Small businesses now.
They are the backbone of our country and I know firsthand how tough it is, long hours, constant hurdles, and too often feeling like you're in it alone. And what I keep hearing from you is that small business owners don't feel heard. My team and I are paying close attention to our small business community and the feedback that comes to us through the Mental podcast.
Now, one thing is clear.
You want to hear from more businesses beyond Sydney, from across the country, and especially those that are doing it tough. That's why my team and I are launching the Small Business call Out. The Small Business call Out, which will be under the Mentor channel, will talk to business owners all over the country every single week, no matter where you are.
We want to hear from you.
What's working, what's not working, What do you need from the government to actually succeed? What are the things can you enlighten us about what it's like being in the small business community. This is yours to make your voice count. We want to hear from all industries, from those struggling, from those who feel overlooked, or those who have something to say but haven't had the platform to say it. I'm going to continue hosting the Mental podcast, but the
Small Business call Out will be uploaded between episodes. So let's get into this week's edition of the new Small Business call Out. What is the name of your business and in simple terms, what does your business do?
Yeah, so my name is Mark. I'm from will Dura Waste and Recycling and also bis and Waste and Recycling, where a waste and recycling collection company is the bulk of our business, and we provide services to domestic customers all the way through to your big corporate customers and everything in between, including mum and dad, more to medium
sized businesses. Yeah, and that includes general waste, cardboard, scrap, metal, all those kind of different waste streams from the smallest of customers from a two forty liter bin right through to big hook bins.
And what inspired you to start your business?
There's a couple of different answers to that, and I'll take you back to when I started. When I was at school, I used to joke with some of my mates that'll be a garbologist, not actually thinking that that would ever actually happen. And then I was involved in the transport industry for quite a few years, in demolition and other aspects of transport, and the opportunity came to work for a company in waste and I thought, oh yeah, that'd be a great feeling. But it turned out to
be something that really resonated with me. And once you get it in your blood, you can't get it out, so to speak. And when our business started, me and my wife could see a gap in the market. Only had corporates in the market and was lacking a local competitor, someone who could provide a premium service at a fair price and build relationships with customers. And I guess that's the opportunity we saw. And we started off with a very small little truck and one hundred bins and you know,
the first six months very challenging. You think to yourself, you know, have we made the wrong move here? You know we've bitten off more than we can chew. You know, this is this really going to work? And I guess you just never give up and keep pushing forward, one foot in front of the other and really set some ambitious goals. And I guess that's got to where we are today. I guess I'm a charismatic type and enthusiastic about the business type of person, and I guess I'd
like to bring people on that journey with me. And so it's been a hell of a ride and quite a hell of a journey. And I guess you know that doesn't happen on its own. You know, it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears and determination to get there. And yeah, I guess you know, people that are close to me will understand that that, you know, I live and breathe it and yeah, that's it's it's part of my life and part of my wife's life too.
She's heavily involved in the business. And yeah, perhaps it's probably too involved in our lives, but it's got that's the way it's got to be. It's got to be your passion and you'll get more out of it. Turned out to be accurate what we saw in the market.
Yeah, where was your business founded and where is it located?
Yeah, so, Maldura Waste and Recycling was founded in Moldura, as the name suggests, and in the last twelve d eight en months we've recently branched out into the Riverland area and we rebranded the business as Bison Waste and Recycling. The bison is on all our bins and on all our trucks, and it's on everything, and a lot of people ask what the bison is about, and that's my favorite animal, but it also is a great branding eye
catcher that really draws people in. And so yeah, our brand outside of Alldura is Bison waste and Recycling, which is universal. Yeah, and it resonates with our core animal that we have on all our bins. Yeah.
How is your business doing right now.
At the moment, we're tracking Well, it's it's a consistent business the waste industry, as is other core service industries. So we don't see don't seem to see the ups and downs that other industries experience. What I we have a very broad range of customers and you know, I get to talk to a lot of different people in a lot of different places. And the economy is slow has slowed, and there is people feeling the pain, particularly with interest rates. So we see that and you know,
we work with customers through some of those challenges. But yeah, as a whole, our business is tracking well. Yeah, it's it's consistent. It's probably the best word to describe it, but it is a consistent type industry.
Yeah, what challenges have you faced as a small business owner and how do they impact your business and how did you overcome? Did they affect your family members, did they affect your relationships, how did you solve them?
