"There's nothing..." - Small Business Callout: 'SlantBoardGuy' - Nathan Grant

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?

know at the gym, putting weights underneath their feet. But when I left the camp, I was just a chippy by trade. I said, I could probably go back to work and just build something nice offer when people come to the camp, they can actually stand on something built. One. Gave it to that guy. The other two three pts that were at the course asked for one, built them one and they shared it. I didn't have any social media or anything. They shared it online and it just

went viral over in America. So kind of quit my job. So it was never small business was never really the plan for us. Just I just I was in construction for probably fifteen twenty years and then yeah, finally quit my job and went into this full time, and now we sell the product from here on the Gold Coast worldwide. I think there's still that stigma around that, you know, that it's so risky to go out and start your own business and kind of give up on everything and

just start that. So I think, yeah, there'd be a huge percentage of small businesses that are around that people kind of like just stumble across the idea why they're still doing their nine to five or their typical job, and then find their passion for it. And I think once you get started, I think I'd find it very hard to go back to a nine to five. Now, don't get me wrong, I would if I had to, But you'd probably start another business or give something else

another crack. So it's definitely different. We get these stories of people that are forty fifty sixty and just like, oh, thank you so much, Like this this has changed my life. I wouldn't think that something so simple want change my life. And that's the rewarding bit for me, you know, like as calls is to go, oh yeah, Lebron James or whoever they are in the NFL, whatever it is, Well, that's really cool, and we get to meet some of them.

But at the same time, it's just really rewarding to know that someone down the street or just the everyday person benefited by using our product.

single hat and every day there's problems. Like there's not a day that there's not a problem, but it's super rewarding to walk out here at the end of the day and just go, Okay, we come up with a solution for that, right Like as now, they like you learn that mentality that like whatever comes your way, it might be hard, might be really difficult, but like, no matter what I think, as a small business entrepreneur, you kind of just find your way through it and find

a way of dealing with it and like getting an answer or which is really good. What I say is that like for every problem we come across that we fix, it's actually benefits us in the long run because we come across it again and we know where we've got to go or we've got to do. So that's kind of I don't know if that answers your question one hundred percent, but it's just like that's what I find

most rewarding. Anyways, we hit with so many challenges every single day, but to be able to do what we do and then think that I don't know that we're just a husband and wife team on the Gold Coast that have supplied you know, probably up to eighty thousand boards now all around the world in some of the biggest sporting clubs in the world. I don't know, it's a pretty pretty decent achievement.

in America doing what we're supposed to be doing in America. Yeah, so there's no kind of like real switch off for us. And I guess people don't see all that. So it's just like, while you can be walking around the job site, think and I should just invent this. If it was easy, I think like a lot more people be doing it. But it's super super hard run and running a small business. The stress is stresses right there. I like working for myself.

But at the same time, when you're doing nine to five, you can kind of finish your job, switch off, go home, have time when you've got your own business, doesn't it doesn't really work that way.

of the world here and then America for itself. But yeah, everything's manufactured and putting containers and filled up from here.

you'd love it, and it's like, yeah, we would. But if you're not actually set up for that and your business is too young in the early stages, it can be detrimental and it can affect your business. So we kind of you know, when we first come on board, we started the business. In the first month, we went okay, And the second and third month, you know, we're doing like, I don't know, in excess of three hundred and three hundred and fifty thousand a month, and we didn't even

have a warehouse. We're doing it on our garage out in the front of our house, on our driveway. So it was like we didn't have machines that we'll cut all the timber, but my handcut. So we got to like two thousand, just over two thousand orders behind. So then you know, a lot a lot of pressure come from that because then you know, people going where's my staff? I ordered it, and again we didn't. We didn't know boxing, we didn't know shipping, we did we didn't know any

of that stuff. So I guess when the surprise was like, we wanted it to be so busy and grow, but now when you look back at it, it'd be good to we just have lots of substantial growth, you know, that you could actually maintain and then just work towards you know, because after that growth, we had to go out and buy machinery, we had to have extra stuff, we had to have extra warehouses. So we did all that, and then as soon as you have a little bit of down downturn, then it's just like, well what do

