Episode 103: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Planning
17th March, 2025
Business planning isn’t just for startups—it’s essential for sustainable success. In this episode, we debunk common myths and explore how a living, adaptable plan helps entrepreneurs navigate uncertainty, financial challenges, and growth.
We cover:
- The Helix Planning approach—aligning operations, finances, and strategy.
- Financial fundamentals—breakeven rates, cash flow, and pricing for profit.
- Avoiding the “set and forget” trap—keeping your plan dynamic and effective.
- Making better business decisions under pressure.
Plus, we celebrate being in the Top 20% of Spotify video podcasts—thanks to you! 🎉 Tune in for practical insights and real-world strategies to build a business plan that works. 🚀
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Just two industry experts (and guests) having a friendly chat and sharing our knowledge. We aim to raise your knowledge base and dis-spell any myths surrounding finance. tax and a range of other financial topics.
This is a safe space to ask questions and hear useful info on financial matters.
Read more about FOFU here
And, as always if you'd like to leave us a message, or suggest a topic, you can do so here
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DISCLAIMER- The information and material in this podcast, and supplementary and associated information available, is for general information only. It should not be taken as constituting professional advice from the podcast owners, and we recommend you seek independent suitable advice that is specific to your unique circumstances.
Podcast Transcript Available Here
Trudi Cowan (00:14.521)
Hello, Sarah, welcome to 2025.
Sarah Eifermann (00:18.253)
It's almost March. I can't believe how quickly the year is going. Hello everyone. It is literally March. Yeah, which won't be far away. Crazy. Gone very, very quickly. How's the start of your year? Kicked off.
Trudi Cowan (00:22.307)
very on those marches. You march by the time you're listening.
Mm-hmm.
Trudi Cowan (00:35.333)
busy.
probably in a work busy. January not too bad, try to hang out with kids and not work too hard. That's the joys of owning your own business, right? And then February, yeah, just straight into it. Trying to wrap up all the 2024 work so that we can focus on the current financial year and tax planning and all those sorts of fun things that are coming up.
Sarah Eifermann (00:59.009)
which are due like very very soon. So yeah for me I have been in recovery for those that don't know if you don't follow us online. My boxer dog rescue dog Zussie he snapped my leg my right leg clean in half one Sunday morning in October and after comment what was that yeah well here's the rest of it
Trudi Cowan (01:00.986)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (01:17.477)
graphic imagery when you think about it. Very graphic imagery to think about your...
Sarah Eifermann (01:25.393)
So after he did that and I screamed like a banshee, I then had to commando crawl across the ground dragging my leg behind me to collect my mobile phone that had been smacked out of my pocket. And I had to have surgery and I've spent the last pretty much four months recovering from that injury. And I've only just started walking again with a serious limp. And so my most recent purchase is an addition to my life kit is a vintage 1800 style spinster cane.
Trudi Cowan (01:34.797)
Love it.
Sarah Eifermann (01:55.751)
Just to know, like, up the theme properly. So I have my cousin's wedding coming up and I thought what better time to debut that fine piece of accessory than then. So yeah, so we've been in recovery, clients have been quiet waiting for me to come back and yeah, this last month, like five weeks already has been a bit crazy for me with new business coming in. So yeah, it's been a bit nuts and here we are in our sixth
Trudi Cowan (01:55.973)
can't wait to see you with it.
Trudi Cowan (02:01.229)
You
Trudi Cowan (02:06.883)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (02:24.672)
season. Geez, can't believe it. Me either. Something that started during COVID to keep us entertained was yeah, here we are. And we've got thousands of listeners, people like even annoying Trudy on the weekend. When's the next season coming out? So thank you for those that do listen and share our podcasts. The best way for more people to find us is for you passing it on to friends or colleagues. If you think of somebody that could benefit.
Trudi Cowan (02:26.531)
Yeah, can't believe it's been going for that long.
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (02:39.333)
What's the next on camera?
Sarah Eifermann (02:53.414)
from one of our episodes, please share it, tag them. The more listeners we get, the better off our message will be in being passed around and really helping businesses where you really strive to give you quality information that you can action inside your business or at least get the cogs ticking a little bit and clear out the smoke. So today's episode is on emerging business trends for 2025. So what are we looking at, Drudy?
Trudi Cowan (03:10.735)
Yes, that's
Trudi Cowan (03:21.477)
We're going to disclaim it. We're not even going to go near the political trends that are emerging for 2025 because there's lots of, that could be a podcast in itself, I think. But if we shift away from that, mean, AI is definitely looking to be a big one. AI automation, how could it be used within your business to sort of streamline things, improve efficiencies? It's definitely something I'm seeing talked about a lot.
