Small Business

Exclusive photographs supplied for the Daily Telegraph , The Veronicas

Music festival collapse burns The Veronicas

The Veronicas and major pop and hip hop acts are among creditors owed more than $2m after the collapse of a Queensland music festival organizer.

Chris Herde and Glen Norris

City BeatBusiness

Young Female Welder Working In Factory Wearing Protective Safety Gear Australian manufacturing workers generic, blue collar

Projects portal a billion dollar boost for small business

A Queensland startup is rolling out a new government projects portal that promises to direct billions of dollars into the hands of local contractors.

Glen Norris

City BeatBusiness

George Clooney Slays a Dragon for Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer in New Nespresso Commercial Picture: Nespresso

Blow for Queen St Mall as coffee brand shuts CBD store

Our caffeine-addicted spies tell us George Clooney’s favourite coffee brand is closing its flagship store in the Queen St Mall just as Myer gets ready to shut up shop.

Glen Norris

CommentaryFinancial Services

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos OCTOBER 26, 2022: Generic pictures of the ANZ Bank in Martin Place today. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

ANZ didn’t want ‘distraction’ of Suncorp, now it is all in

ANZ’s efforts to get one of the last remaining banking deals away hangs in the balance with a late push to delay the regulator’s ruling until early next month.

Eric Johnston

‘Franchisors held to account’Companies

Bakers Delight at Toowong Village Milton

Bakers Delight taken to court over underpayments

Fair Work Ombudsman alleges 142 staff, as young as 14, at Bakers Delight outlets in Hobart were underpaid $1.25 million between 2017 and 2020.

Ewin Hannan

ReactionLeadership

This undated handout released by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on July 14, 2023 shows new Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Michele Bullock. Michele Bullock will become the Reserve Bank of Australia's first woman chief in its 63-year history starting in September, the government said on July 14, effectively sacking the incumbent after a series of unpopular rate hikes. (Photo by Handout / RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA (RBA) / AFP) / ----EDITORS NOTE ----RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE MANDATORY CREDIT

Can new RBA boss lift business confidence?

The first woman RBA governor takes the reins as the nation faces its toughest economic challenge in decades. Australian bosses have their say.

Jared Lynch and Paulina Duran

constructionBusiness

13 July 2023: Edward Gilmore with his unfinished home after the collapse of the Felmeri Group in O'Halloran Hill. Picture by Kelly Barnes

Hopes of white knight for failed builder dashed

Hopes a white knight had been found to complete construction of unfinished homes in Adelaide left in limbo following the collapse of Felmeri Group have been dashed.

Giuseppe Tauriello

BeveragesBusiness

Denham D'Silva from Deep Liquid and Anton van den Hengel, Director of the Centre for Augmented Reasoning at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML). Picture: Supplied.

Personalising beer a taste of things to come

That beer you’re sipping not quite to your taste? Thanks to AI, connoisseurs will be able to have their brew tweaked by tapping into a QR code.

Cameron England

Business

Kitchen experiment becomes $13m non-alcoholic cocktail sensation

Melbourne entrepreneur David Andrew has leveraged the popularity of his non-alcoholic cocktail brand into one of the year’s most successful crowd-funding campaigns.

Louise Brannelly

AcceleratorBusiness

Nina Nguyen CEO Pakko, Geebung. Picture: Liam Kidston

Global boost for 10 local food suppliers

Ten Brisbane food industry suppliers have won a place in a local government program to help kickstart their export ambitions. See who made the cut.

Chris Herde

businessBusiness

‘Horror show’: Insolvencies surge 17pc in a year

Australian businesses have a tough few months ahead after a spike in company collapses in the past 12 months. SEE THE FULL LIST

Chris Herde and Glen Norris

citybeatBusiness

LSKD founder and chief executive Jason Daniel.

