Transcript

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Jason: [00:00:00] G’day everybody, Jason Foss here from the Capricornia Chamber of Commerce, here with Michael Polkinghorne for the very first time on our show today. G’day Michael, how are you?

Michael: Yeah, thank, good thanks Jason. I’m yeah, thanks for the invite. I’m glad we’re going to talk about some small business things today.

Jason: We have got a bit of a small business issue list, I was going to call it a gripe list, but we’ll call it an issue list. There’s a bunch of things we’ve been discussing. But I suppose before we get into that, let’s put this one. That coffee there will balance fine, I’m sure. Yep. It is the 24th of October today, probably should mention the date because who knows when you’ll be watching this.

But we had our AGM at the start of the month which went really well. Farewell to Craig Gibbs, who was who’s retired from the committee now. Thanks to Craig for all the efforts he’s put in over the last few years. And we had Lisa Marie Hearn from The Queensland Cancer Council joined the committee so she’s attended her first committee meeting already.

It’s nice to see some new faces. Absolutely. And we have got a couple more to come, who we missed the paperwork at the AGM, so I won’t formally announce those until [00:01:00] it’s all formal. But yeah, we’ve got a few new faces on the committee for this year. So one of the first things on the, I guess the list of things that we’ve been hearing recently is about compliance and red tape.

And governments like to talk about reducing red tape, but in, in reality, we know the opposite’s happening. Michael, what have you been hearing?

Michael: Yeah, look, I’ve spoken with a couple of my small business customers who generally employ around that sort of, five to ten workers, and they’re just finding that it’s consistently a revolving door of change.

You just go through a process of implementing some sort of change in relation to compliance or what you do on a day to day basis. And then all of a sudden, a whole new batch of compliance comes out. Feedback I’m getting is that a lot of small businesses are saying that it’s a lot easier for maybe a large organisation to wear that expense cost of constantly changing your day to day practices.

But it’s very difficult to be consistent. consistently happen to be involved in that change if you’re a small business.

Jason: Yeah, it’s a big burden, isn’t it? Now, later today we’re shooting this video in the morning, [00:02:00] I’ve got a webinar I’m sitting in at lunchtime pertaining to the upcoming climate reporting and carbon accounting compliance.

And what impact that’s going to potentially have on small businesses as well. This has been introduced to bigger businesses as part of the nation’s move to net zero. But, unfortunately, I fully expect there to be knock down consequences to small businesses who want to supply to these larger organisations who are doing these major works.

So there’s some potential more red tape and compliance and accounting stuff that we’re going to have to worry about.

Michael: Look, I know. I know. Even in my industry, in the banking industry, obviously a lot of government change that is implemented to, in relation to monitoring and controlling the banking sector, so to speak, is directed at the big four.

But they, sometimes you wonder whether they remember the, you’re building societies and you’re smaller banks. Yeah. Because it’s not as easy for those organisations Yeah.

Jason: Yeah. Actually I’m going to go off the cuff here. We’re going to go a little [00:03:00] bit out of order based on what we had spoken about doing.

But that flows through to what you were telling me about training and recruitment. The cost of, training people only to have them leave fairly shortly after they’ve got their qualifications.

Michael: Yes. Now, the feedback from a couple of different customers, and I guess I’ve been in the same position in the past as well sometimes it takes six to twelve months to get your staff up to speed in terms of the compliance, the training they have to do, the training that you have to give them to do on a day to day basis.

And also just to get used to in terms of dealing with the customers on a day to day basis. To invest that time to, so really they don’t become really productive and probably till about that sort of 12, 18 months, I know in my business. And then for someone to leave at 12 or 18 months or even during that training process is a huge investment of time and in some cases a large cost as well.

Jason: That was highlighted last week, the Queensland Small Business Commissioner, Dominique Lamb, visited Livingston and Rocky. And I attended a couple of events that were [00:04:00] involved or that she was involved in. And that was mentioned a couple of times too, in terms of you, you get people trained up and you invest in an apprenticeship, and you’re losing money on them at that point, there’s a cost to you to train them up which would be fine, If they stayed on, so you could then reap the rewards of that of that investment in training.