Sarah Eifermann (03:26.854)
Aww. Aww.
the whole season.
Sarah Eifermann (03:38.598)
passive.
Trudi Cowan (03:51.073)
And it's almost at the point of people starting to say, you you need to jump on now to make sure that you're not missing out on the benefits that your competitors might be getting from using these tools that are coming out now.
Sarah Eifermann (03:57.7)
Mmm. We'll unpack that.
Sarah Eifermann (04:04.103)
We'll unpack that in a second, so hold on for that one. What else have we got?
Trudi Cowan (04:07.777)
mean, cyber security is always there. The risks are continuing to be big. There's lots of challenges out there, more and more people getting hacked and having issues with data loss. And that's definitely there.
Sarah Eifermann (04:19.782)
So then we've got market shifts and consumer behavior, economic forecasts and business strategy. Have you, have any of you tuned out yet? And then the cost of doing business crisis. And that is a great title for what a lot of businesses are experiencing. So the rising costs and their impact, financial stress on small business, and then navigating this, how do we all move forward into the rest of the year? And I've just done.
Trudi Cowan (04:23.397)
What?
Yep.
Sarah Eifermann (04:46.18)
a session with clients and again, that was a big theme of that. So tech advancements, AI, cybersecurity, as Trudy said, they're massively on the scene. know our industry bodies are pushing them. You'll see them in the media and the news. And often the question is, how do I apply this to my business and how does it work? So Trudy, what are you using in your business in terms of AI at the moment?
Trudi Cowan (04:54.105)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (05:10.277)
I'm still pretty simple at the moment. A bit of chat GPT is definitely in usage. Starting to just sort of experiment with, I guess, the functionality to take notes in virtual calls, so on your Zoom calls and so forth to have the virtual note taking. They're probably the two main ones that I'm sort of playing with at the moment, but certainly aware that there's others coming up in my industry that are starting to, I guess, be tested and more useful.
Sarah Eifermann (05:14.608)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (05:33.968)
Mm-hmm.
You may also be seeing it in Canva, but not realizing it's AI, because a lot of the back end of Canva, the magic edits and stuff like that, they're all AI based. yeah, so some of the stuff that you think is just part of the program is actually AI denomination. And what's the word? can't think of it. It's just slipped my mind.
Trudi Cowan (05:42.786)
Yeah
Trudi Cowan (05:48.479)
Okay.
Trudi Cowan (05:58.085)
And there's probably other things within the programs that I use that, as you say, they're AI based and I'm probably not even realizing that they're happening.
Sarah Eifermann (06:03.739)
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of chat bots and stuff you're using now are AI based to kick off conversations and then they will either lodge a complaint via this way or they'll get a real person on the line. But a lot of the larger businesses are really using them for efficiency management. So if you want to get make your profit higher without changing anything else in terms of lowering your costs, which often is not an option.
Trudi Cowan (06:09.262)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (06:27.674)
then becoming more efficient is the fastest way to actually make more money because you're already making money. It's just shaving the cost off because you're doing it faster. So automation for me, I use a range very similar chat GPT. I use Fireflies and I also use the zoom companion that I just trial today in that business. But the main one for me is a change in my own behavior as to how I'm using them. I've been very open about the fact that I let Trudy be the guinea pig.
Trudi Cowan (06:55.395)
Hahaha
Sarah Eifermann (06:55.466)
before we went down the AI path and I used to send her questions. And then I just realized, look, you know, the world's got all of our data anyway, so what am I worried about? I think the biggest thing to take with AI is rather than be frightened of it, just take everything it says with a grain of salt. So you can use it for value metrics and saving time. And I will often put thoughts and processes into AI and get it to spit out an email or a letter or whatever it is I'm doing. And then I will...
Trudi Cowan (06:58.669)
You did, you?
Sarah Eifermann (07:22.214)
proofread and I will edit in accordance with what's appropriate. A lot of people still don't realize the speed in which they can manage that. I've had like contracts or terms and conditions I've sped out of it, meeting minutes, meeting templates, like, you if you need to do a capability statement, it'll smash you a capability statement immediately in the right format, all the different fields to build in, but you still have to go back and check, like, do you actually have the qualification it says you do?
Trudi Cowan (07:25.722)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (07:47.717)
I mean, I've used it even in some cases for my research, not that it's my final point, but sometimes I'm like, I know there's a rule around this, but I can't remember what's the legislation or the provision. And it can help me to find that so I can then go back to the source data to actually read the proper rule and so forth, rather than necessarily relying on it for my final answer.