Young gun’s $100m activewear brand ramps up store rollout

With an expected turnover of $100m in 2022-23, Queensland-based activewear brand LSKD has ramped up its store rollout with plans for an eighth bricks-and-mortar outlet. SEE WHERE

CITY BEAT Chris Herde

Small businessNation

Bruce Billson, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman

‘Vital’ employers in severe financial stress

Three-quarters of small business owners take home less than the full time wage, with the value of the sector growing by 15 per cent last financial year to $506 billion.

Greg Brown

Cool climate, cooler producersWeekend Australian Magazine

EMBARGO FOR TWAM 24 JUNE 2023. FEE MAY APPLY. Analeise Gregory in Tasmania from her cookbook, How wild things are. Photo: Adam Gibson/Supplied

How the Apple Isle became the whole larder and cellar

As food producers, chefs and tourists gravitate to Tasmania, hundreds of individual ‘Tassie moments’ are helping to create something bigger: the transformation of a state in culinary, social and economic terms.

Matthew Denholm

business bankingSmall Business

Zeller founder and chief executive Ben Pfisterer.

Banks taking SMEs for granted, says Zeller founder

The big four banks’ ‘failure to evolve’ business products is a godsend for integrated payments platform Zeller, says founder Ben Pfisterer.

Joseph Lam

Rich listersBusiness

Riviera boss Rodney Longhurst with the company's new $3.2 million 64 Sports Motor Yacht. For business story on export success of Riviera.Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

All aboard: Luxury boat builder cracks $300m in sales

With Tom Cruise among its customers, one of the country’s biggest luxury boat builders has hit a sales record as more rich listers take to the water.

Chris Herde and Glen Norris

COST OF LIVINGWealth

Second jobs surge to pay the bills

New Australian Bureau of Statistics data unveils a big jump in how many of the nation’s 14.2m workers have more than one job.

Anthony Keane

ManufacturingBusiness

Conry Tech founders Ron Conry and Sam Ringwaldt at their Melbourne workshop. Picture: supplied.

Manufacturing an ‘endangered species’ as jobs disappear

Melbourne inventor Ron Conry had to leave Australia to build his first manufacturing business. He wants to build the next one here but says the sector is now on life support.

Nick Evans

Sports marketingBusiness

TEG has acquired Left Field Live and Rugby Live.

Global sports giant TEG scores two major deals

An Australian leader in the global live entertainment and sports sector has expanded its expertise and geographical reach with the acquisition of two long-term partners.

Chris Herde

Global Food ForumSmall Business

Thursday 25th May 2023. The Australian. The Australian Global Food Forum 2023 at Crown, Melbourne. Elke Pascoe, CEO and Founder of LittleOak, and Richard Glenn, General Manager Commercial, Darrell Lea.Photograph by Arsineh Houspian.

Brand revamp delivers magic ‘bullet’ for Aussie exporters

You can’t just sell products in overseas markets with the same strategies that have worked in Australia, say some of our best food and drink export names.

John Stensholt

Global Food ForumBusiness

Thursday 25th May 2023. The Australian. The Australian Global Food Forum 2023 at Crown, Melbourne. Jack Gance, Founder of Chemist Warehouse.Photograph by Arsineh Houspian.

China’s love affair with our products waning: Gance

The chairman of Chemist Warehouse says China’s love affair for Australian products has waned since Covid-19 and the recovery in the relationship has been slow.

John Stensholt

Small businessBusiness

Picture of Eliza Kennedy and Tom Myers, co-founders of The Pawsroom with their dogs Peppa (black and white) and Paulo (in the iscrate) Friday 19th May 2023 Picture David Clark

Doggie box idea that’s become a money spinner

A Brisbane couple has combined a love for their dogs with Scandinavian-style furniture into a side business which is attracting attention.