Yeah, the challenges we've faced over the years has been a few different ones. And obviously we started right at the beginning of COVID, So one of the first challenges we faced was lockdowns and things like that, being in Victoria, and so the challenges to work through that was hard, you know, and a lot of small businesses copped the brunt of that, and a lot of our customers copped the brunt of that, being cafes and restaurants and other
businesses that you know, we provide services too. And I guess in small businesses, the key to survival is being and it's also the I guess you're one up on your competition is the ability to pivot very quickly in a changing market, be able to read the play, understand what that means for your businessiness, and respond to it with an appropriate response or what you're offering to the market.
And we saw that happen with a lot of businesses, with cafes and restaurants, they had to change the delivery model to work with inside the boundaries they had, but also remain sustainable and try and make a profit hard in those times. So that's one of the challenges that's definitely faced a lot of businesses, including our own, during that time. And then I guess from another challenge that has faced our business, where our businesses faced is the price of steel in the market. And a lot of
people go, how would that affect your business? But a lot of our bins are made of steel, and so our biggest cost is buying bins, whether the hook bins or frontlift bins, they use up a lot of steel and so we've seen a doubling in cost over the last five years is in buying those products, so that that's our capital doesn't go as far when we're buying products. So that's been that's been an enormous challenge, especially when you're growing very quickly to keep up with that. I
would say that's been an enormous challenge. The impact it has on family, particularly my immediate family, is real. You know, you see that, and there is sacrifices made by myself, my wife, and my kids for the greater good of the business. And you know, I guess you've got to try and get the balance right with that, because you know, without getting the balance right, it doesn't work. And one of the things that we've found, so we only work six days a week, not seven, so we've got one
day a week all the staff off. That way, you know, you can do what you want to do with your family and friends and have that time to you know, rejuvenate, relax, rejuvenate for the week coming. So that's that's part of it, you know, the making time for holidays and getaways, even if it's only for three days or a week, and even when you think you can't afford it or the cash flow can't afford it, it's important to get that time away. And holidays don't always have to be an
expensive holiday. They can be simply you know, get go camping down the river for a few days or things like that, and that helps reset, spend time together to offset some of the other times when you may not be around. So I found that and that helps prevent burnout as well for myself. Burn out's a real thing in small business. In really every small business owner would understand that, and so you know, try and find the thing that gets you rejuvenated and make a conscious effort
to lean on that. It definitely helps, and it also helps the team around you, because if you're in burnout mode, the team around you will notice that and it transfers into your business. So for the greater good of everyone, it's important to watch that and make sure you're on top of it. So there's some of the challenges I guess we've faced, and you know, the challenges that we're
facing right now is small businesses are hurting. Some of our customers are really hurting, and we're seeing a few businesses, you know, not making it and that that's hard to watch because a lot of businesses we've grown up with or they've started when we did, or before us or after us, and you build relationships with these people and
so you know, that's hard to watch. But there, you know, there's challenges on that front, you know, on a personal level, but also at a business level, because it's it's really not what you want to say see happening. And some of those challenges have been brought about by the state of the government or the way the country is being run. And perhaps you know that's that has been definitely an influencing factor.
Yeah, how confident are you in Australian government's ability to support small businesses effectively.
I'm not a person that likes to complain much, and I don't like to be a negative person. I'd really like to be positive about things. However, my confidence in the government to support small business is I would have to say zero. I really don't see any support or help, not just for my business, but for a lot of
other businesses. And it's a real shame to see because I think, you know, the small businesses of this country do a lot of heavy lifting, you know, paying a lot of time acts and processing a lot of revenue for the tax office, and employ a lot of people in this country, you know, which ultimately puts money in
the government's pocket. And I don't see it being spent effectively or used effectively, and it certainly does not come back to help those that are that are generating it, and that is disappointing to see.
Yeah, if you could advise your strain government on one action to take to better support small businesses, what would it be.
That's a really good question. And there's a couple of things, and it doesn't necessarily gravitate around money, because at the end of the day, a small business needs to be profitable and stand on its own two feet. I am a big believer of that. Handouts is not something that I think which a lot of people gravitate too. And yes they help, but you know, you shouldn't rely on those. Something that I've found that I've been able to get
and it has helped me immensely. There's a few people that are in similar businesses to what I'm in and that are what I consider ten, fifteen, twenty years ahead of me, and so I guess I lean on them as a mentor and for support and or the term trauma bonding, because when you're going through some challenges that somebody else has been through, it really helps when you
can bounce that off somebody that understands it. So I guess if there was like a mentorship program system collaboration perhaps for industries or small businesses that was organized perhaps by government organization, then I think that a lot of people would get help out of that, because, like I said earlier, it's not all about the money, but it's about not feeling alone. I think in a small business
is everybody working as hard as me to achieve. The answer is yes, people are working very hard in their small businesses and you would never have believed how much time and effort it would take to run a small business. And maybe that's a good thing, because if you knew that at the start, you may not start. But I think, you know, if there was if there was have to break it down to one thing. I think if there was a mentorship program, that would be of great benefit,
and particularly for younger people wanting to start business. You know, there's a lot of things that you might not understand. Yeah, and I think getting people out of the real world that have actually run businesses to be part of that program, I think would be a really good way to make that work. Not not just people that think they know how business has run, but people that actually know our businesses deliver.