Sarah Eifermann (07:52.24)
Yeah, exactly.
We're set.
Sarah Eifermann (08:09.638)
And in content creation, it's amazing. even in a lot of, even this episode, which we record on Riverside, when we spit it out, I can adjust a whole heap of stuff in terms of media sound. But when it cuts up our clips, they're all AI. I was spending per episode about three hours cutting social clips out for our usage, for our social media. And now I hit one button and we get five. So.
Trudi Cowan (08:33.785)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (08:34.682)
I think like anything time and place you have to check it. You have to see if the context is correct. You have to look for what are called hallucinations. Like is this information correct? I've done research on it before and I'm like, that's not right. But if you use it in the right way, just start asking it questions. See what it says.
Trudi Cowan (08:38.853)
Hmm.
Trudi Cowan (08:43.065)
Yep.
Trudi Cowan (08:50.597)
One probably important point to note though, and is in context with another one of our elements around cyber security is that what a lot of people say is just make sure that what you're putting into it is not personal data. So maybe you put in the general question, but maybe you don't put your name in it and you just add your name in later. Or maybe you don't put the figures in and you add them in later or whatever the private data might be. Don't necessarily add that into your question or allow that to go into GPT just to protect your own privacy.
Sarah Eifermann (09:02.597)
Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (09:17.06)
No. Yeah. Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (09:20.805)
And those sorts of things can be added into the documents later on once you've got the generic literal template.
Sarah Eifermann (09:23.75)
Absolutely. Okay, get your template spit out as a draft and then go from there. I suppose and that leads right into our next question about cyber security. Like what are you doing for your business in terms of cyber security? Have you assessed your protocol? Do you need a cyber security audit? Do you need to pay for that? I mean, you could probably ask AI to do it for you. But potentially like, you know, even things like I updated my malware bytes software.
Trudi Cowan (09:43.493)
Before we get...
Sarah Eifermann (09:51.835)
that searches for, you know, the pop-ups and like the scrollers or whatever they're called that sit in the back end of websites. And I have to change the settings because it's driving me crazy, but it is literally popping up every like three or five minutes of stuff that it's blocking that I didn't realize was a problem. you know, are you running a firewall? Is it a trend? Is it something else? But then on top of that, what other cybersecurity measures are you taking in your business around payment terms?
Trudi Cowan (09:54.17)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (10:07.363)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (10:18.662)
and cross-checking out like my emails when they go out for invoicing say, know, please check that you have the correct bank details and give me a call if there's a concern. Don't just idly make payments to any of your suppliers.
Trudi Cowan (10:28.195)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (10:34.201)
I actually during the week had a couple of emails go out to clients from one of my software products and had two clients actually come back saying, just checking this is actually from you, because it looked a bit different to usual. And that's fine. I'm happy for people to come back and check that things are legit rather than clicking on links that they're not sure about.
Sarah Eifermann (10:52.774)
Well, also because you are still liable to make the payment even if you've clicked on a spam link from that business. you know, the legislation, I don't know if that's fair or not. I mean, it could be argued either way. But at the moment, the legislation protects the business owner. So before you transfer really anything over 500 bucks, if we're being real, make sure quick phone call or even a text message to the owner. I got some electrical work done here recently. I got his invoice. I knew he was online doing it.
Trudi Cowan (11:14.095)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (11:22.16)
But I text him and said, can you just confirm your bank details for me? Because it was a couple grand payments. So I wanted to make sure that it was going to him because I'm responsible. in terms of cybersecurity, if you haven't got cyber insurance, that's something else you should be adding to your ever growing list of things you need and costs. But
Trudi Cowan (11:43.459)
Yes. And then the other one is a password manager. If you're manually entering passwords into all of your software products, you're very behind the times. You need to be using, there's a bunch of different products out there, some industry specific ones, but using a password manager so that you're clicking one button and it's going straight into the program. You can then be using large complicated passwords and not having to be remembering them. And two factor authentication, wherever it exists in your programs, make sure you're actually using it.
Sarah Eifermann (12:06.234)
And that was, yes. And using passphrases came out of our business expo here in regional New South Wales. Cyber security experts said no longer use a password. It's a passphrase. So it could be 25 characters in total by the time you have the full phrase. It's much harder to hack that than password 123 exclamation point.
Trudi Cowan (12:21.914)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (12:25.274)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (12:31.193)
Yeah. And probably one of the really key things as well is make sure that actually giving your staff cyber training. A lot of the time these hacks aren't as a result of what the boss has done. It's what a staff member has unknowingly clicked on or transferred money to or what have you. So it's really important to make sure your staff are actually across all of these sorts of things and what they should and should not be doing as well because
Sarah Eifermann (12:39.162)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (12:52.88)
Mm-hmm.