you do? Do you keep? Do you keep with stuff? So it was just it was kind of that was the biggest surprise to us, I'd say. I mean, don't get me wrong, everyone wants to be busy, and it is. It's a good hype, but at the same stage, if you're not set up for it, then it can be just as detrimental or it could theoretically make business fail. So that'd probably be the biggest biggest lesson we've had

to them. Us is like a little bit challenging in a way because we manufacture also, so we're not just purely and solely e commerce important from overseas and then on selling we manufacture. So the biggest biggest challenge for us is has been everything in Australia in the last since we started the business has become so expensive, like

our materials increased thirty thirty five percent. This is something that we can't pass on to the end user, right, So it's just like you've got to find and that's why I said about every day you're trying to find chat. There's new challenges, but we've got to find different ways that we can, you know, make the business sustainable day

in day out. And I think I'll probably make it a little bit harder on myself because I've always wanted to keep manufacturing in a Astralia just because I think, you know, you see that we see our careers every day, they've got their own small business picking up our parcels. I touched on it a little bit on our first time we talked. But it's like our own little ecosystem, and I think people don't realize what that ecosystem supports further up the network, but what I do find is

that we kind of feel like the middleman. So our supplies still they every time they get a price increases, just gets passed on to us, right, so they're still making their own margin, but our margin just gets chewed up, tued up and tewed up, and you've got to find different ways to be able to navigate that. So that's probably one of the biggest challenges that we come across.

But yeah, I don't, Yeah it is. It's the biggest change because our price hasn't gone up, right in four years, So there's not many businesses that would still be around that their price hasn't gone up in four years. But it's only through ways that we make the product less people want efficient or effective ways that we can do it. That we've been able to survive. So that's the most challenging part, i'd say being in Australia, and that's to

keep manufacturing here. The easy solution would be to take everything overseas important from overseas, not have a warehouse, drop shit the product. You could do that, but at the same time it's it's not really what sits close to my heart, So I don't know. Some people might watch this and just say he's a little bit silly, but

it's just it's just what resonates with me. And again, you know, we suffer a team who come on board and team who will selling stuff for like five and ten dollars, and yet all these people at write comments too, so you've got to deal with that every day. But at the same time, it's just like, well, you've just got to stay true to your vision and that's what our vision.

make all the stuff to then onsell it. So we've been talking to a couple of our supplies and lucky we've got good relationships with them where we can have accounts and like you know, thirty sixty day accounts, so at least we could kind of like get the stuff in, build it and start selling it before you know that money goes back out of the business. Just it's just cash flow, right, doesn't end up helping your top end margin,

but at the same time just maintains cash flow. So that's been you know, that's been a pretty positive thing. That's been able to help us again being able to make it more effectively and efficiently with our CNC machine and stuff like that. So but again you've got to invest in new machines to be able to do that, So it takes a year or two before you start

seeing that change. But the last thing, and the most concerning thing is is that if it continues to go the way it goes, then there's two options, and it will be to you know, to not have the business anymore, or to move the business overseas, which, like I said to you before, is something that I don't want to do. But at the same time, you know, it's just I just find it's an going issue over here because you know, wages that we have to pay, you know, are super

high compared to other places in the world. And I'll get it because cost of living. But at the same time, it's just like this constant squeezed and I feel like small business is just in the middle and everyone else is just making their margin doing what they want to do. People come in to work, and they've got to get paid their wages. They've got to pay their wages, and then whatever's left in the middle is just you, you know, and deal with it.

