They continue to manage their business in the same way they always have, but find that the old ways don’t work in the larger organisation, and may even be counterproductive. It is like driving from your home to participate in Formula 1 racing, but continuing to drive your old sedan on the racing track, rather than changing the vehicle for the new conditions.

When considering the Lifecycle of a business the following milestone stages can be identified.



The first stage in a business’ growth is when a one person business starts regularly paying for assistance in routine parts of their business. That is they are using routine external support. At this stage, the support is part-time. This usually occurs at the Adolescence stage of the business, when survival is not considered to be an issue. Before then, the owner is trying to save money by doing everything themselves and don’t believe they have the cash flow to pay for outside assistance.

The second stage in the growth of a business is the first employee. This usually occurs during late Adolescence or early Growing Pains. At this point they are likely to be very busy and they can no longer avoid having full time assistance. During this stage they may in fact, increase their staff to four or five people. Having hired the first employee, the second and third are not so hard.

The third stage also occurs in Growing Pains. This is the point at which they may hire a salesperson to assist bringing in extra business to support the additional staff. A salesperson unlike other members of staff has a very different role and is more like the owner than anyone else in the business. They must be entrepreneurial and require different skills to manage.

The fourth stage, also in Growing Pains, is the appointment of a supervisor. For the first time, the owner does not directly control the work of their employees. There is an intermediary. During this stage, there may be other supervisors appointed, and the business can grow to 15 to 20 people.

The fifth stage is the exit stage from small business to medium sized business. This will be the Second Wind stage of the business where it is completely re-invented. Managers are appointed for the first time. This might start with a full time accountant. The issues become organizational and the owner finds their primary role is not as manager, or even entrepreneur, it is as a leader. Few small businesses make it past this point.

The risk for small business is when they wander from one stage to the next by accident. Without understanding the implications of their growth, they will struggle. However, when a business grows by design it is possible to avoid many of the growing pains.

This is an extract from The Small Business Achiever – Business Owner Brief Issue 119 where strategies on avoiding the mistakes of growth by accident are covered in detail.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Online Business Scam

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

As someone who owns quite a few domain names, whenever a domain name gets near for renewal, I get sent unsolicited offers presented like invoices for domain name renewals. They will offer to renew the domain for $245 with an incentive such as an iPod Shuffle. Details of domain name ownership and their expiry are available on public registers which is how they find out who you are.

Your website guru probably organised your domain for you when you first set up your website. They probably only charged you $40-50 for 2 years, which is quite reasonable if they included additional support which most do. If this is your first renewal, you may not even know how little the domain name cost you in your original website investment.

So when you see offers such as the one I mentioned above, remember the iPod is probably costing them $20, and bulk domain registrations wholesale below $30. Everyone is entitled to a margin depending on the service they supply, but $245 is just ripping you off.

I won’t mention the name of the organisation I received this latest offer from as I don’t want to give them a Google boost, but if you own domain names, they will find you.

If you are aware of other scams, I would be pleased to report them for the benefit of others here.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Can Business Planning Ruin Your Business?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

When coming of age at Melbourne University many years ago, Lygon Street was a favourite haunt. One of our regular restaurants was Il Gambero. Unfortunately, due to a recent fire, it is no more. While this is obviously, significant for me, why am I writing about it here?


What struck me particularly was an interview with Frank Di Mattina, the owner. He made a comment (see video) that I am sure would resonate with all small business owners.

“Unbelievably, the whole family… it was the first time we have been away from the business, we have been on a business planning seminar.”

This comment raises a number of questions.

Had they been in Melbourne, would the fire still have happened? Fire investigators believe it was started by an old $3 power board in the kitchen. The fire had started 40 minutes after the restaurant had closed for the night. So if they had been in Melbourne, the fire would probably have still occurred. It was an accident waiting to happen.

Would business planning have prevented the fire? The owners may well have done business planning before, but had they undertaken a business risk analysis and developed a risk reduction plan? For example, did they have as part of their plan regular electrical audits by a qualified electrician?

If they had a risk mitigation strategy and plan, was it followed? If it was not, was it because there was insufficient training or some other factor?

Should they ever leave their business again? They should be building a business that does not require them to be present all the time. There should be systems for all parts of their business supported by training, reports and audits to ensure compliance. If these elements are in place, they should be able to be absent from their business as often as they would like.

This is not the family’s only restaurant and I hope they will be back soon, if for no other reason, I just love their Scaloppini Funghi.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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The Lifecycle of a Business

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

A recent interview with me on BTalk - CBS BNet Australia. This includes a discussion of the issues business owners face when growing their businesses.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

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Marketing Awards 2009

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Empower Business Solutions is a proud sponsor of the

Marketing and Communications Executives International Awards.

The winner last year spent two weeks on a dream trip to Italy with her partner – an awesome prize! This year the overall winner will go to Club Med in Phuket with a partner. That could be YOU!

Awards are also a great way of getting recognition for your business and creating a point of difference. Any Australian Business is eligible to enter. Even if you don’t win, you could be a finalist which is still a point of difference!

Categories to be judged are:-

-SME
-Small Business
-Micro Business
-Home Based Business
-Woman in Business
-Ethnic Business
-Young Entrepreneur (under 25 years of age)

The Awards close on October 1st, but start on your entry NOW so that you will be able to schedule it into your busy life.

Go to http://www.mcei.org.au/ then AWARDS for detailed information.

Please let me know if you decide to enter and feel free to nominate any of your business associates. When you find a good thing, share it!

May Your Business be as You Plan It!

Dr Greg Chapman

The Australian Small Business Blog

Business Owner Winners July Blogging Competition and August Competition

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

I am pleased to announce the 3 winners of July's blogging competition. The winners will each receive a HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One printers valued at $499 each.

Firstly a special mention s to both Steve Osborne and Brenda Thompson for their posts. However the three winners are (in no particular order):

Cynthia Colli for her passionate comment on Coles controversial marketing campaign.

Peter Grant for some extremely interesting marketing data about how many contacts it makes to make a sale.

Nerida Gill for commenting on other comments in the best tradition of blogging.

Ladies and Gentleman, your printers are in the mail!

Thank you everyone elso for their contributions.

The August competition will be for 3 months subscription to the Small Business Achiever valued at $141 for the best commenter.

Post Early and Post Often. Carry on Blogging!

May Your Business be as You Plan It!

Dr Greg Chapman

The Australian Small Business Blog