The Australian Small Business Show

Hosted by Kristy-Lee Billett

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121

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Oct 2026

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About the show

The Australian Small Business Show has been created by small business owners, for small business owners. Your hosts Matt Heighway and Kristy-Lee Billett, who have both been running businesses for over 15 years, will bring our first hand experiences to offer insights, advice and inspiration to help you build a successful small business. Each week we’ll discuss one specific strategy, topic, resource or tip that’s relevant for every small business, and we’ll be inviting along some amazing guests and friends in business to share their expertise with you. Whether you're starting out, scaling up or a seasoned small business owner, this Australian Small Business Show is the show for you.

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October 17, 202616 min

How to Master the Mental Game of Being the Boss of Your Small Business

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

October 10, 202619 min

What Happens When You Swap an Online Business for a Bricks-and-Mortar Shop? With Special Guest Kate Toon.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we are welcoming Kate Toon back to the show. After 15 years running a successful digital marketing education business from a hut in her back garden, Kate recently purchased Umina Beach Book Nook, a 20-year-old independent bookshop on the NSW Central Coast. The previous owner was ready to close the doors, Kate's accountant and financial advisor both told her it was a terrible idea, and she bought it anyway. She's refreshingly honest that she knew nothing about retail, leases, stock or the software going in. The results so far are a mixed bag, and Kate doesn't sugar-coat any of it. Revenue lifted 42% in the first year and the shop was tracking at around 8% net profit, which is solid for retail, before a forced relocation and renovation swallowed those gains. She ran a crowdfunding campaign to fund the move, raised around $10,000, and copped criticism for it. We talk about why sharing the hard stuff openly on social media built a community that rallied around the shop, and why so many people who never like or comment are still quietly watching. We also dig into why customers are walking past cheaper, faster options to buy locally. Kate's view is that the shop survives on community rather than books: story time, book clubs, cheese and wine nights, and a space that adds something to the town. She makes a strong case that the only real edge a small business has over big brands is that there's an actual person behind it, so be as quirky and real as you can rather than settling for mass-produced "quirk". And if you're thinking about buying a retail business, Kate's advice is to go in with your eyes open. Selling might take up 20 to 30% of your time. The rest is marketing, community building, events, partnerships and coming up with the next idea. Kate Toon is an award-winning business mentor, digital marketing coach and author of several books. British-born, she moved to Australia at 24 and has worked in advertising and digital marketing ever since, building a successful online courses and membership business before buying Umina Beach Book Nook. Connect with Kate Toon: Visit Umina Beach Book Nook on West Street, Umina Beach, a short trip from Woy Woy Station. Have you been asking yourself whether your small business can really compete with bigger, cheaper, faster competitors? This episode is a reminder that people still want to deal with a real person, and that being honest, human and a little bit different is an advantage big brands can't copy. Key Takeaways: Get advice before you buy a business, and expect to keep learning on the job even when you've done your homework. Sharing your challenges openly can build a loyal community, and for every person who comments, many more are watching. Customers will pay more and wait longer to support a local business that adds something to their community. Your edge over big brands is that you're a real person, so lean into what makes you different. In retail, selling is a small part of the job; most of your time goes into marketing, events and community. As AI-generated content grows, there's a real opportunity in offering the human connection people are craving. If you're on the Central Coast, pop into Umina Beach Book Nook and follow Kate and the bookshop on socials to show your support. https://uminabeachbooknook.com.au/ https://www.facebook.com/UminaBeachBookNook https://www.instagram.com/uminabeachbooknook/ Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances. Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience

October 3, 202617 min

3 Reasons You Are Stuck as the Bottleneck with Your Team

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. If your team brings you every problem, every decision and every disagreement, the standard advice is that you need to delegate better. In this episode we argue that delegation usually isn't the real problem, and that delegating more can leave you doing even more hand-holding. We compare it to a trapeze: you hold a team member's hand to swing them to the next platform, then you have to catch them again for the one after that. We unpack the three underlying reasons business owners end up as the bottleneck. The first is not understanding how you naturally operate as a leader. We walk through four boss styles: the Driver (direct, wants people to get on with it), the Cheerleader (makes work fun and inspires the team), the Peacekeeper (avoids conflict and wants everything calm) and the Perfectionist (loves data, analysis and detail). Every style has blind spots. A Driver, for example, will often hand over a task and then swoop in and fix it because that's quicker, which only teaches the team to wait to be rescued. The second reason is structure. Most small business teams get Frankensteined together, adding a person here and another there to solve whatever problem is in front of you. What works with two people falls over at ten, and the org chart ends up looking like a spider's web with reporting lines crossing everywhere. When nobody is clear on who makes which decisions, everything lands back on your desk. We also talk about how good intentions, like giving people extra responsibility so they feel valued, can create double and triple reporting lines that confuse everyone. The third reason is the people themselves: lovely people hired for roles that no longer exist, the wrong personality for the job (a big-picture Cheerleader as your bookkeeper, for instance), or gaps where nobody on the team has the skills you need. We finish with the order to fix it in: get to know yourself as a leader and put practical hacks in place, build the structure your business needs right now, then find the right people to fill it. Have you been asking yourself, why does every problem still end up on my desk, no matter how much I delegate? This episode shows you where to look instead. Key Takeaways: Why delegating more won't help if the team is still relying on you for every answer How the four boss styles (Driver, Cheerleader, Peacekeeper, Perfectionist) shape the habits you create in your team Why a Frankensteined structure with unclear reporting lines sends every decision back to you How to match people to roles based on what the role actually needs, not just who you like The order to fix it in: yourself first, then structure, then the team Why taking the slower route and coaching your team to bring you solutions is a gift to your future self Free webinar: Want to go deeper on this? Join a free one-hour webinar on 13 October that walks through all three reasons in detail and helps you work out which one is affecting you most right now. Register at https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/delegation Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances. Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience

September 26, 202619 min

How We Are Using AI in Our Small Businesses (and you can too)

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Last week, Loren Bartley showed us how she uses Claude Skills as her marketing team. For some listeners that was a big leap. So this week we've stepped it back and shared the everyday ways we're using AI in our own businesses, so you can borrow what works for you. We start with the one habit we'd recommend before anything else: keep your own source of truth. The tools change constantly, and custom GPTs are being retired as we speak. So every set of instructions we give an AI lives in a Word document, Google Doc or spreadsheet that we own. When the next tool comes along, we hand those instructions over rather than starting from scratch. From there we get practical. AI is now our starting point for building lead generation tools. Quizzes and calculators that once took a week or two to build, or cost over a thousand dollars a year in software, now take a morning. We use it to read our weekly Google Analytics and Search Console reports. It tells us which old blog posts are quietly pulling readers every week, shows when tools like ChatGPT have found us, and gives us a short list of actions. We've rebuilt one of our websites page by page so AI search can find it more easily, and learned a lot about the technical side along the way. We're also turning static membership templates, like a guide to difficult conversations, into tools that build a full script in the user's own style. Just as important is what we're not handing over. We don't use AI to give client advice. We've seen it make things up, and if you didn't build the advice yourself, you can't deliver it well. We're also not using it to write our thought leadership, including our weekly newsletter, because it still doesn't sound like us. We finish with a few extras. We talk to AI by voice rather than typing, including a weekly planning conversation on a Sunday walk, and the outputs are noticeably better. We also share some personal uses: fixing a struggling hibiscus, a 12-week fitness plan, and tracking the value of rookie footballers' collectible cards. Have you been asking yourself where AI should actually fit in your business, and what you should keep for yourself? This episode gives you a practical starting list, plus a simple way to protect your work as the tools keep changing. Key Takeaways: Store all your AI instructions in a document you own, so you can move them to a new tool without losing your work when platforms change. Use AI as your first stop for building lead generation tools like quizzes. Ask it to talk you through your options before you pay for software. Feed your weekly analytics reports into AI to find out which content is working, whether AI search is finding you, and where to focus next. Turn static templates into guided tools that do the implementation for your clients or members, not just the instructions. Keep advice and thought leadership in your own hands, because you can't deliver advice well if you didn't create it. Try speaking to AI instead of typing, since conversational voice notes often produce better quality outputs. Tell us how you're using AI We'd love to hear how you're using AI, in your business or at home. Come and share your tips with us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances. Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience

September 19, 202625 min

Building Claude Skills to be Your Marketing Team with Loren Bartley

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we're joined by Loren Bartley, founder of Impactiv8, who helps service-based businesses build more profitable marketing systems in partnership with AI. Loren runs the AI Mega Success Academy and AI Mega classes, along with speaking, team training and coaching, and she's built out an AI "marketing team" of around 150 Claude skills that now do the work she used to need a much bigger human team for. We get into what a skill actually is, and why it's a completely different thing to a prompt: a skill is a saved, self-contained set of instructions for one specific job, built with your standards, your examples and your edge cases already baked in, so you're not explaining yourself from scratch every time you need something done. We also talk about why narrow, specific skills beat one giant "do everything" skill every time. Cramming every instruction into a single skill means it has more to read, more decisions to make, and a much higher chance of missing something or getting it wrong, not to mention the extra cost of all those unnecessary tokens. A skill that does one small job well, and does it brilliantly, is worth more than one skill trying to do it all. For anyone starting from scratch, Loren's advice is clear: build your brand voice skill first, because that's what stops your content sounding like generic AI output. From there, look at the repetitive, mundane tasks eating your time, and build skills for the things you already know how to do well before you try to hand over tasks outside your own expertise. She also recommends pacing yourself, building and actually using one skill at a time rather than ten at once, because each new skill needs feedback and refinement, much like training a new team member. We finish with the practical how-to: turning a chat you were genuinely happy with into a reusable skill, using Claude's record feature to walk it through a process step by step, or asking it to research frameworks for something outside your expertise and turning that into a skill. Loren also explains "coordinator" skills, where one skill knows which of your other skills to call on for each part of a job, and how Claude Projects let the same skills work across multiple businesses or clients, because the business-specific knowledge lives in the project, not baked into every individual skill. Have you been asking yourself how you're supposed to keep AI output sounding like you without rewriting the same instructions every time? This episode is our answer. Key Takeaways: Understand what actually makes a Claude skill different from a prompt, and why that difference is what saves you real time Know which skill to build first (brand voice) and why it lifts the quality of everything that follows Learn how to spot the repetitive, mundane tasks in your business that are worth turning into a skill Build skills for what you already know before trying to build skills for work outside your expertise Understand coordinator skills, and how a "team" of skills can work together to complete one job See how Claude Projects let you reuse the same skills across different businesses or clients without rebuilding them Loren Bartley Loren Bartley is the founder of Impactiv8, where she helps service-based businesses build more profitable marketing systems in partnership with AI. She runs the AI Mega Success Academy and AI Mega classes, and offers speaking, team training and one-on-one and small group coaching, with a particular focus on helping business owners build their own AI-powered marketing teams using Claude skills. Connect with Loren Bartley: Website: https://www.aimegasuccess.com/ Claude skills resource: https://www.aimegasuccess.com/claudeskills Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances.

September 12, 202617 min

Marketing in the AI Era: What's Actually Changed for Small Business Owners.

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. We sat down this week to talk about something that's been frustrating Matt for months: marketing that used to work just doesn't anymore. The core concepts of sales and marketing haven't changed, but everything around them has sped up, and the touchpoints that used to build a relationship with a customer now have to happen faster and smarter than they did even a year ago. The biggest shift we're seeing is where people go to find answers. It's no longer just Google, it's AI tools, and even when people are on Google, it's often Google's AI doing the summarising. That means the old SEO playbook of giving away just enough to get someone to click through doesn't work anymore. Your content has to actually answer the question, properly, or AI skips straight past it. Matt's been rebuilding his own website with this in mind, researching what's landing in those AI-generated answer boxes and making sure his content earns a spot there too. But being found by AI is only half the job. Once someone does land on your website or your socials, they're still checking whether they like you, whether they trust you, whether you're their vibe. That hasn't changed, and if anything it matters more, because trust has taken a hit across the board now that so much content is AI-generated. Kristy-Lee's approach has been to let AI analyse her own analytics and tell her what's resonating, without letting AI write the content itself, because the trust piece has to stay genuinely hers. We also talked about where to actually spend your energy. Referrals, recommendations, testimonials and Google reviews matter more than ever. Your email list is one of the only things you truly own. And rather than trying to be everywhere, it might be smarter to pick two or three platforms and do them properly instead of spreading yourself across five. We'd love to hear what you're noticing in your own marketing right now, what's working, what you've quietly stopped doing because it wasn't earning its keep anymore. Come find us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok and tell us. Key Takeaways: Why the fundamentals of sales and marketing haven't changed, but the speed and format of every touchpoint has Why website and blog content now needs to directly answer questions to be picked up by AI search tools, not just rank in Google Why trust matters more than ever, and why that's a reason to be cautious about outsourcing your content creation to AI Why analytics are worth paying closer attention to right now, and how AI can help you interpret them without writing your content for you Why referrals, testimonials, Google reviews and your email list deserve more of your attention than chasing every new platform Why focusing on two or three platforms you can do well may beat trying to maintain a presence everywhere Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience

September 5, 202617 min

Single Person Risk: Is Your Small Business Too Reliant on One Team Member, One Client or One Supplier?