Chris Herde

AviationBusiness

Unknown So Scott, how many people do you employ? Unknown Prolific about 2820 minute, Unknown okay, that's basically here and the rest is contractors. Unknown So 28 is indirect employees. Okay. Part of what we like to do is, I think part of our services is that we try and soft deliver what we can. The clients know that it's coming from us. We're managing it, we're controlling it. I've got a client down in South Australia that they said we don't want you contracting. We want you to self deliver down. Okay, no worries. I actually knew a builder that move from Queensland to South Australia. And I said, you want to come and work for me? And he's like, Sure, I'll work for you because he knew you knew what we were like when we were working for us as a contractor. Okay. So why don't you work for me as a direct for me? I want you to deliver this work for me Unknown yeah, okay. So, do you do most of the work in Queensland or Unknown Queensland northern New South Wales? Little bit Northern Territory? A little bit in Tasmania. Unknown Yeah. Okay. And Scott, you're looking to grow the business anyway. Are you just going to stable just keep Absolutely yeah. And he's new areas are looking at getting Unknown age growth. So part of part of controlling you know, part of keeping, you know, not not investing in hopes and dreams is actually quantifying and qualifying the moves I don't believe in loss leading. To me, it's an oxymoron. Unknown You got to make a profit. Unknown It's yeah, there's a benefit. Otherwise, again, you go into that will happen. I save money. What can we do to save money to try and make this less less of a loss? And then you're not delivering the best outcome. If you're cutting corners and cutting costs, is providing an economical service. Unknown And any other sudden new areas you're looking at getting getting into fields or any sort of new areas like new businesses or in around the building area. Unknown We're looking to grow in the tech from the service and maintenance where we've set up a new area which is minor and major works for construction remediation, and you know repairs. So that where it goes beyond the capability or the capacity, not so much the capability but the capacity of our service team to deliver. We then have a team set up to deliver the job. Okay, so it could be something as big as you know, you know, a minor refurb or, or a new build. Yeah. And the other the other one is restoration. Okay. So disaster recovery, floods and Unknown which is a sort of big areas. It can Unknown be Yeah, it's a it's not a pleasant area to be No, Lismore was a little cut hard to cut me deep, Unknown actually do work on any projects. Unknown We helped recover a few businesses down there. And it was a I've been through the Brisbane 2011 The 2022 ones and that was what one was just Unknown Yeah. And what we like like refitting and Unknown deploying, we basically did we recovered the site. So we go in there and we get in there and clean them. So we had oil spills and things. Environment Management, yeah. On those. We've had fires where we've had fires up in North Queensland, where we've lost, you know, stores completely, and we've had to decontaminate that whole site, and then return it to trade in a timely manner. And they, you know, they can be that was nearly a million dollars worth of work and one of the size. They can be quite big. Unknown That's gonna be a bigger, bigger, bigger Unknown Well, there's Yeah, Unknown like climate change, I suppose. Unknown Yeah, climate and the climate is definitely changing. That's how that it's not. I don't doubt it. It's just there's other things that I think there's other factors, certainly the way things are being built the developers or councils approving things that really shouldn't have been approved. Unknown And in locations that Unknown Yeah, yeah. What Why is that a swamp land? There's a good reason for that. Let's put a building Unknown then a shopping center has always been a floodplain and finally caught up with with them. Well, yeah, I Unknown mean, Jeff a father, but he grew up next to them. I grew up next to them. I never saw flood as badly as I mean, we didn't. We did a lot of the restoration work in the coals there. Just strip it all down. Clean it all out. I was riffing. Unknown Yeah, apparently northern stuff. And Unknown you got a chicken, you vice that two and a half weeks later without a refrigeration. Unknown It's about oh, God, the smell. Unknown The smell was next level. It wasn't as bad as other other things that were cleaned up. We've done a few other things that people have asked us to do, which are you know, someone's passed away. They're not a glamour job. And they're not so no promotion. Yeah. But yeah, well, we've had to do those. Go we've come through with Yeah, then then you do the reinstatement. Unknown Okay. So with twin boys are just empty nouns and like they just clean it out. Yeah. Unknown I think they have a lot going on. Yeah, I think that's yeah, they can do whatever they do there. They just got to build it up. Yeah, I think exactly. Ultimately. Unknown Yeah. All my pockets. Unknown Well just be another flooding Park. Unknown Maybe the low Eric can be a park and then to build high rises. Unknown Yeah. Well, some of the DA stuff that I have seen on it. You know, they've talked about putting apartment blocks in Yeah. Which is, which is great. I mean, you've got that bus. Terminal. You've got seeing it road. Yeah. You can shoot straight out the highways and the train lines there. Unknown Yeah. Can you talk to me about your turnover? Or revenue? Yeah. So much your revenue Unknown our projected revenue