like it'd be so high and that's ridiculous. But at the same time, there's no support there, Like there is literally none. You know, we're a profitable business, but even for us to go to a bank and to do some lending, like the amount of loops like and everything you have to jump through is phenomenal, Like it is crazy, and it's just like it's nearly almost like you can't be making one hundred or two hundred thousand dollars a year. You've got to be making ten million for them to

lend to you or nothing. There's no in between. That's how I feel at the moment, and it's just yeah, I don't know, it's really deflating. So like to answer your question zero, like I just do not think this government is interested in helping small business. And that might come across I don't know, you might might get a few people that don't like that opinion. That's just me being in the position that I am. I just can't

handle it. It just annoys me a lot. I think they should needs to be like a lot more funding, a lot more assistance, like government grants, Like we're manufacturing in Australia, sending like thousands of products overseas. We should be getting like there should be government grants like well, we're keeping the work in Australia, like small businesses like running like giving so many people jobs. It's employing so

many people. But we're never like you know, all these old multinational companies and I don't know that they have all the people in place for assistance where they know they can go and get grants and they know they can get this funding and they know that there's you know, the Australian Government's going to do this for people that are earning so much money. But it's just like a small business, it feels like there's nothing out there for us. Like I know there's like little bits and pieces, but

are talking about you know. Like I said, I just get passionate about it because it's like the easy thing for me to fly over to China, get my stuff made in China, flight over here and sell it. But at the same time, like we should be doing it and keeping it here. But it's just the cost is blown out, so like you either got to make a decision to survive or just to stop. It's more than obvious as I mean, there's just nothing there, you know.

And that's that's what I say. Is like when times are good, you know, and this is they're so frustrating, but it's just like they've got to pay yoursue, but you've got to pay this, you've got to pay that, like and you continue to pay all that, right, but then at the same time when times are tough, there's no assistance there to get you through. Like we just had we just had a really close friends kind of started business the same time as us, in the same

niche exploded went really really well, I lost everything. They shut down at the end of last year and lost everything. And it's just like it might have just been like we're some some kind of assistance where I believe the government should have some kind of assistance package for small business to say, okay, like let's jump in and help you guys and then get you through this tough period and then you know, further down the line like this whatever the plan is. But it was just like, okay,

we can come in and help you survive. Now we're going to put a plan in place, and it needs to be X, Y and z, so then however we help you is then paid off in whatever amount of years. But it gets you through just that hard period, just gets you through that that little hard period that you need because it could be the matter of a business survivan or a business just just disappearing. And it's not I look at my friend's business and just go, that's fine.

He had a wife, two kids, a couple of employees, so that's five or six people that it's affected directly. But then you look on top of that, it's just like the courier that picked up your stuff. The people that supplied their boxes, like that small business that no one really ever thinks about or the government doesn't really care about because there are any turnover two three million

dollars a year, it's not significant to them. Really supports fifteen to twenty people, you know, and directly then five or six people don't have a job in the stress and everything like that. But secondly it's like the couriers and all that. It might only be one hundred dollars, but that's like one hundred dollars a day, that a one hundred dollars a week that they don't have anymore,

that they've got to find somewhere else. So cooks very very quickly, and we speak to the couriers that are picking up, you know, and you just go from a year year and a half ago to having full vans and doing like two runs a day to like picking up and some days their vans are half empty, right, And it's just like, so who supports all that? And it's just like, well, it's because all the small business, all the multinational companies and the ones that are big,

they don't really care. They'll go to Australia Post and do it will do with a straight post or whatever courier service they do, and it's not really available to the career that owns the run because the deal is done in the background of oh, you'll get thirty cents a pass or whatever. It's all the small business that don't get to have them big deals that actually pay two dollars or three dollars a pass or whatever it is that that career makes. It actually makes the career money.