Yep, absolutely.
Trudi Cowan (12:58.455)
It's very easy for something to slip through just because I don't have the awareness of it.
Sarah Eifermann (13:02.214)
Absolutely. So rise of no code, low code platforms. What do you think, True?
Trudi Cowan (13:08.729)
Well, mean, technology is so easy these days.
Sarah Eifermann (13:12.272)
That's like a Canva for those that aren't aware. They look like just a normal program, but like we said, they're sort of built, they're coded or they're templated and then they're much easier for you to use. Squarespace is another example. There's so much you can do these days and it's better to do something than nothing. So have a look at what's available to you in your small business. Some of them cost, others don't. And again,
Trudi Cowan (13:26.299)
I took the words out of my mouth, yep.
Trudi Cowan (13:33.731)
Yep.
Trudi Cowan (13:40.111)
Yep.
Sarah Eifermann (13:42.372)
got to spend some money to make money. And if you've been very quiet in business, maybe you need to go back and have a look at your marketing plan and what that looks like for your business for 2025.
Trudi Cowan (13:50.767)
But also while you're at it, have a look at what software tools you are actually paying for and are you using them and are you using all the features? Because a lot of these products are actually continually developing and if you're not actually keeping up with the changes that they're making, there might be a whole bunch of features in there that can help streamline your business that you're not even aware of.
Sarah Eifermann (13:56.914)
And are you paying for them monthly instead of annually if you've been using them for five years?
Sarah Eifermann (14:10.286)
Yeah, exactly. All right, so we're going to move on market shifts and consumer behavior. So what are we seeing for 2025?
Trudi Cowan (14:17.765)
Definitely a demand for sustainable ethical business practices. People are more and more wanting to know that the businesses that they're transacting with are probably, what's the word, good global citizens, corporate citizens. And that they're engaging in these types of business practices that align with their ethics, consumers' personal ethics. So that's definitely a big one.
Sarah Eifermann (14:30.758)
Corporate citizenry used to be the line. Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (14:45.975)
e-commerce and digital transformation like is bricks and mortar still relevant? Is it coming back? It seems to be a little bit of sh-
Sarah Eifermann (14:54.948)
I think you will find that there is actually a shift that's moving back to connection. It's always about connection and being in regional Australia, I can tell you right now, bricks and mortar will sell something hands down, usually faster than an online shop. Most of the shops here do well because they have both. They don't rely on one or the other. That may not work in a metro location, but be aware, like if you automate everything and you're pushing everybody through funnels and there's no way outside that matrix, for lack of a better term.
Trudi Cowan (15:01.347)
That should be enough.
Sarah Eifermann (15:24.868)
You may lose that customer because people are craving connection. We're the most connected we've ever been in our entire species, but we're also the most disconnected we've ever been in our entire species.
Trudi Cowan (15:34.223)
connected. Yeah. And even just with products, I'm finding talking to people that people are back to wanting that touch and feel of the product before they just buying online. I'm finding a lot of people, a lot of people with clothing are going, it never seems to fit right when I buy online. I just want to be able to go and try something on in a shop and know that it fits me before I spend the money.
Sarah Eifermann (15:40.964)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of noise.
Sarah Eifermann (15:55.515)
Yeah, all of that. then having to deal with the post and paying the postage back. Like, even I recently, you know, found a new online shop and, you know, the cotton clothing is a big trend back to natural fabrics. And that was the one group of clothing on their entire website that didn't have sizing on it. So I fortunately knew the owner and I asked her, but as a just a standard consumer, well, that's an immediate, well, I'm not buying from these guys moving on. Right. So there's little things in your website.
Trudi Cowan (15:59.479)
Yeah, we're doing things.
Trudi Cowan (16:12.506)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (16:19.717)
Not by the air, because how are we going to know if it fits on it?
Sarah Eifermann (16:25.586)
And if you haven't get a third party to do an audit and see what it doesn't have to be someone that you pay for it can be a business buddy get them to have a look at it and see what they think is missing because things are changing all the time as Trudy's been saying so
Trudi Cowan (16:38.309)
And I think as well that maybe the bricks and mortars, not necessarily that they've got a store everywhere, but they may have one flagship store. So at least there's a store that you can go to to check out the products in person before you buy.
Sarah Eifermann (16:50.544)
Yeah, we say that a lot in Byron Bay, they have their flagship store in Byron Bay and then they ship nationally. But people know if they come to Byron, they can go into the shop. yeah, which then leads us to personalization in marketing. So this is an interesting one, right? I recently contacted people I hadn't spoken to in five years and wrote a personal email to the group of people. And then I had an email back, it was an old mate that said, this is not personalized. I was like,
Trudi Cowan (16:55.139)
They can go in. Yeah, definitely.