for this year is question one thing I bought one division. Get back to me. So we've said well, I can talk to you about it. Probably a bit more detail is actually our goal. So we when I when I took over as MD We were floating around the 1.8 to $2 million. Mark. I mean, there was some, you know, if I if I want to have a group of projects or delivery of a project, and that would obviously boost that in that period. But when I took over we were sitting there and when I took it on, I went where do I want to be? So I then we created a three year plan, which is obviously this is coming into your third year. And so we couldn't talk but the first year I didn't have a plan. We were developing that plan. Yeah. And then a second year. Yeah. So we're in the second year. So there's that third year rolling into new gender wise and then third year plan. So we started off at to work around numbers to based on what we could see what we knew we could deliver how we could grow it. What were the new areas we could go for which was you know, in service and in joinery. We then went for a $6 million target. So we went from two to six, and we hit that sorry, two to four and a half. It was Yeah. So went from two to four and a half and we hit four and a half in the first six months of our second first year. And then we and then we finished at around the $6 million mark. In the last financial year, this financial year, we're looking to sort of hit roughly around that same sort of six to 7 million. Our goal was to be eight. Unknown So good, solid. There's been some good solid growth. Unknown Yeah. And it's been managed growth. So you're not just sort of Yes Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I've worked with we've brought in external CEOs, CEO Rob Okay. Yeah. And of course, he's still here. He's still here. So he works. He's, he works as CIO. He works on many different projects and we work together with his, with him on how we develop a financial plan forward. Unknown How does that help for a family business to bring somebody in from outside? Unknown I think it's working solely for 20 years with my parents that would not allow or would not did not, didn't have the experience didn't go that or didn't have the cover. I don't know what the word is, what it was, why they chose why why they never did that. Was always foreign to me. And I was always saying why don't we do this and why we did that and never never got any traction. So once I when I did have the opportunity and I could take it Yeah, I think they then realize, oh, you know, you're not wasting money. This is actually delivered an outcome. Unknown Yeah. And it probably brings pretty fresh ideas and Unknown we actually created a, a knowledge base of, okay, this is what it's costing us. Yeah, yeah. This, this is what it costs us. This is what we need to live in to fund it. Okay. And this is what we need to to achieve, to make a profit on it. Yeah. Unknown And is he from the building industry or no? Okay. Unknown So he's purely finance, finance. Okay. I think someone described it as a sort of, sort of I saw him on LinkedIn. They said, it was a photo of him with a beard. I finally made an account with the personality. They weren't my words, but that was I just went you know, David. He's a really nice guy. Unknown Is he full time was he just, he's part time. Yeah. Unknown So he and then we've got a full time accounts team and which we call it a group services. Yeah. Unknown So they've focused on clients and Unknown I'm focused on on the division divisions. I've got the Service Division that I focus on, operationally as well as BD works, development. And in the joinery area, I focus on the business itself. And I've got a manager that's doing the BD in that area, but I support him in that because we can start delivering things that join us can't deliver on their own and we and we saw we use the building as a license to be able to say, not only are we join us, but we're also builders, so we can deliver the whole project to Okay. And then there's obviously the construction side of things and the finance side of things. Unknown So what's been your most favorite your best job your favorite job? Are the projects in any sort of stands out or unusual? Unknown It's probably my probably my favorite one was the was when we did the when we did the rebrand of first choice liquor. It's been a while. Yeah, that was done three years ago. Yeah, so actually, we started the program. We started the project before my son was born, okay, and how old is your son a 334. Next level? Unknown Okay. Yeah. Unknown And he was that we started that we started that for it. Well, I got brought in. Can you help me out with this one, please. Scott. came from the state manager of colts construction. Yeah, he helped me out with this one. Yes, sure. And look at that. And then I would want you doing this one to this one. And then there's one and I delivered the Brisbane north or Brisbane, Brisbane. Unknown Was it being rebranded as Unknown it was basically a name change? What does it now there's choice liquor market, okay. So instead of being first choice Yeah, okay. Okay. So it was new colors, new, new things, new shelving, to the showing that they had was like sort of, some of them was a little bit, you know, borrowed and things like that and we created a uniformity and consistency. You can walk into one down, you know where to go for you. You've just got your you share mine or whatever. Unknown It's a bit of creativity there and Unknown that was provided to us, but we delivered on it, but we've we've delivered six, sorry, we've delivered down 12 of them in in 10 months, six months, six, a six week