So I just I get frustrated that there's there is no support and it should be you know, we do everything for three or four years and everything's by the book and you're paying taxes and you do everything, and then the one time that things are tough, there's no support that it's just like go with clothes business, you know, because you don't have family behind you or anyone behind you with a bit of money that can ride the

cash flow. And then your business first and foremost is like our family, right, like we work hard and the business is there to support our family. But then like people that work for us, they've got families, so like you feel pressure there because you know they've got kids. Who's just like, well, if I just go and shut the door tomorrow, Like, yeah, okay, I can go and get a job on a construction site. But then what

happens to everyone else? And then it goes on to you know, whoever else makes money like off our business, like I said, the poorers and stuff. But you know, the other thing becomes when you're in a small business is like like how long do you ride it? Like, you know, we've only been in business four years and we had some good years and the last year and a half's been super super tough and find ways to

make it work. But at the same time, it's it's like, well, then you just pull the pin and it is what it is. Or you know, if you go back two years ago, our business would have been worth quite quite a substantial amount of money. So it's just like, well, then do you then try and ride through this hard period and see it like pick back up? So I think that's the hard thing in small business. And that's

what I said about the support from the government. When I talk about support, I don't always just talk about

monetary value. It could be anything like advisory value, you know, like why can't they get together and they could be you know, a group of advisors that can come in and look at small business and don't get me wrong, that's on a huge scale, but somewhere where you can reach out and you can ask people hey like, or make it easier for lots small business to find grants to actually suit them and make the application process easy rather than having to go through this huge application process

and it's just like long and draining. It's just you know, don't get me wrong, We've got a few and it's fine, but at the same time, it should be a lot easier, right to be able to go through and just be like, okay, cool, Actually it really need some assistance. Now, this, this and this, this is what we do. You know, why isn't there a lot of small business loans? I know they say there is. I want to ask most people in small

business how they get alone. They can't, right, I find it very very hard to get like a property unless you've got all this money which people are then refinance. It's the other side of business, but super difficult. And then what does it do just create stress of the business. It's just a non file effect. And that's what happens when I see people just as their business and it's sad. It is.

twenty million dollar turnover. Well, the governm that sits in and says that's a grand it is. But there's a lot of small businesses don't turn over fifteen to twenty million dollars a year that can then apply for that all right, And then the ones that do get it, do they need it? Do they really need it? I don't know. Maybe they's got people that can do the grant's really good for them and they get extra additional money. I'm saying they'd still use it towards their business. But

I think there's that generalization. And I think when they say small business and how the loan goes or how the grant goes, I don't know, it's very generalized. It's as like they should look at that specifically, like not maybe on a case by case basis, but it just needs to be more specified what they're going to do. And the other thing is is like i'd say, it doesn't always. I think a huge thing the government could do to help small business is not always just monetary.

Could be advisory, be advisory about hey, like come in and actually like I don't know whether there's a hotline or there's a people seeing business. I mean the ATO is pretty good to being able to see everything we do anyway, but just in a way that they could go, Okay, well, actually this this and this could actually help your business

get through this hard time. Might not be just manatory because at the end of the day, money money is good and cashlow can keep your business going, but at some stage you've got to you've got to give it back, right, So I don't say I don't just sit in magical one and go yeah, money is money is the answer, Like it could to help a business actually survive through a hard time, but if there's no foreseeable future where they could pay that back or there's no point given

them the money. And that's what I mean about maybe something advisory or something where they could come in and give some kind of advice on a business level. For me,

I think it's a super lonely road. So because we do a lot of business in the US, I know, like I wish I had more spare time and we could start something and help people, you know, navigate that way to the US where it could just open a different market for them, because there's not this there's not a space where many people talk about it, right, So it's just like if you could do that and you could mentor people and go, okay, it's actually really not

that daunting. You just got to X y Z. Here's the people who have used here some contacts to use. If the numbers work for it, you can do it

and then it opens up into the market. There's nothing like that, And that's why I said it could be just advisory and just have you know, a network of maybe it's other small businesses, you know, maybe it's like a convention two to three times a year where like you know, the government pays for small businesses to go there and have a two or three day convention and everyone talks, and you know, there's certain topics around the convention.

