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 your chair has 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's the name of your business?
Yeah, so the name of our business is called Steps with a Z.
Simple terms. What does your business do?
Yeah? So Steps manufactures and supplies high quality boat trailer ladder. It makes boat access a lot easier and it bolts onto the front of your boat trailer.
Where was your business founded and where is it located?
Yeah, so we originally started as a marine dealership where our state is Victoria.
So in Warnable we're on the end of the Great Ocean Roads.
And then now we've moved purely to online so or one hundred percent online now. So the reason we moved to purely one hundred percent online is there was a bit of a different change in our business. I sort of lost the passion of actually working physically on boats, so we decided to actually manufacture and sell our own product online. So there was a number of different reasons, but that's the main reason. And obviously costs going up renting that sort of thing and business expenses.
Yeah, and what inspire you to start your business.
Yeah, so we used to in our dealership days. We also did and also and aluminium fabricator by trade as well, so we'd always be custom making ladders for people to access the front of their boat. So we decided that there was no out of the box solution, so that
was the main reason behind it. We thought, if we can make a product that becomes we can pull straight out of the box, bolt straight onto someone's trailer and they can actually bolt it on himself, we can sort of access all of Australia and instead of just servicing the warnable area. So it's worked really well, and we've always been interested in moving completely online anyway, it just
seemed to be the perfect time. With brands expenses, all the business expenses moving upward, it seemed like the right time to do it. I used to design things do it completely by hand, so it was pretty much get a bit of aluminium and cut it down and make
it work and do it on the fly. Whereas now we've invested into CAD technology, so everything now I design on the computer and now it's just the one out of the box solution, so we've only had to design it once we've made it so it fits multiple boats, so very rarely do we come across a time when it can't be installed to a boat. Happens every now and then, but I'd say not eighty to ninety percent
of boats that goes on no problem. So being able to actually design it on the computer was a big factor in that, and actually bringing down the time it takes to make per box, I guess.
Was the most rewarding part of being a small business owner.
So probably well for me.
We really like working together, so that's probably the most rewarding thing that we get to do this job together. We work really really well together, and we've both got a good way of bringing out our strengths and weaknesses, and yeah, we just work really well as a team, and I think that's a real advantage because we can come together when we need to take over things when the other one needs and problem solve a bit quicker, and we just really thrive.
Off that sort of working team.
Yeah, Primarily I do a lot of the website side of things, branding, small the product development designing and all that, but we do know bits of each other so we can come together when we need or we need a hand or that. Primarily I do a lot of the marketing and that side of things. So I used to work at an accounting film so I did admin there. So on in the early days when we had the dealership, I'd tap my full time job there and then I would of a nighttime come and help Brandon like when
I could. And then eventually it just got like there's so much work in a small business that people don't see behind the scenes, and it just got to that point where I needed to step in and help him, and.
Then we built it from there.
But we've always like, I've always loved the design aspect of websites and all that graphics of the design. I did a lot of that at school, so I think because I enjoyed that so much, it's been nice being able to sort of do that again and then learning things like we're writing to you know, picking up.
Something we don't know. We love learning, so just learn along the way.
Yeah, So I guess my take on it all is like, I guess we both want to know how to do everything overall at the moment because we have no choice. We're sort of at the moment where money poor, time rich, So we obviously just get in and learn everything. But hopefully down the track we can have experts doing the marketing,
you know, their own segmented areas. But at the moment, I like to have a full overview of everything that's going on and be able to at least know how to half do things, which is really the only choice until we were able to go to that next level.
What challenges have you faced as a small business owner and how do they impact your business? Did they affect your fan family members, did they affect your relationships?
Yeah, so some of the challenges that we've got sort of two main challenges that we've had in our business that we can nu let down through. The two main challenges, one of them being landlords. We went through through and I'm sure everybody's got different opinions on this one, but some people have good ones, some people have bad one.