turnaround on each one. Okay. So it was quite stressful and in the middle of that, first Harry was born and I knew was alive then. Unknown It was a COVID COVID Unknown finished, cabinet finished. I don't know come ahead and start it. I can no cabinet and start because he was born in June 2009. Unknown Yeah, okay. Okay. Okay. Unknown Yeah, so we just finished those projects in November, so, October, November, those are they here and then COVID sort of hit and then everything stopped. Yeah, okay. But we didn't stop. We actually we kept moving. There was a period of there was a you had a couple of meetings with the guys to say, we don't know what what's going on here. But what we do know is that we can afford to keep you and we will keep Okay, so we won't, we won't lay you off. Yeah, but there may be some compromises that fall which is and that we're all really on Unknown board with it. Yeah, I suppose the stores were close to did that sort of help. And some of them no. Liquor stores are open. Unknown Definitely supermarkets. So we had critical infrastructure work that we had to carry out but then we were also doing work for Urban Utilities at the time. So we were delivering pump stations and things like that. People needed water. So we were working in those areas. So we were able to diversify our service go to different areas to do different jobs. And, yeah, we basically we managed I think we managed to keep all that one person. And that was their decision to they, they didn't want to go but they didn't want to. They didn't want to join the team and say, Well, you know, understand that there's going to be some compromises. And they weren't prepared to do that. Yeah. So it was a bit frustrating from that regard. Because he'd been here. He'd been with us since his apprenticeship. He worked across the road from us in a furniture shop and said I want to do I don't want to do furniture anymore. I can't be a carpenter. Right. Okay. Come on in now you've been with us for nearly think it was that ies. Unknown And what was the problem? He was Unknown he just didn't want to do 30 He just didn't want to do the reduced hours. All right. We don't have enough hours. But we can pay for this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And it was rather than give everyone or give everyone you know, 40 hours and knock someone off. Yeah, we can keep someone we can keep everyone employed, but everyone has a reduced hours. And that's what we thought was a fair compromise because everyone in the office had to do the same as well. Right. Okay. So there was it was that balance? Tough time, wasn't it? Yeah. I mean, granted to the team, they were just they wanted to, they wanted to help because they knew when the ball started rolling engine, we'd be front and center from the experience with GFC. Sure. And the GFC sort of hit and then everything sort of HandBrake came on. Yeah. You know, we were the first ones to start the service was the first one that start rolling again. And we were telling them, it's it's not going to finish. It's not going to stop forever. Yeah, yeah. We need to we got to wait for this to roll through. Unknown How do you sort of see the economy going? Unknown It's a very difficult question. Unknown Just from your experience, he thinks slowing down. Unknown I see areas slowing the area slowing down but also see there's there's there's markets and growth in other areas that we're sort of capitalizing on. Unknown As people always need your podcast. mean Unknown just supermarkets are always damaging something. Yeah, yeah. There's always an accident. Yeah, unfortunately. And I've been I've been a contributor to it where I passed out behind a wheel and drove to the front of the shop. Just I just had a coughing fit and well passed out. Your eye Ranger. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no one was injured. Okay. Yeah, these things happen. So it's part of what our services when there's a disaster. We get the call going and happens. So the economy Yeah, yeah. So we've got in our clients rely on the fact that they can call us and we ended up you. Unknown So you'd like 24 hours or Unknown 24/7. So we've got a we got a hub team that work. And we have a service team that was on each rotating week. And we have a service call. service call. technician. Yeah, yeah. And there's, there was there's a backup to the backup. Sometimes, and there's always there's always someone that wants to do if there's more overtime. Can I do it? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You can't do it this week because this person is on call. But if they need a hand, your first call, okay. Good. Yeah. And sometimes I go Don't call me on going to a wedding. No worries. You're off the list this today. See you next week. That's it. Yeah. And the boys enjoy that boys. You know, I'd love to see some more women. In the industry. We had a female cabinet maker and I was really, really worked hard to try and keep her in the game. And unfortunately, she didn't. Didn't work out with it didn't work out for her. Yeah, yeah, it was working for us. But yeah. But then I definitely like one thing that I don't like about the industry and I hear it from one of our one of our facilities managers, that they immediately get dismissed when they go Hi, my name is and they get your go. Unknown Oh, really? Yeah. And I was just like, Unknown we that backwards. Still it's a shame, isn't it? It's what's disgusting. My trunk all the way up. Okay. Unknown Well, thanks, Scott. Yeah, that's really good, good chat. Do you probably want to get a photo of you Dnata is calling for more flexibility in relation to working hours for foreign students