Yeah, what's the most rewarding part of being a small business owner?
So the most rewarding parts for me, there's a few different things that have really been a standout for me. I feel the networking and the relationships that I've built with other business owners and customers has been a great part of it, and I feel that other business owners enjoy that aspect. Of it as well, and part of it can be because we're all going through similar challenges.
Even though it's different businesses, similar challenges pop up. So I think the networking and they're getting to know other people and their business has been really really rewarding. The other parts that I feel is important and has been really rewarding is watching, particularly in our situation, when people choose to spend local and support local industry, watching that dollar go around in other local businesses to build a circular economy that stays and supports the people that live here.
That's been really cool to watch happen, and you know, great to be a part of it and promote it, and you know to the point where you know, we get a lot of our bins manufactured hook bins manufactured
in Maldura. So then you watch that dollar go around and you know, there's lots of different ways you can spend your money, and you can find cheaper ways, and it usually means supporting offshore, out of town companies, whereas if you can spend it a little bit extra and support the local economy, you can watch how that supports lots of different sporting clubs, you know, different industries and you know, actually supports real people and that that's probably
one of the more exciting things about it. And I guess watching your staff grow as well when they come on board. You know, some of them have had no experience in the industry that we're in, and then they learn and absorb and take all the information on and make it their own. Watching people grow, I think that that's a really cool thing to watch as well. And see them develop and turn into better versions of themselves.
I think that's really that's been really good as well, and that helps, you know, having that attitude I think helps build better team culture and better team.
What is the one thing you wish more people knew about your business? What is one thing you wish you knew before you even started your business.
Yeah. One of the misconceptions in the industry that we're in is that the bigger, the bigger the business or the corporation, shall we say, the better service you would get or they'll be there in your time of need. And that is probably the biggest misconception I see in
our industry. And the easy way to test that if you're a business owner and you've got a waste provider, call them on a Saturday night at ten thirty and see who answers and see who will help you out when you really need them the most, and then you will know who the business, the business that will actually respond or preempt or have the ability to answer your questions versus the bigger companies, which they will leave you high and dry because yeah, they don't have any invested
interest in supporting the customer. And so I guess that's probably one of the biggest things I'd want people to know about our business is that it's a relationship. We're there for you, and service is what we do. Also, another thing that I wish customers knew is you don't need to sign a contract or a service agreement for a rubbish bin. It's not needed. We don't have them. Ah, you don't need to sign one ever, And that's.
Yeah.
I wish people knew what they were signing when they were signing contracts for a rubbish bin. And I guess over time we do educate the customers on that and people learn through different different ways on that front, but eventually people do come with realization that they do not need that and it's certainly not for their benefit. Yeah,
So sorry, that's two answers to the question. But yeah, but yeah, that in our industry getting contracts, you know, people use all sorts of tactics to get customers signed up in a contract for a rubbish bin. And people think that that's a fixed price service for that period of the contract, and it's not. It's written in a way that benefits the provider and they can shift the goalpost when it suits them, but the customer has to stay for the journey and that can be up to
four and five years. And yeah, the amount of people that I talk to and deal with on a regular basis that wish they'd never signed that or didn't know they were signing that. Yeah, it's it's it's sad to see in the industry and that and that's why we've we've gone down the path of no contracts for any of our bins. Build a relationship with the customer and give them a fair price and fair and good service and rely on that.
Yeah, where can people find you and your business?
Let us know.
Yeah, we're very active on our socials, So on Facebook or Instagram. If you find us on there, you'll find a lot of content there that some of it's interesting, some of it's funny, but there's a lot about our business on there, or our website is quite easy to find. If you google Modial Waste and Recycling, you'll find us there. You'll also see all our five star reviews from our valued customers. Have a read through them that tells you more about our business than you need to hear from me,
and compare it with our competitors. You know, and hear it from the Hear it from the people that actually get to experience it.