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 as 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?
So my name is Micah and I'm the founder of Mama's Bean's Coffee. I live on the South Coast and Boulognia, Wollongong and really enjoy beach life. So coffee, beach life and family are probably my three favorite things. I started Mama's Bean's Coffee when I was pregnant and breastfeeding, looking for a lower caffeine, lower acidity option for pregnant and
breastfeeding months. But it has actually turned into a coffee that's now helping thousands of Australians that are looking for a healthier coffee that doesn't cause any gut issues or jitis and still tastes amazing, which I didn't know at the time.
And what inspire you to start your business?
Yeah, so what inspired me to start Muma's Beans was during pregnancy and later breastfeeding, I was struggling with acid reflux and a bloady baby and I loved coffee and it was really.
Hard to give up.
So I was looking for a more gentle brew that was suited more to my needs, but couldn't find anything in the market. Everything was sort of you know, strong coffee, death buyer espresso. So I used my background in food ingredients, saucing and supply chain and thought, ok, I need to find a suitable coffee. Because that was also when I found out about Australian growing coffee, which I didn't know that we actually grow coffee here in Australia. And it
was during COVID in twenty twenty. We were meant to get married overseas back in Germany.
I'm originally from.
Germany, and that didn't go ahead due to COVID. So I just needed something. I needed to put that energy into something positive. So I had no idea about what it would be like to run my own business. I've always identified as a cooperatick, so I never thought I
would run my own business. But again I have a background in food ingredient saurcing and supply chain, so I said, well, we can still travel in Australia, and I took the family on a holiday to no Northern New South Wales where we could still travel and visited every coffee grower that would have us. So that was really the start of Mama's Beans.
Where was your business founded and where is it located?
So I was founded at home in pul at Or, around just an hour south of Sydney, and we are now. We have got a warehouse in Ferry Meadow, which is also just north of Woollongong, so that's where we're located. But we're predominantly an e commerce business, so you can find us mainly online. They have a few local stockers as well, but we're mainly an online business.
How is your business doing right now?
Despite getting a lot of people saying they would never pay that much for coffee, when they see our price tag, customers they give it a try and experience how different Well, you know, how much better our coffee makes them feel.
Are hooked and they keep coming back for more.
So we're actually now after five years in business, I'd say we're in our biggest strongest growth phase, which you know, like the coffee is delicious and I think it really works. So I think one of the key things is you have to have a product that actually solves a problem.
And you know, helps people in some way.
So and the other thing is that I think is unique, a unique opportunity for small businesses is customer service.
Excellent customer service because you.
Know, I know most of my repeat customers. I know it because you know, I'm the one who's still wearing most of the hats, you know, packing orders, writing, think your cards, doing all the email marketing and all the posting on social media, et cetera. So I know my customer and I really try to go above and beyond. And that's I think one of the key strengths for small business because we can do that because you know we are we are small business.
So those are two things that I think.
Still can help us thrive in today's climate. Is one having a really good, you know, product of service and that really solves the problem. And then the other one excelling and customer service. So I'm really proud of that.
What challenges have you faced as a small business owner and how did they impact your business and how did you overcome them? Did they affect your family members, did they affect your relationships, how did you solve them?
You know, when you talk about what challenges you face as a small business owner is is actually you know, one of the main challenges I faced pretty early on with my business because when I started Mumu's Beans, like I said, it was from the need to turn my focus from a wedding that wasn't happening overseas, wedding that wasn't happening anymore, to this idea that I had of starting a coffee business that I had no idea how
to do. But I was also working full time, and I was actually still studying part time, and you know, I had a small child and family life, and so I was in the first three months, I was close to burnout because also the naivety of.
What it takes to start a small business. I was, Yeah, I just had no idea.
And facing that challenge of burnout like really early on, I think is what saved me and also what meant that now five years on, I'm really still so passionate about my business because I put boundaries in place right there, and then I'll say, either I can't do I can't do all of it, and I can't be the best
in all of it. You know, we were relying on my full time salary work was paying for my studies so I didn't feel like I could cut that short, and so I just something had to give, and I decided, Okay, well, this business is an idea of mine that I would really like to do, but I don't need to even Instagram might tell me, but I don't need to have
a six figure business in three months. I can actually allow myself to take the time and just do it my way and not try not to look at what success factors you know, coming from the outside or I think I need to meet.
So I put in place boundaries to.