Catering giant warns foreign student visas need overhaul

Australia’s largest in-flight catering company is warning up to 150 flights per week could be affected by tighter restrictions on the amount of hours foreign students are allowed to work.

Glen Norris

The Inner SanctumRetail

Pana Organic CEO and founder, Pana Barbounis.

Sweet reward: from Greek foodie to vegan chocolatier

Now stocked in major shops, Pana Barbounis will never forget telling his father he was quitting corporate life to follow his dreams of selling chocolate on the back of a scooter.

Damon Kitney

NEW RULESSmall Business

Matthew Sears from Gymea is a landscaper and a swinging voter, he makes up his mind at each election as to who to vote for. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Budget details for tradies and small business

Energy incentives, an amnesty on filing late tax returns and how to claim deductions for a new ute have changed. Here’s what SMEs need to know.

David Ross

luxuryBusiness

The Riviera 585 SUV is expected to headline this year's Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show.

Big bucks: Qld firm’s new $3.35m superyacht to make waves

One of Australia’s largest superyacht builders will premiere its latest top-end luxury vessel at Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in May.

Chris Herde

ExclusiveNation

Raising migrant income threshold ‘will hit hospitality’

Industry leaders say hospitality and tourism will be disproportionately affected by the government’s $16,000 increase in the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold.

Sarah Ison

citybeatBusiness

Queensland Gaskets managing director Carl Quarterman. Photo: Claudia Baxter

Family-run Brisbane manufacturer hits its stride after 70 years

A family-owned business that started 70 years ago in a Brisbane workers cottage has taken on some of the biggest names in its industry and is now on the international stage.

Chris Herde

FashionBusiness

LSKD's openng at Pacifuc Beachg San Diego in the US

Crazy crowds as Qld activewear brand makes big leap into US

A growing activewear company with its roots in Logan has opened its first international store in the US and more than 500 fans lined up to get inside.

CITY BEAT Chris Herde

environmentBusiness

Tirtle co-founders and owners Lachlan Hill and May Bandi in their Woolloongabba warehouse. Picture: Liam Kidston

Just add water: How uni friends grew $8m eco success story

Two mates who sunk their life savings into a start-up are set to reap their rewards as consumers switch to environmentally-friendly household products.

Chris Herde

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/small-business/page/6