But what happens is they get their qualifications and then they’re out to the mines cause that’s where they can make the big money. And, the local small business in town here has got to start the process all over again and lose money training somebody all over again, only for the cycle to keep repeating.

Michael: Yeah, I’ve actually spoken with a couple of customers who’ve actually completely shied away from that apprentice space purely on the basis of training. In most cases they are losing those employees as soon as their four years is up. Going, and particularly the mines, and in some cases government positions are taking these roles as well.

Jason: Yeah, that was, yeah, you mentioned it to me earlier, and this was something also mentioned at the at the Commissioner’s lunch event. [00:05:00] Last week is that it’s not just mines poaching staff, but also government poaching staff as well. And the defensive line was the, government bodies are short of staff too, and that’s fine, but it’s a bit rough when your local government starts pinching staff off of small business who, don’t have rather bottomless amounts of cash to draw from if they need it.

Endless pools of money. Yeah. And I think, Michael, you mentioned you’d like to see the government contributing more towards the training bill, the training wage, or that kind of stuff.

Michael: Look, I’ve spoken to a few organisations that have been doing the taking apprentices on, and they actually believe, in a lot of cases, that the money would be better off directed in subsidising their wages in, say, years one and two, because those Pay rates are so low they believe that the government could actually subsidize those particular first and one and two year rates.

It may go a long way to seeing a lot more people through their trades.

Jason: Yeah. Yeah. Alright, now this sun’s [00:06:00] moved and I’m in it now. So we might just shuffle things around here a little bit. What do you reckon? ? Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Alright, that’s a bit better. And of course as we move, the sun’s gone behind a cloud now, so not to worry.

Michael, obviously with your, with your Bank of Queensland hat on and I see you flying the flag there or wearing the hat as the case may be. Yes I am. You mentioned there’s a lot of issues with small business financing at the moment.

Michael: Yeah, look, there’s probably two things that, that I see when small businesses are chasing finance.

Probably one of the main things is for start ups. If anyone is looking at start, at commencing a start up business, I do recommend that they go and have a chat to their bank prior to actually possibly resigning from their current position or very early in the piece when they’re actually thinking about what they want to do, to have some discussions at that stage around how you might be able to fund that if you need some finance.

A lot easier to put some plans in place at the start rather than having made that decision to possibly finish at your current employer [00:07:00] and then seeking finance

when you’ve moved into your new role. Yes, yeah, a bit late Good advice, yeah.

Michael: The other one is I know that no one likes playing, paying tax, but unfortunately it’s always good to come to your bank manager and show them that you’re making some good net profits because we work on the theory that net profit pays back debt, so there is a happy medium between not paying tax and paying tax but certainly very important when you’re coming to the bank to seek finance for an established business profits are gold.

Jason: And that kind of ties in a bit with business planning. Generally we find that for a lot of small businesses planning doesn’t really happen or it’s at the bottom of the list. If you’re looking to grow in a purposeful or intentional way. Planning is critical and whether it be finance or whether it be resources or staffing or premises or any of the things that you might think you need a little bit of planning goes a long way.

As the saying goes, the plan itself is possibly [00:08:00] largely worthless a lot of the time. But the process of planning is where your value is just stopping to think about, okay, what is the next 12 months, two years, five years, hold it for us.

Michael: It also, it makes you review things like, okay if I want to go into lease premises, what’s that’s going to cost me?

What commitment do I have to give? Is it three years? Is it five years? I also have to look at what costs will be incurred to drive those premises. Okay, power. So it just, The process makes you think of those things that possibly you could forget or just put to the back when you’re looking through to establish your business.

Jason: Now when someone comes to town, often they will want to meet with the local chamber of commerce. And a typical question that I, not, like pretty much every time somebody says, so what’s the business environment like in the area? And it’s really, it feels like to me like a two speed service industries and there’s plenty of industries that are full steam ahead, busy as, can’t find staff, you’ve probably heard that before.