Trudi Cowan (17:02.755)
Uh-uh.
Sarah Eifermann (17:16.662)
actually wrote it specific and he's like yeah but you sent it to quite a few people and I was like yeah mate he goes well well I would have preferred you just send me an email directly to me and I was like okay cool I've got 700 of you and I ended up jokingly saying to him send me some business and I'll write you as many emails as you like I'll even come visit you in person but so it's finding the time to split between prioritizing time versus also
relationship, right?
Trudi Cowan (17:47.439)
But I think as a consumer as well, personalized marketing is always more likely to get me sucked in as well. Because it feels a bit more like they're talking actually to me rather than just throwing some product out into the world and seeing if it, if it lands.
Sarah Eifermann (17:52.07)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (18:01.435)
What does that look like for you, Trudy? Like for those listeners that are thinking, yeah, but how do I do that? What does that look like?
Trudi Cowan (18:07.333)
It's the Facebook listening in and all of a sudden the ads are things that I've been talking about. Yeah. Which is definitely most definitely.
Sarah Eifermann (18:11.374)
Okay, which is AI. Okay, so it's using some of that data to really target.
Trudi Cowan (18:20.621)
It's using some of that data about me or it's advertising a product that or an event that's actually local to me rather than just something that's happening in the state. Things like that that have a bit of a closer connection. To me and my interest, yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (18:27.803)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Okay, so really packing them to really, really like tailing is the right word, like nailing them down to what your unique niches are for how you spend and what you enjoy and what you're more likely to
Trudi Cowan (18:44.643)
Yeah. Versus some of the generic emails that I get from big software providers, it's probably a really common one in the accounting industry, which is clearly just a generic email that's kind of almost, we're going to throw it out there and see who clicks on the link and who responds and we'll take it from there.
Sarah Eifermann (18:51.611)
No.
Sarah Eifermann (19:00.538)
And look, there's been a massive rise back to email lists as well because A, you don't own your social media platform. But one tip, please don't start emailing me daily or even weekly if you haven't sent me an email in five years. Unsubscribe immediately. Right? So you have to go in slowly if you have decided to switch back to an email marketing campaign and literally go in slowly. And then on that, on the spam act, it is illegal to contact people that have not subscribed or opted in.
Trudi Cowan (19:05.306)
Come on.
Sarah Eifermann (19:27.664)
They need to buy from you first if they buy from you and then that then it's technically they're involved. But I've had so many different service providers buy a list from a data miner and then through an EDM, not through an individual personalized email sent out of my software program. There's a difference there from the spam act email me and I'm like, this is illegal. If you don't know this, I will never buy from you because this is illegal. So if you think buying a list and email list is
Trudi Cowan (19:52.666)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (19:55.8)
If you don't grow it organically, is not easy, just remember there are those of us out there that won't buy from you because you tried to cheat the system.
Trudi Cowan (20:03.097)
Yeah, you tried to spam me. Yeah. You're only got customers off-start before you're even starting.
Sarah Eifermann (20:05.009)
Cool, so moving on from... Yeah, exactly. And so that's leading us into economic forecasts and business strategy adjustments.
Trudi Cowan (20:14.135)
I mean, this is the one that most people are probably noticing the most. There's definitely a lot of talk around rising costs, prices.
Sarah Eifermann (20:25.958)
But also like the global implications like the Fed Reserve in America and then the gold standard and where's the gold? Like all of that is having an impact.
Trudi Cowan (20:33.483)
Yeah, and different, different changes to trade tariffs and things like that around the world's also most definitely having a big impact. The other one that I'm seeing a lot is there's a lot of talk about getting people back into the office. That conversation seems to have reappeared again and really wanting to get people back in a whole lot more than what they currently are. Definitely seems to be a conversation that's happening a lot as well.
Sarah Eifermann (20:37.806)
Yep. Yep.
Sarah Eifermann (20:45.254)
Mm-hmm. Started. Yep. Yep.
Sarah Eifermann (20:59.672)
I mean, the economic forecast stuff, like from what I get told in weekly or for nightly briefings when I attend them is that this is strange times and strange waters for what we're seeing economically. There's no real economic model that we're following at the moment. And that's where a lot of the concern is coming from in terms of the economic forecasters. Like the fact that rates dropped last week, it seems to be more of a political play than an economic play.
which also may mean that we don't see any more rate drops for a longer time again. And what does that look like in reality? It's very hard for us to then try and spitball what the market's gonna do.