Say I'm not going to work on weekends or in the afternoons after my full time job when I was with his family, only after the little ones were in bed, and that's I think really what saved me. I was really sort of strict about it, and it meant that the business was growing a lot slower, and once I finished the studies, I was able to dedicate a bit
more time into it. But it really means that, you know, I really love it as much, if not more than day one, because I'm also still doing other things, you know. I learned early on that I can't have it consume me. A couple of years ago, I heard this quote. This is still really resonating me, and I think it's for
a lot of small business owners. It's just really hits home, and it is instead of asking yourself, have I worked hard enough to earn my rest, ask yourself, am I arrested well enough to do my best work?
And I really like to.
Go by that mantra because you know, you know, I know that when I feel rested, when I feel like I've filled my cup, and you know, I slept well and I ate well, and I exercise and I do the things that make me feel good, the business is going much easier, smoother. You know, I'm a better partner, I'm a better mother, I'm a better friend, and I'm a better business owner. You know, I have more patience
for things that go wrong. I'm you know, I love reaching out to customers, but if I'm stressed, if I'm coming out of a fourteen hour day and to the next day with lots.
Of problems, it's hard to cope.
So yeah, it's really helped me read what success looks like. And for me, I realized that I already have a successful life.
I am already successful, and.
I don't want to and success is not burnout, I guess is the main message, and so far I've been able to avoid it, I guess, so I think that's something to be proud of as well.
In five years as a small business.
Owner, how confident are you in Australian Government's ability to support small businesses effectively?
Yeah, I thought about this question. I'm generally a positive person, so I don't just want to you know, unload problems since.
It's all bad.
And in some ways, I believe that the government tries and there are some good policies in place, so you know, things like helping small businesses find better energy deals at the moment, or providing digital education you know, AI education on AI et cetera, supporting payroll or employing people in small business So those are all steps in the right direction.
But what I feel is the policies they're put in place and what actually lands and reaches the small business owners, like those things are miles apart.
And for me, you know, I think we'll small business owners. We talked about it before, like we have you know.
So many things on our to do list and don't have enough resources and do a lot of work ourselves. So if accessing support or policies is complicated or clunky, it just deads up in to a hard basket and
you know, we just won't do it. So sometimes it I wonder if you know, if the government puts these policies in place to sound good and to get votes and you know, look good on paper, or if they're actually interested in providing that support and spending that money that they've set aside for it that we actually so small businesses that we actually can make use of it.
And it goes back to what we were talking about earlier.
You know, as a small business, we know, we know our customers, we know you know, we know our people that work for us really well, and we need to.
Look after them because if we don't, we don't have a business.
But it seems the government we are a big customer of the right like we are their people, but they just get away with not you know, with putting things in place that may not be relevant for us so that we can't access and yet there's no no consequences, there's no accountability. So you know, if we did that as a small business, we'd be out of business.
And yeah, like an example.
There's the Service of New South Wales Business bureau.
They you know, they promote.
Free tailored business advice. You just do not put in your email, someone will contact you. So I did that and I got a call, but I wasn't able to talk at that moment, so we arranged another time and then I never got a call back, and that happened twice, and so it was like, well, it's nice.
That you offer.
I think it's great, you know, tailored support for your small business. But then it does make you wonder, well, if it's so hard to actually talk to a person, or if they never follow up, do you really want to help me or do you just want to have it on your website so that you can say, oh, look we have all these services available, We've got all this support available.
So that's what, you know what I'm sort.
Of struggling to understand somehow that you know, it's such an important part of the Australian economy small business that that the government still doesn't take any accountability if the policies and the support that they put in place to help us actually doesn't reach us.
If you could advise your strain government on one action to take to better support small businesses, what would it be.
So I would say, get down on our level, so instead of making like flashy new policies.
Actually try and make the current.
Policies and support available work and in my view that's done best on a local level. So really investing in localized small business support, which means you know, it could be monthly drop ins where business owners can learn about the different initiatives or policies by the government that may support them, where they can then get help to access or apply, and where they can also get connected it to other local business owners. So really creating a bit
of a social economy. So it would be really great if the government would know the local government would know the local businesses and they could help connect you know, local business owners for the services that they need, ideally in our face to face.
Even with other small business owners.
So really creating a sense of community and togetherness, you know, instead of the usually really lonely journey of more small
business owners. So just providing I guess a bit more feeling of that they care, that feeling of care and really connectedness and wanting to bring small businesses together and helping helping them and you know, like this small business call out, Like if local government even just doing that, sending out their newsletters some small business call out of you know, some of the local businesses every every now and again to the awareness.
That would be really nice as well.
And the other thing that I thought about as well, just the provision of microgramts to match small business investment and that don't take a huge application.
Process, which would encourage like small.