I don't know, but we find it super rewarding when we go and meet other entrepreneurs or other businesses and you find out little bits and pieces of ideas they do. But you know, it can be it can be super helpful. Just even I'm not going off topic, but just a small thing of like shipping. You know, no one we had to learn all that for ourselves, you know, by

change in our box. I think it was like three centimeters saved seventeen dollars a parcel because we'll send them to the US now like we did twenty or thirty thousand parcels in that time. So you're talking about like two three, four hundred thousand dollars in a short space of time. But there's no one there to provide that. And that's why I said, I know, government's not going

to come in and do that. But maybe if they had conventions where everyone got together and it was like a you know, a three day event three times a year, and then people got up there and there was one about shipping or there was one about moving your business into the US or now moving it overseas and opening different markets. Maybe they could do that and it could be just an educational process but funded for the small

business to be able to go there. It is a huge, huge ecosystem that no one really takes into account how big it is. But it's not how big it is, it's what support it does and supports the up network. And that's what I said, like if it dies often and the way that it's going be so judgmental to austral they do not understand. And like I said it even our suppliers I speak to them, I say, like, you don't understand. And just one example is just like one of our suppliers, you know, we buy quite a

fair bit of product off him. He had a multi he had a huge account and that company went broke and that they I think it was like somewhere in the city of half a million owed him. So he

lost out in that half a million. But because they got such a big account, they opened up a company again and start again and he will do business with them, whereas with us, I just constantly pay our bill month on, month off, month on, month off, we'rether small guy, but we don't cause you any headaches, right, and you're still making the same margin. Yeah, not the quantity is not there, but he's still making the same margin, if not more. And it's just constantly coming in week after week or

month after month. And that's what that's just asked. But that's thousands of small business every month, month or a month. The biggest one I think about his career is couriers wouldn't exist without small business. And you think how many couriers are out there, like just the little ones that go from workplace to workplace. They've all got families, they all need to they all need to eat, they all need to survive, and without small business, they wouldn't have any passes to pick up.

to turn around? Is it not going to turn around. We're not from a business family, right, Like I said to you, it wasn't planned, Like we kind of just fell into this and then started it and it's been an incredible journey. But it's just you know, sometimes you question yourself, you know, do we keep pushing? Do we not? So, yeah, it's business isn't great the moment. We had an all right end of the year, so that's probably why it's still not too bad now. February was super challenging. So

we'll just see. It would be touch and go, i'd say, for the next probably three months and see how we go from there. But yeah, I don't know. That's challenging, a little bit emotional when I talk about it, but it's just I think always just try and wake up in the morning. It's just a new start to the day. It's a positive start to the day. Remember that you've got the decision to go out and do what you love to do, and that's you know, whatever whatever business

you've got, that that's it. That's to run a successful business and to be like for our product that helps people. So I just I look for every product that goes out the front door, I think that we're changing someone's life for the better. We're out there trying to do something positive. But as for business wise, I just, you know, the positive part of like about it is I get to get up in the morning and do what I

love to do. I don't like the stress of it when it's when it's not good, but it's ten times better than going to a job that I'll probably enjoy every day. And I've got to get up and I've got to go and do that stuff and don't And there's there's still nothing wrong with doing that. People people will do that every single day. But the business people

out there, they are struggling. I would say that. And the other thing I would say is, you know, maybe learn the limit of when it when it is too much or it's you know, because that's something that whether you want to face it or not, sometimes we've got to face. It's a sad reality of business. But you know what we said, if if our government got it, got themselves together and actually helped a few people, I'm sure would be would be talking different ways on this podcast.

It should it should be. It's crazy. It's crazy to think that I see stuff on the news and see how much money they throw around to other things. But like I said, I don't think small businesses is on their on their radar. I don't think it's an importance there.

and thirty dollars. I think that's a small price to pay to give anything to go, So I'd say, don't be so skeptical, give it a go. I think you'd be very very surprised. So that's probably what I wish to run you is just you know, I said, we're in business, but we're in business to help people also, so that's probably the biggest where you can find us at stampor Guy on Instagram. He's a big one, stample Guy on Facebook, and then our website is just www dot stamporgy dot com