Trudi Cowan (21:35.277)
Yeah. I sat in on a session last week with an economist from one of the banks and his comment was that, you know, they're happy enough with inflation at the moment, so they've put it down one, but they're not going to put another one down until they see the next quarter's inflation rate. So that's going to be like May at the earliest, because it's just a test in the water to see what impact it has and whether it's
Sarah Eifermann (21:50.118)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (21:54.276)
Yeah. Earliest. Yeah.
And if everyone goes out and starts spending on consumer goods that they don't necessarily need, like they're not essential, watch inflation continue to rise.
Trudi Cowan (22:08.739)
Yeah, in which case there won't be another drop. yeah, the view seemed to be very much it's just a testing of the waters because things are kind of okay. But who knows what will happen next and it won't be for several months.
Sarah Eifermann (22:21.958)
And we still have a booming real estate market in some locations. Like I saw something yesterday that was five million dollars to buy an old house 9k from the city that hadn't been updated since the 50s. But when you look at the land and then you look at the potential, if they were going to subdivide or develop it, well, you know, so you're still premium prices and the Sydney and Melbourne real estate markets are some of the most expensive in the world. And so that has a flow on effect as well. But then when people don't have the extra money to spend on things,
Trudi Cowan (22:26.511)
Thanks.
Trudi Cowan (22:34.453)
my god.
Sarah Eifermann (22:50.694)
It does take a toll. so we are seeing the cost of doing business crisis here. It's been here for a while. Trudy and I have been crapping on about it for since at least like April, 2023. Like we're nearly two years.
Trudi Cowan (22:59.309)
Hahaha
Trudi Cowan (23:04.741)
Yeah, it's been a while now, but it's really hitting and I'm seeing it across a lot of my clients, a lot of people that I'm talking to that they're really feeling the increased prices of everything, wages, insurance, rents, all those sorts of costs that definitely, their input costs, their materials.
Sarah Eifermann (23:11.622)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (23:15.897)
everything.
Sarah Eifermann (23:22.842)
And so a lot of people like we had that big jump in inflation and then it's kind of petered for a bit. Like it's still been increasing but not at the speed of that first big jump. And so it's kind of gotten used to it. None of us are happy with it. Like I'm back to making my own chocolate. I call inflation the chocolate price index because I think
Trudi Cowan (23:29.509)
and
Trudi Cowan (23:41.759)
We made our own musely the other day because I didn't want to have to buy it.
Sarah Eifermann (23:44.742)
Because I'm so annoyed at going to the supermarket and seeing a special of two for $12 on two blocks of cabries or $7 as a normal price. That's not a special. $25 for a Humpty Dumpty Easter egg pack is not savings.
Trudi Cowan (24:02.209)
Yes, I've heard a lot of people saying the price of the Easter eggs this year are insane.
Sarah Eifermann (24:06.458)
Buy your molds on Amazon, make your own. That's what I've been doing. I'll post a picture. They're fantastic. It's better quality, less crap in them. I know exactly what's in it. It may not necessarily be heaps cheaper. mean, economy's a scale. I'm probably paying $5 a block. It probably takes me 15 minutes to temper the chocolate.
Trudi Cowan (24:09.487)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (24:21.674)
satisfaction of making it yourself. It'll turn you into a home sitter.
Sarah Eifermann (24:24.346)
Yeah, also means that turned me into already there Trudy catch up. But the
Trudi Cowan (24:28.834)
you
The other problem for businesses is yes, they've got these increasing costs, but on the flip side, they've also got consumers that are a lot more hesitant about what they're spending their money on and making longer to make the decision that they want to spend the money and engage in the particular service or product or what have you. So yes, rising costs, but also dropping revenues for a lot of businesses because the consumers aren't as willing to spend.
Sarah Eifermann (24:40.006)
Correct. Yep. And taking longer to make the payments.
Sarah Eifermann (24:59.718)
Yep. And then you've got those that are coming in and undercutting just working on an economies of scale model will pick up as much business as we can by cutting everybody else out in the marketplace. And that becomes, as everyone calls it, a race to the bottom. And the outcomes that go with that. But I mean, the thing is, is that if you haven't assessed your business, your turnover, and you have not been looking at cashflow forecasts, you have not been building new relationships,
Trudi Cowan (25:14.18)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (25:28.24)
just turn us off now because we have been on repeat about this for two years and if it hasn't sunk in yet, it's not going to sink in with this episode. So realistically, the survival mode of just turning in business and hoping for the best, that's not a real strategy. That's not going to work for you. So have a solid plan as to how you're going to move forward. We've got plenty of free resources and plenty of episodes that talk to how you can manage that.