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we unpack single person risk from three angles. On the team side, we talk about what happens when one person holds all the knowledge in your business, prompted by a recent client experience where a well-structured team was still genuinely shaken by one unexpected resignation. We discuss why documenting processes and SOPs properly, rather than letting a team member build their own undocumented system, is the single biggest thing you can do to protect your business, and how much easier that's become with AI tools that can help capture a process as you talk it through. We then move to client concentration risk, sharing our own experiences of losing a client that made up a significant share of revenue, and why we think 20% of income from any one source is a sensible ceiling to work towards. We talk honestly about how easy it is to let marketing slide once a big, comfortable client comes along, and the flow-on risk of giving one client enough power to push down your prices as well as your time. Finally we cover supplier risk, particularly relevant right now given how many businesses across industries like construction are going into liquidation. We share an example of a manufacturing client who built a genuine three-tiered supplier strategy, with backup suppliers they maintained real relationships with, not just names on a list, so they were never completely exposed to one supplier's problems. Across all three, the common thread is control. If someone else, whether that's a team member, a client or a supplier, holds the power in the relationship, your business carries real risk. Have you been asking yourself, "How reliant is my business on any one person?" This episode gives you a practical starting point for finding out, and for building in the contingencies before you're forced to. Key Takeaways: Document your processes and SOPs properly rather than letting critical knowledge live in one person's head, and use AI tools to make capturing them easier than ever Aim to keep any single client below 20% of your revenue, and keep marketing running in the background even when a big client makes it tempting to stop Build genuine backup supplier relationships before you need them, not just a name in a drawer you've never actually ordered from Watch for situations where a team member, client or supplier holds enough power to start dictating terms, whether that's pricing, timelines or decisions Assume loyalty isn't a long-term plan; build a simple contingency matrix so a resignation, a lost client or a supplier collapse doesn't mean panic stations Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you. Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances. Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience

August 29, 202626 min

What Type of CRM Does Your Small Business Actually Need? With Frieda Maher from SalesPOD

Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. This week we're joined by Frieda Maher from SalesPOD, an independent technology consultant who helps small businesses plan their CRM and customer facing systems without being tied to any particular software provider. That independence matters, because Frieda isn't trying to sell you a licence, she's trying to find what actually works for your business, and that's exactly the lens we bring to this conversation. We start by unpacking what "CRM" actually means, because it gets thrown around as if it's one thing when it's really a broad church. There's marketing CRM (newsletters, automated sequences), sales CRM (tracking conversations and pipeline so nothing falls through the cracks when more than one person is talking to customers), service CRM (think Zendesk style ticketing) and e-commerce CRM (the Shopify style "people who bought this also bought that"). Most small businesses don't need all four, and a lot of us are only using a fraction of what we're already paying for. Frieda gives us a genuinely useful filter for deciding whether you need a system at all: value only ever comes from two places, more sales or more efficiency. If a shiny new feature doesn't move you towards one of those, it's not worth the extra cost or complexity. We also dig into the real tipping points, when a spreadsheet stops cutting it (usually once more than one person is talking to the same customers), how to think about growth and pricing tiers before you commit, and why integration, making sure your systems actually talk to each other, is one of the most overlooked and most technical parts of the decision. One idea that reframes the whole conversation is Frieda's point that choosing software is a three to five year decision, not a forever one. Your business will change, the software will change, and planning with that horizon in mind changes how you evaluate cost, implementation time and what you're prepared to compromise on now. Have you been asking yourself whether the system (or spreadsheet) you're using is actually helping you grow, or just quietly costing you sales and hours every week? This episode gives you a genuinely practical framework for answering that, before you spend another dollar on software you might not need. Frieda Maher is an independent technology consultant at SalesPOD, specialising in helping small businesses plan customer facing systems, with a particular focus on CRM. Unlike many providers in the space, Frieda isn't aligned with any single software vendor, so her recommendations are built around what genuinely suits the business in front of her, not what she's incentivised to sell. Connect with Frieda: Website: https://www.salespod.com.au LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/friedamaher/ Key Takeaways: Understand that "CRM" isn't one product, marketing, sales, service and e-commerce systems each do a different job, and most businesses only need some of them Use Frieda's value filter (more sales or more efficiency) to cut through flashy features that won't actually move the needle for your business Recognise the real signs you've outgrown a spreadsheet, usually when more than one person is talking to the same customers Treat any software decision as a three to five year commitment, not a forever one, and let that shape how you weigh cost and implementation time Prioritise integration, checking new systems talk to what you already use, as one of the most overlooked steps in the buying process Go in with realistic expectations on switching costs and implementation time, because both are almost always underestimated Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances. Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience

August 22, 202616 min

Why Are You Building Your Small Business?