We had a really bad one, which just caused us to spend so much time on the bad, on the bad landlord and sorting things out, whereas we would have loved to have been able to be spending that time in our business and you know, just servicing the boat. So that was one of the main sort of problems we had. Then we also there was another one you could probably touch on that one. You're all over this one.
We had an insurance issue as well, which caused a lot of just und needed time and stress.
Like you know, you sort of.
Think because you spend so much money in insurance that you cover it and you do all the right things as a business owner and make sure that you're all over it, but when it comes time to claim, they seem to find every excuse to knock it back.
And just with our experience with that and the amount of.
Hours we've spent, we do feel that it is a broken system that it definitely needs looking at, because you know, just on our personal experience, I can't like imagine what other business owners go through.
It's just ridiculous.
And yeah, we've dealt with that insurance issue. We've dealt with a few government organizations over it, and they don't they don't help. There's nothing out there we're not We're not asking for any money or anything. I don't expect money for free, and I don't think most small businesses
expect money for free. But just having something there that you can go to, like even just a website page where it's got all the information that that you're looking for, or someone to talk to that you can call on the phone and say, look, this is what we're having the problem with and they can give us a straight on at answer.
Because they just handble you know, like you go to one place and they say one thing and go I'll go to there, and that's just you're just.
Chasing your tail.
As small business owners, we're very limited, as I said earlier on like without time. We want to we obviously are time rich, but we want to spend that time on areas in our business and that's what we need to do. Still, we're still working big ls. We don't want to be on the phone to some government organization. Sometimes you might spend a few hours on the phone to them and they just handball you to the next apartment and then you have to re explain yourself again.
I just can't believe in twenty twenty five that you might go through ten different government departments and have to explain yourself every single time, Like, surely they can just use an email and have everything written out nice and easily, And we're not explaining ourselves too many times?
And how did you overcome them?
Both challenges are stressful they're stressful on yourself, on your relationship, but also you know you're working relationship as well, because you're constantly trying to grow and grow your business and
do things. But you've always got that in the back of your mind that you're dealing with that, and it all takes, you know, time, and time's money in small business, like you don't have You've only got so many hours in a day, you know, when you're you know you're working at a shed and you know you've got interruptions like that.
It can cause significant stress.
And part of that with the insurance claim, you know, you don't really feel backed either, you know, so you think, like I said, you spend all the money and you think you're covered, but then when you need a bit of help from them, like they just basically just throw it out.
And that's what's hard to because you just don't feel.
You just don't feel back, and then you're not really fit in in your work because you think if something really bad happens, like what would happen in it and it just draws from everything. It's you know, stress and you know you sleep and then you're not eating right and you know, all those little things and people don't see that in small business.
They just see the storefront and all that.
But there's so much that goes on when there are challenges that people just yeah.
And that was probably more when we're in the when we're in the dealership, we took things very hard, whereas it's taken us seven years now to actually learn to not really get too down and out about it. Now we we know we're going to have challenges. Now we actually say to each other's there's going to be challenges this year. Things are going to pop up, but we've just got to keep keep pushing forwards and really learn from our challenges. That's what we've learned to do with
being in business for seven years. It's only now that we're just starting to learn. It might be our age too, we're starting to mature a little bit as well, but we're starting to learn that those things are.
Yeah, And it is a good thing for challenges and that to come up in a business because you do learn.
A lot from it, both you know personally and you know professionally. So it is good, you know, like we're sort of in the mindset that, all right, the challenge is going to come up. But as long as we can take something from it and learn from it. We said it as that sort of learning experience.
Really yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So as far as getting better with learning and getting better off in business, we've been down the rabbit hole of this at the moment with changing our life. We have completely changed our life around three sixty in the last six months since we closed our dealership and have moved completely online. Now we've got the time at home to actually sit down and learn a little bit more about business because we did
get thrown into business to start with unexpectedly. We didn't. I never set out to be business owner. It just happened to happen to happen. So what we have been doing is actually jump it. We've been All we do at the moment one hundred percent is business learning. So whether it's watching TV at nighttime, we watch a lot of American TV, American business shows. You learn so much
from those podcasts. All day, listen to podcasts like The mentor that, those sort of podcasts and let you just learned huge things from those people that have been there and done it and are actually successful. You learn so much from them and you can then go and implement that into your business and that has been absolutely huge for us.