Trudi Cowan (25:28.259)
Hmm.
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (25:36.772)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (25:44.247)
Nah.
Trudi Cowan (25:51.727)
Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (25:53.723)
Look at the resources section on our website. We've got break even calculators. We've got employee cost calculators. There's a whole range of stuff that's there and reach out and ask for some help. Maybe it's a simple thing like my course has been free. The first module for the last month. And you know, for all of our listeners, I'll just make up a code that says financial fofoo much. If you whack it in, you can get the first module masterclass of the better business owner course for free for the next month.
Trudi Cowan (26:21.21)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (26:22.55)
hit it up, get that knowledge, it's there, just putting your head in the sand isn't going to help you move forward.
Trudi Cowan (26:28.229)
Yeah, because we don't want any of you to become a couple of these stats that I heard recently, which is the small business ombudsman reporting that there had a 50 % rise in distress calls regarding insolvency on the previous year. that's a massive increase. Businesses aren't concerned about that. It's like 46 % of small businesses didn't turn a profit. If you're not making money, why are you in business? If you're not making profits, that's why we're all sort of doing this.
Sarah Eifermann (26:32.592)
Yeah, right?
Sarah Eifermann (26:38.406)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
It's not. It's Yep.
Sarah Eifermann (26:50.073)
Mm-hmm.
Trudi Cowan (26:57.707)
And 75 % of small businesses owners earn less than the average full-time weekly wage. Again, if you can be earning more working for somebody else, why are you taking on the stress and the work of running a business when you could be having a much more probably enjoyable personal and work life by just working for somebody else and earning a better wage?
Sarah Eifermann (27:09.754)
Do not let your pride bend you, Brooke.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (27:21.956)
Yeah. And going home and being able to switch off at the end of the day as well. Like living wages for me are one of the key things we talk about. you know, depending on what industry you're in, but if you're in self-employed and there's one of you in the business, you should be taking home 120 to 150 per year as a minimum. If there's two of you, it should be probably double that because even though administration is not perceived to be as a price point in a business or a job, we all know the business don't run without it.
Trudi Cowan (27:48.801)
It's still an important part of the business.
Sarah Eifermann (27:51.94)
The business doesn't run without it. Like, and usually the administrator in a business is doing twice the amount of work that the person on the tools or out providing the services. So.
Trudi Cowan (27:58.734)
Yeah.
When I have clients that are at that point of questioning what they're doing, what I always say is, what would you earn if you quit right now and went and got a job? And let's compare that with what you're earning from the business. And sometimes going and getting a job is actually a lot more. Sometimes it allows the business owner to realize, actually, I'm making a whole lot more money by running this business. But it's a really simple comparison. What would you be earning otherwise?
Sarah Eifermann (28:22.534)
And what I wanted to say before, when you said 46 % of small business owners don't make a profit, like there is a difference between paying yourself a living wage and then turning over a very minute profit versus not paying yourself a wage and still not making a profit. Right? Like you can, you can go somewhere from a living wage and no profit, but you can't go anywhere from no real wage and no profit either. and then on the flip side of what you were just saying, I had a
Client ring me for business advisory currently in the carpentry game as a supervisor earning 220k a year plus a car and the first thing I said to him was why would you leave that job? And he goes what do you mean? I want to be a business owner. I said yeah, but why you're likely to not earn that income for five years at the earliest and he has a young family, but he wants to be a business owner. So know what you're doing and what you're sacrificing to do that.
Trudi Cowan (29:02.106)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (29:06.771)
Trudi Cowan (29:16.793)
There's lots of other reasons as to run a business. Other money's not the only reason for a lot of people, but it is an important factor. If you're not earning, as you say, living wage at least, you really gotta be questioning whether it's the right.
Sarah Eifermann (29:18.918)
Of course. Of course.
Sarah Eifermann (29:27.477)
Hmm. So where to from here? Like, is there enough support coming out of our government or financial organizations? I mean, from a finance point of view, if you don't have profit, you don't have money to make repayments on debt. So why would I give you any money? Like, why would a lender give you money? So it's a catch 22. Like, I have a lot of customers coming for debt consolidation loans now, but they've waited too long. And they don't have the revenue to justify a refinance of that debt. And it's
Trudi Cowan (29:50.191)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (29:54.502)
frustrating because if they just called me three months earlier, we would have been able to sort them out. What about government? What's the ATO doing?