Businesses to invest and you know, and to back ourselves and really to feel like what we do and contribute actually matters to the government, you know, So it's not only the big actions, but you know, we're really if you say, oh, I want to invest in new accounting system or a new website, if we just have that plan and we are willing to invest in it, you know, it means we spend the money locally usually you know, it's a joint investment. We invested usually locally in the
community and ultimately in the Australian economy. So I feel like that would really help overall as well. So rather than having this super big initiatives that you know are may be really huge and hard to access, really making it small and as a supported, grassroot level investment, because that's again like that's all we are.
We help.
We know our stuff, we know our customers, and if we just go on that level, you know, we can invest and we would back ourselves.
If we felt like the government.
We have the government behind us or they you know, they want to support us, then we wouldn't need I.
Don't know free.
Mental health courses that are offered by the government, but I think it will help our mental health if we felt that we were cared for and actually mad it.
I don't want to be like a down of it for me. Those are actually really like they.
Don't cost huge amount, like if you compare off what they've said aside maybe with a big initiatives, they don't cost a side march like I'm not asking for like these new crazy things. It's actually like I said, go down on our level, understand what's required. And it seems like if you take the again the business Brea New South Wales Business Bureau Service, New South Wales, like.
That's tailored advice for your small business. That sounds really good. And again I didn't have the chance to actually take it up.
But if that's something where you can say, okay, well you need you need a rebrand. We know these are three local companies that focus on branding in the Woollongong area. You know, hit them up, or you need to have something printed, or you need like, you know, a website specialist. It's like, just create that so we can actually talk people, you know, talk with.
Real people and have the.
Have the idea as well that actually they know who the small businesses are in the area and they actually have an interest in supporting that. Because the other thing that I thought about, even with sort of you know, I want to talk about the confidence in Australia government is like, you know, the most of the small business owners in Australia. I mean we you know, we we have we've made our profits in Australia, we paid tax in Australia. You know, we support local jobs and we're
usually really well connected in our local community. So I mean you'd think that you're very beneficial for the Australian government. Right.
What was the most rewarding part of being a small business owner.
It's actually hearing from customers that had to give up drinking coffee and because they couldn't stomach it, and they now reclaiming the love for coffee because of our coffee. That's like, that's crazy. You know, that's never I really never thought about that. I would say one day, oh, this is the best thing about the business. But this morning I received an email from a subscription customer who said, oh, can you bring my subscription you know, three weeks forward.
So like, I'm drinking a little bit more coffee during the day.
Since your coffee is not as acidic and I can tolerate more coffee. Plus it tastes great just reading that quote, and it's like wow, like this is actually it's much bigger than what you know I set out to do, and that's really amazing. And you know, the other thing obviously as well, with mums that tell us how grateful they are that they can actually enjoy a second couple without mum girl, or without feeling guilty or worrying that it'll harm their baby. I think that was such a
big part of my life and my story. So that feels really good as well. So that's really one of the big parts of like most rewarding things about about running your own business.
And the other thing.
Is that I can put my own rules in place and I don't have to compromise on my values, like because I started when you know, when I was still working full time in a corporate job. So for me being able to make my decisions and just being intentional of what I wanted to do and who I wanted to work with, and we also would donate, for example, one percent of every sale.
And choosing those charities.
It's really rewarding as well that no one can tell me what to do or how to run my business. So yeah, those are probably the two things i'd say a most.
Yeah, what is the one thing you wish more people knew about your business?
That our coffee is not only for months, like I said, there's actually now we have a lot of men and a lot of people's health issues or gut issues or that just want to improve that gut health that really feel like our coffee makes a big difference and doesn't cause them any issues. So I think that's one of the main things to not be put off and think, oh, this coffee is just for pregnant and breastfeeding mums or I don't want to have a lowered hafey in coffee
that's not for me. And the other thing actually is that we also have some coffee skincare, so I actually used.
The coffee and make coffee.
Face oils and body oils and hows from it. So I think we're probably the only coffee brand that has a skincare range as well, So if people want to check that out, that's pretty cool too. It's lots of the items, or the majority of the products that made from one hundred percent Australian ingredients and yeah, we're really trying to just use natural ingredients Australian sourced and yeah they really work too.
So those are the takes.
Where can people find you and your business? Let us know?
Yeah, so when people can find our business is only online at Mama's Beans dot com, dot at you and you double m Mayors Beans dot com dot at you, or are on Instagram and Mama's Underscore Beans and you doublemas Underscore Beans. We do offer our local pickup as well, so if you want to come say hello, our warehouse location in Ferra Meadow, South Coast is always worth a drive I reckon, So that would be really nice to say hi.
To some of the mentored listeners. M hm
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