And just like a little thing that we started to do which is like not even business related, but just as simple as going for a walk along the beach in the morning just to like clean your hand and just have that you know, clear focus. We just find it's a really good way to start the day. And even like reading as well, fines. You know, you just hope take that hour out of your day just for yourself, and yeah, we find that really sets our day up really well.
Just have a really good.
Morning routine and self care too. Like we when we were running the dealership, I got up to a weight that I wasn't very happy with. So now I'm on the on the decline back to a healthy weight where I was when I started the business. So you just don't you run out of time when you work it hard, you run out of time to do those sort of things. But now I actually have made it my number one thing in the morning is to do the work on myself and during the day that's the number one thing
that we both do. Yeah, so that's very important as well, because at the.
End of the day, to be successful and have a good business, you yourself have to be firing as well. So everything that we do now, like we look at ourselves and then you know it all you compliments each.
Other, and any of these people that have actually been successful that we are listening to now and taking their advice, if you really dive into them and look into who they are and how they go about it, they all seem to be very big and I know Mark is very big on it looking after himself, and you can just tell by looking at them that they look after themselves. Yeah, And when we were at the point when things weren't when we were just very busy and it was we'd
just sort of grind through it. So there was no real I guess we just that we felt terrible, we looked terrible, everything was. We weren't really completely enjoying it. So we'd just go to work and grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, go through and just really not achieved too much. Because when you're not looking after yourself and when you're not doing the right things, you just don't really achieve as much as what you do is when you are doing the right thing.
Yeah, And like you just when you know, day in day out, it's just a daily grind. You're not thinking because all you're worried about is the next job or the next bill that's coming up for you know, to pay or whatever, So you're not thinking about anything else. But that So until we sort of like we've reset and you know, started this new business Vanisher, we've sort of been able to sort of lay everything out and really prioritize what our priorities are in business and in
personal life as well. And I think that's really helped because until you're out of that space, then you can actually think clearly and it all just follows, or else your brain just feels from you like you just don't you're not thinking straight.
You're just too worried about the next thing.
How's your business doing right now?
Yeah, So at the moment, we are in a bit of a transitioning stage, so it's almost like we're starting up a new business, but we are putting those things in place that we wish we had to put in place when we had first started our first sort of venture with the dealership. I think that we would have been much better off and done a lot better out of it. But now we are starting to put those small things in and we do find that I can see things going upwards from him, and.
I think too, like we're more open to letting jobs eventually go as well. Like back in the days when we did have the dealership, we wanted to do every job, you know, we didn't want to put stuff on you know, we could do it all, whereas now we're more open to getting you know, investing in programs and that that
can make it make your job easier. And just to know that you can't do everything, but you know you can be good that you can't you can't do everything, yeah yeah, not forever, yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
And you do.
How confident are you in Australian government's ability to support small businesses effectively?
Yeah, So.
Our biggest thing as far as how confident I am in the Australian government supporting small business, I've got absolutely zero confidence in it. Keep in mind, though, we are very positive people, and that's one of our biggest things we've wanted to change around. But I'm going to be a little bit negative at the moment, but zero confidence. They always seem to be when you turn on the news and you look at the TV, it seems like they're always supporting you know, all these other types of things,
but we get absolutely completely overlooked. We can't even call and get a simple answer about a question without being handed handballed around all the time. It seems like many small business owners, it seems like with the research I've done, they just want to do good for their community and good for their you know, whatever their target market is.