Trudi Cowan (30:01.573)
The ATO is going the opposite. They're actually taking a really hard line at the moment. They are chasing debts hard. They're making payment plans more difficult. They're taking a lot more action in terms of sending debts to debt collectors or reporting to credit reporting agencies, which as Sarah would note, very big impact on ability to then borrow to be able to refinance and maybe pay some of those debts down. So ATO is probably not the place to look to for help.
Sarah Eifermann (30:16.772)
Yep, that's the biggest one defaults. Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (30:28.997)
Maybe go to the Small and Family Business Ombudsman. They've got a lot of resources on their website and people they're available to support. And look, make use of your accountant that you're probably already paying or your business advisor or whoever else you have in your support network, your bookkeeper, because they all have ways of helping you as well.
Sarah Eifermann (30:49.486)
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Trudi Cowan (30:50.807)
And I think that sometimes we see people calling out for help, but they're not necessarily picking up the phone to that person that might have some of the easier solutions and at least has an insight into your business already to be able to start helping you now.
Sarah Eifermann (31:09.232)
flip side of that is that maybe it's not business advice you need, maybe it's mental health support you need. And I know that lifeline are offering a business owner mental health support. Like sometimes, yes, it's related to business, but maybe it's a personal issue that you haven't addressed and unpacked that's then impounding compounding, I should say, like the issues that are then going on in your business. And maybe unraveling some of that can actually take the pressure off and relieve the concerns that you've got. And if you're experiencing some sort of mental stress, again,
Trudi Cowan (31:17.476)
Yep.
Trudi Cowan (31:25.581)
and acting.
Sarah Eifermann (31:38.671)
Ask for help, there's no shame in it. In fact, I am always proud of those people that reach out and ask for assistance because it means they've offered people the chance to actually support them. We can't support you if we don't know. And that's one of the most important things you can do for yourself. as I said today, to a client, can't drink from an empty cup. And if you don't put the oxygen mask on first, you will starve yourself and you know, because then you can't help anybody else. You've always got to look after yourself first.
Trudi Cowan (31:39.897)
Yep. All right, well, no.
Trudi Cowan (31:48.963)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (32:01.529)
and everyone around you.
Trudi Cowan (32:05.274)
next.
Sarah Eifermann (32:06.852)
And that mental health stuff, especially when running your own business is huge part of that. So where to from here? How do we navigate the crisis?
Trudi Cowan (32:10.521)
How did this?
Sarah Eifermann (32:15.814)
We asked a part of it!
Trudi Cowan (32:15.841)
Didn't we just answer that question? knows? Being on top of your cash flow, know why you're in business, manage your expectations, manage your relationships to make sure you've got that continual pipeline of work coming through as efficient as you can. Review your costs, where's your money going? Look, it's all the things that we're always talking about, really. It doesn't change just because we're in a more challenging environment. It probably just becomes more important to focus on some of them a bit more.
Sarah Eifermann (32:28.72)
Be as efficient as you can. See if you can find ways to save.
Sarah Eifermann (32:36.176)
talking about.
Sarah Eifermann (32:45.604)
Yep, get to the bottom of it as fast as you can and don't be afraid to reach out for help and don't wait. Once again, the longer you wait, the harder it will be to fix like anything in life. But especially if we're looking for debt refinancing, debt consolidation, if you wait and your revenue drops, I don't have turnover to justify refinances. So that's the biggest I suppose takeaway from me today is just sort of really be on top of that and pick up the phone and reach if you need some lending advice, give me a call.
Trudi Cowan (32:52.313)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (32:56.089)
Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (33:15.14)
Like everything's available online. I'm not going to give you my number now because you won't be writing it down fast enough, but like just Google us like all of our data. We're very easy to contact.
Trudi Cowan (33:20.409)
Yeah, well I do. Both our emails and our phone numbers are very easily available on the web so reach out if you need them.
Sarah Eifermann (33:28.07)
Yeah. So welcome to 2025, my friends. I think it will be a big year for some of us, but like anything as we've been talking about, we really have to keep our finger on the pulse as to what's happening and be rather than be reactive, be proactive in our decision making to really survive and ride out these trends and ride these waves well without crashing out. the only way we're going to do that is to sort of really pay attention and be focused on.
Trudi Cowan (33:33.091)
Yes.
Hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (33:57.958)
the challenge ahead. So thank you for joining us today for this episode. I don't have anything else. Yeah, 2025 next week we will be talking about the startup journey and navigating startup ecosystem. For those that have been in business for five years, it'll still be very valuable for you. So make sure you tune in to that one. Cheers everyone.
Trudi Cowan (34:07.875)
Looking forward to another fabulous season.
Trudi Cowan (34:26.243)
Yes. Bye.