Hello and welcome to this weeks episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we get honest about something we don't talk about enough: why we're actually building our businesses in the first place. Kristy-Lee came back from a mastermind with a lot to think about rather than a clear next step, and it led to a realisation - she'd been chasing a goal she'd set because she thought she should, not because it actually motivated her. That fuzziness, we discuss, is something almost every business owner runs into eventually, and it's worth stopping to name. We unpack the different reasons people actually build small businesses, from wanting to create a legacy and build something bigger than themselves, to giving back to a local community, to chasing lifestyle and freedom of time and location. We also talk about the shift toward building a business as a wealth creation vehicle (a saleable asset) and how that single decision changes everything else, from how you handle a client leaving to how you make marketing and retention decisions. When you know what game you're playing, every decision gets easier. When you don't, you can end up going through the motions without realising it. Have you been asking yourself, "why am I actually doing this?" If so, this episode will help you get clear on what game you're playing, because once you know that, you can start playing to win it. Key Takeaways: Get honest about why you're really building your business: legacy, community contribution, lifestyle and freedom, or wealth creation are all valid, but they're not interchangeable. Notice when a goal has stopped being yours and started being one you think you "should" have, that fuzziness is a signal, not a failure. Understand that your real "why" should drive practical decisions, hiring, marketing, retention and systems all look different depending on the game you're playing. If you're building toward a sale, treat every decision as a test of whether it moves you closer to that outcome, not just whether it solves today's problem. Expect your reason for building the business to evolve as the market shifts or your own life changes, that's normal, not a sign you got it wrong the first time. We'd love to hear from you on this. Why are you building your small business? Let us know on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, or email Matt directly at matt@thefootprintgroup.com.au . Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances. Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience

August 15, 202620 min

How to Maximise Your Investment in Conferences, Training and Events

Hello and welcome to this weeks episode of The Australian Small Business Show. Join the waitlist for The Australian Small Business Show Club by clicking here. If you want to get better results from conferences, training programs and networking events without wasting valuable time or money, this episode is for you. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Australian Small Business Show. In this episode we discuss how Australian small business owners can maximise the return on the time and money they invest in conferences, training, masterminds and professional development. Whether you're attending because you genuinely want to learn, need to complete CPD requirements, or are looking to grow your professional network, we explore how to be intentional about the events you choose and the outcomes you want to achieve. We share practical strategies for selecting the right events, setting clear objectives before you attend, and making sure you're investing in opportunities that genuinely support your business. We also discuss balancing education with networking, planning for time away from your business, and why being present during an event is just as important as showing up. If you've been asking yourself, "How do I know whether a conference or training event is worth the investment?" or "How can I make sure I actually implement what I learn?" , this episode provides practical advice to help you turn learning into measurable business outcomes. We also discuss why following up with new connections, reviewing your key learnings, and creating space to implement new ideas are essential if you want to see a genuine return on your investment. Key Takeaways: Be clear about why you're attending an event before committing your time and money, whether your goal is education, networking, CPD or business growth. Choose conferences and training that align with your current business priorities rather than attending simply because they're convenient or industry standard. Create space before and during an event so you can be fully present and make the most of both the presentations and the conversations. Develop a follow-up plan for new contacts, relationships and opportunities so valuable connections don't disappear once the event ends. Schedule time after the event to review your notes, implement new ideas and share key learnings with your team to maximise the return on your investment. Connect with Us: If you're an Australian Small Business Owner, we'd love to connect with you on socials. You can give our Facebook Page a like here: https://www.facebook.com/theaustraliansmallbusinessshow Or follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/aussmallbizshow/ We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe to The Australian Small Business Show newsletter by visiting our website here: https://www.theaustraliansmallbusinessshow.com.au/ Disclaimer: The information shared on The Australian Small Business Show is general in nature and does not constitute professional advice, legal or otherwise. We recommend consulting with your advisors on your specific circumstances. Mentioned in this episode: The PowerBoss Experience - Doors Are Open Attention small business owners with 5+ staff From Bottleneck to Boss. The PowerBoss Experience: 30 days of live group mentoring. Work with me to go from swooping in every time to stepping back with confidence, without things falling apart, even if you don't think it's not possible. https://www.peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au/experience