But yet the government that just seems to treat small businesses as the enemy and not speaking about us, but speaking about people that there's small businesses that employ people, which we deal with a lot of them. They're all good people. They're supporting you know, the postman, they're supporting their staff, all those sorts of things. But they just don't seem to do enough for those sorts of businesses,
which is a real shame. It does seem when you do a little bit of research on government websites and government grants and that sort of thing, that if you do fit into a specific minority or category, it does seem like there's a few grants in that available, But for the everyday person, it just doesn't. For the overday business owner, Sorry, it just doesn't seem to be there.
I guess, yeah, yeah, it's just everything, even like little things like we went to the bank not that long ago, just about it's something to do with business, and even to get anything out of them at the moment, it's just painful.
It's just a long winded thing. And it's you know, it's like.
What Mark Morris and you know you guys are sort of doing with this podcast if you're giving small businesses a platform to sort of stand up and you know, say how they feel and giving them an opportunity of foreign voice, because that's what small business needs, Like we need to be you know, talking to people that actually have run businesses and are actually they're not people that you know, just assume that they they know and like well, and we've always liked that about Mark Morris is we
feel that, you know, he does a lot for small business.
So it's good to have an opportunity just to yeah, sort of have a voice.
Yeah, yeah, Well, we are in the process of looking at what it costs to get our product made in China, and I've got multiple quotes from Chinese companies on how much it costs to have it in a box done and we can just send it and that will allow us more access to different parts of the world if we want to go that way, so we are already
in the talks of it. I would much rather keep it here though, because I love walking in the door of you know, someone who cuts the material for us and looking them in the eye, and you know, knowing that our money is going towards them, the post people. It all goes, It all filters through, but at the moment,
if we don't have any support. Sometimes I think a lot of businesses and even listening to him last week on the podcast, he was mentioned in his sort of product that he could easily and looking at the product, he could easily go and get it done somewhere else and you know, potentially maybe make more money or be better off, or you know, his life might end up better. So yeah, I definitely think it's on the cards for a lot of business, isn't it. It's scary to think
of what that filters down. We need to remember that all these people that are employed by the business have families. You know, they have their house at home that they're paying for. Yeah, and I don't think there's enough large companies that are going to employ all these people that might be out of jobs, out of businesses if it was to go that way, which is a real shame. So it definitely pushes us towards yet looking at other options.
Even just a small thing of an insurance problem that happens, well, I can just eliminate that whole problem and go get it done in China and I won't need that manufacturing insurance. So that is definitely a thing that we can do that will make it a lot easier. But once again, I think most small business people and like us, we think we're good people. Like we like to we like to do business on a personal level, we like to sort out problems nice and easy, and we all love Australia.
Like Australia is the best country going around. So yeah, why wouldn't we want to build our own product here. We've got a lot of smart people here. There's no reason why we can't keep going and keep doing it. But we need that input from the government to help us out. I don't think that. I don't think every small business he's expecting the government to come around and give everybody a million dollars in each That's not what
they're saying. Just something, even if it's you know, it just needs to be a little bit more than what they're doing, because they're doing absolutely nothing.
If you'd advise your trained government on one action to take to better support small businesses, what would it be.
So as far as one action for me, my number one thing would be make it the grants more accessible overall. So don't, yeah, don't put that grant just to one category of person. We need to stop segregating each other and separating each other. I guess why wouldn't that just be one grant for all businesses to oral businesses of a certain size to apply for, or you shouldn't have to tick the box on it's very hard to We've looked into that for a few things we've wanted to do,
and it's never going to suit our situation. I guess that's what I feel like. And one thing that they could do is we do it with everything else. Look at how America supports small businesses. As I said, we watch a lot of American business TV, and obviously they're a lot further advanced than us, and they're a bigger country and that sort of thing. They could really look at what they do over there and implement that over here.
They seem to have a lot of support and business communities over there, so I guess that's probably pretty easy. Just and yeah, they seem to be the American way seems to be encouraged of doing business, whereas over here, I guess it feels like you're not really encouraged. It feels like we're not wanted. It's almost like we don't want you to go and work for a big corporation or something like that. That's what it feels like. Yeah, what a bit, and probably.