But then on the other side of the coin there’s [00:09:00] some people in retail and hospitality who are definitely feeling the cost of living pinch. So yeah, it feels very two speed to me at the moment. And I guess, the one thing I’d say about that is, we’re coming into a lot of American sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and I think Halloween’s become a bit of a thing, and, the beginning of Christmas.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon don’t need your money. But there’s plenty of local retailers who, would really appreciate the business. They’re the guys who are sponsoring the local netball team and soccer team and investing money, employing locals, investing money back in the community. And I get it, I buy stuff off Amazon too, we all do from time to time, but I’d encourage you to think about giving the locals a go for it.

Because, that’s the money stays here then rather than going offshore.

Michael: Yep. No I 100 percent support that comment, Jason. It’s, retail at the moment game is very tough. It’s very hard to, in that regard. to be budgeting on what you’re going to spend on stock purchase and even staffing, trying to juggle because it’s so hit and miss at the moment.

[00:10:00] But I guess a lot of retailers are praying that the Christmas sales are up there again this year, but look wherever possible, try and support your little retail businesses because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who’ve taken a chance to open up a shop front to provide a service to the community.

Jason: You find too that the local retailers tend to be in places aside from your main shopping center like Stockland. There’d be some local retailers in there, but also think a little bit outside the square there whether you’re in the the Rockhampton CBD here, or in the main street of Yeppoon, or some of the other smaller shopping centers around the place, be it out of Parkhurst or What’s that place called?

You know the Yeah, okay, you know the one I’m talking about. Anyway, there’s plenty of smaller shopping centres, aside from the major Stocklands one, that have got your local retailers in it. So they’re the guys we’re looking to support as much as we can.

Michael: Yep, absolutely. The next thing is to have a bit of chat about is what the Chamber’s got going on.

Our next [00:11:00] coffee morning is at Yeppoon Cinemas. On what date was that, Jason?

Jason: The 30th. The 30th. And normally this is me forgetting the date and Phil will have to remind me, but.

Michael: Yes, the 30th and normally everyone turn up around about seven o’clock and most people end up, moving on to work, et cetera, around that sort of 8, 8.

30. Come along. Meet some new people have a discussion about your businesses and yeah, look forward to seeing you.

Jason: Different location too at the Yeppoon Cinemas wonder if they’ll stick a movie on it for us.

Michael: I don’t know. They’ll

Jason: probably have to get on to work, I suppose.

Trying to find a movie that suits everyone’s tastes might be difficult. Yeah,

Jason: that could be a challenge, couldn’t it? It could be. Oh yeah, so that’s at Yeppoon Cinemas on the 30th and then the following month on the 29th of November is the gala night for the Capricorn Best in Business Awards.

Yes. So I’ve had a good amount of entries this year. The judges are busy at the moment going through that process. And we’ll all find out who the winners are on the 29th. That’s down at the brand new Keppel Bay Sailing Club building as well. I don’t know this, so maybe I shouldn’t be saying it, but I think we’re pretty close.

Probably almost the first event in [00:12:00] there after opening.

Michael: That’s what I’m hearing. Possibly we are the first event and it’d be nice to see the completed project. It’ll be

Jason: brand spanking new. Yeah. Looking forward to seeing inside actually. So that should be a really good night. Tickets are still available at capricornbestinbusiness.com.au. Grab your tickets there, you can either buy them individually or a table of ten, they’re sold in as well. Get down there, have a good night. The trouble with, not the trouble with, one of the issues I guess in small business is you can feel a little bit like every day’s a battle and putting out fires and all this kind of stuff.

It’s nice to celebrate once in a while. It’s it’s hard work and, you’re not doing it for nothing, so yeah, come and, celebrate with a bunch of other people who are in a similar boat. Cause they’ve been good nights historically. Yep. And so we look forward to seeing you there.

Yep. That’s about it for today. Thanks for filling in, Michael. Yep, thank you. See what I did there? Filling in.

Michael: Thanks, Jason. Thanks for inviting me along to this morning’s chat. And you never know, Phil might be back on board next month, next one.

Jason: He might be, but I mean we’ve got some new blood on the committee, so who knows, we might [00:13:00] rotate this a little bit more and get some additional additional committee members in front of the camera if they’re prepared to, to brave it.

All right, until next time, thanks guys, see you

later.