Just have small support in the early days, like just touching on our own experience and the challenges that we're based. There's no real guidance for starting a small business. And then when issues do come up and you're sort of doing the research out there, nothing really comes up. You've just sort of got to figure it out yourself and take your own path.
And like we said.
Before, now you know, we're only just starting to make smart business decisions. But if we had the support at the start and more resources at the start, we feel that that would be fast trapped.
Just yeah, I have more support, Yeah, just for.
People really because they want to do good, like the only you know, want a better better themselves and better the community.
So as far as us being in Victoria, if they had once every six months or once every year, they had a small business ex bowl or seminar in Melbourne where everybody from Victoria got invited and it was up to you whether you want to go or not, and they had a list of speakers or you know, some stalls with guidance and that sort of thing there. I
reckon that would go really well. We've actually been to a few private events with that sort of thing and we got stuff talking to Like there was a lady beside I think she was a hairdresser or something like that. She had some good tips that we implement, like we're in a manufacturing business and online we implement men and some things that she said, and then there was a few things that she was like, oh that's good that what we said as well.
So and you sort of it gives you the opportunity to be in a space with people that are like minded like you, and you can talk more and ask questions to those sort of people because they can what am I try to like, They've got their own experiences, so when you're talking to them, you sort of know them on a different sort of level.
So I think bringing something like that.
In would be a really good opportunity for any point of business, whether you're starting or you're a bit more established, or you might be a ten twenty year old business, just having somewhere where you can go because you just you can learn something every day, like there's always something you can change or do better.
And that's always a lot of a lot of these big business leaders advice seems to be get out network with other business people. So that seems to be something that we want to do more of. So if there was something that the government had set up that you could go Melbourne, it was at the Exhibition Center or whatever, and wherever it happened to be, yeah, we'd be the first there, and I'm sure there'd be a list to
follow that would that would be there as well. So it'd be definitely very recommended and we all know the fundings there for it. They just need to implement it and put some heads together and make it happen.
Yeah.
One phrase that I heard someone say, which is sort of stuck with me, but when if you're going if you want to learn how to play tennis, you don't go and ask Novak Djokovic how to play tennis because you don't have access to them, So you go to your local tennis coach and ask how to play tennis. So I guess that's one thing that you go to other businesses. They're probably all on the same level as you or above you by a little bit. But if
you're around like minded people. Because it is hard, you might talk to people that aren't in business and they just don't quite get it. It's nothing against anybody, but they just don't get the challenges that happen. You talk to someone that might have a little hairdressing shop or a little gift shop or something like that, they understand exactly what you're talking about when you talk about it.
What is the one thing you wish more people knew about your business? Where can people find you and your business? Let us know?
Yeah, so one thing I wish people knew more about our business is our pricing is exactly where it needs to be to be for the business to be viable. I guess a lot of people seem to get the
same thing. You know, you have your product on Facebook and you get all the ad coments of you ripping people off, but we're not ripping people off our Yes, our product is a high ticket item, but once it's sold, the profit profit market argin, after you've paid for customer acquisition, all those sorts of things, is exactly where it is. Where it's a great product. It's a well thought out product. It's a product that we warrant it for five years.
Once you bolded on the front of your trailer, it's done. It's there forever. So it's something that you can have forever.
And people like, they don't see the costs behind the product too, Like, it's not just a product. There's materials, there's way, there's marketing, customer acquisition costs as well. Business owners don't just put high prices for fun. They're just covering their own costs and trying to stay sustainable. And this is not so much for our business as such, but just business in general.
I think more people it'd be putting more people understood.
That running a business isn't just selling a product, managing so many things and wearing so many hats, and there's constant stress that comes.
With that, and people don't see that.
They just see the end result and just think that, you know, you're making all this money, but it's far from the truth.
Yes, Our website is www dot steps dot com. You can visit our website and jump on there and have a look. If you need a hand or have any questions, just use the live chat down in the bottom right end corner and we'll get back to you and we'd be happy to connect yet