The COSbulletin

February 2016 Edition

2016: what's looming large in the world of small 

Being an election in 2016, we will be engaging with small businesses, especially in marginal seats, highlighting the policies of COSBOA and comparing that to the policies offered by the major parties.  We want the business community to be aware of the policies presented by the parties and how that compares to COSBOA's position on small business needs.  No one tells small business people how to vote but we will be ensuring those votes are informed ones.

Big business may have power, resources and influence but they don’t vote. Looking at the numbers: of the 15+ million voting public, there are 2.1 million small business people who employ over 4.5 million other people. That's in excess of 40% of voters whose livelihoods can impacted by the government of the day and they all vote.  A small business person’s vote, like any other person's, will be influenced by many things including family needs, their age, their views on issues to do with immigration and welfare.  The business person will also have deep consideration of what policies and which party will make their business better or worse.  Which policies will help and which will hinder, and which are neither here nor there. Surprisingly small business people seem to make up a large number of swinging voters.

This all makes small workplaces around Australia places of great influence: people discuss all sorts of things including sport, global conflicts, TV and family life, but come elections they discuss policies and politics. We have influence.

The details of what we want from 2016 will be communicated following the COSBOA planning workshop held on 12 February. There is no doubt the focus will be on vocational education and training, competition policy, productivity, health, workplace relations, finance, among other issues. We will continue to push for a national program of local economic development to empower business communities to break free of the shackles of dominant businesses and red tape and get innovation and productivity happening in the small economies right across Australia. Another area where there will likely be a focus is about “On time payment” of invoices from big business to small businesses. There are some industry sectors that are notorious late payers, the mining sector for example, which average 90 days. Late payment places undue pressure on small business people and their families and we are determined to take this issue to task.

Finally we have conflict at the moment with some of the biggest businesses in Australia.  With that in mind it should also be noted that the relationship between small businesses and most big businesses is fine, perhaps robust, perhaps frustrating; but fine. 

For example Vodafone and AMEX are working closely with us and our members to further promote small business needs, to improve their own product and to become part of the great message that is small business. It is the most powerful we need to confront and bring back to the world of transparency and fair dealings.  

Glad to have you on board with us as we continue our advocacy for small business.

Peter Strong





COSBOA Media stop; L to R: Dominic Schipano, Peter Strong, The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, MP Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Nielsen; Let's Compete launch.



What makes a Ready Business?

Every day, Vodafone, our National Small Business Summit major sponsor, is helping businesses around Australia become a Ready Business. A Ready Business has the power to thrive today and prepare for tomorrow.

With Vodafone you can expect a network that reaches 96% of the Australian metro population, Australian-based care and plans that have been designed to give you the control, flexibility and stability to support your business both today, and in the future. And there has never been a better time to become a Ready Business, as Vodafone now offers up to 15,000 Aquire Points with new Qantas Business Red plans when you sign-up online. T&C’s apply.

Find out more about becoming a Ready Business. Visit vodafone.com.au/business or call 1300 111 111.


Shop Small Delivers for Small Business
Shop Small, a movement founded by American Express to encourage Australians to support small business, returned in 2015 for its third year and proved once again the enormous contribution that small businesses deliver to the community.

Shop Small started in the US in 2010 following the Global Financial Crisis as a way to stimulate spending in the economy and has since turned into a global movement, running in the UK, Canada and Australia.Shop Small shines a spotlight on small business and their importance to the community. Ultimately its goal is to encourage more shoppers to walk through their doors. The campaign runs throughout November in the lead up to the peak Christmas trading period.

This year, American Express embarked on a major study of small business called The Economy of Shopping Small, which revealed Australians are increasing the frequency they shop at large business and that nearly three quarters of small business are concerned about their financial stability.  These findings are particularly worrying when you consider the contribution of small business to the Australian economy. Small business employs more than 4.5 million Australians and contributes more than $340 billion of economic output.

American Express used these findings and the support of Small Business Minister and Assistant Treasurer, Kelly O’Dwyer MP to launch Shop Small to Australia on 2 November in a popular small business precinct in Prahran, Melbourne.   To mark the launch, a giant 70 meter-long Shop Small mat was unfurled down the street and small businesses from across the area rallied to call for community support.  Channel Seven breakfast program, Sunrise was there to capture all of the action.



To encourage its own Card members to spend big in small business, American Express ran an offer where they gave a $10 statement credit for every $20 spent in small business during November.  American Express also gave away $100,000 worth of business grants to small businesses.





COSBOA Member Profile
CAFBA, through their board and CEO, provide expert advice and opinion on small business financing, small business development, the needs of business who want to grow or those in crisis. 
From the first national peak professional body representing Commercial Asset Finance Brokers, today CAFBA represents 148 Full Member firms and 485 business writers from every State and Territory in Australia. CAFBA is an industry body of professional leasing / finance brokers. "Our members conduct the majority of their business in the fields of equipment and vehicle financing turning over in excess of $6 billion in 2012.

CAFBA prides itself on being self-regulating and maintains strict membership standards on probity, continuing professional development, industry experience and reputation. 
For more information, go to CAFBA's website.

EVENT WRAP UP

Small business the key to the Economy
The Council of Small Business Australia's (COSBOA) MicroEconomic Challenge held on 09 December 2015 reinforced and invigorated the message that small business is crucial to growing and sustaining the Australian economy. Throughout the day small business owners and their supporters heard from government and industry leaders and regulators, including the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) and Justice Iain Ross from the Fair Work Commission (FWC), to name but a few. "The MicroEconomic Challenge has been a great opportunity to empower the small business community; however, it is clear that there remains frustration with the current status quo in certain areas of small business legislation and we will continue to see to it that these areas are addressed by industry bodies and regulators," concluded Mr Strong.

Getting competition right 

COSbulletin shares the following articles to keep you informed and engaged in the debate on competition:

"For too long our competition policy has been decided by laissez faire economists and the boards of Wesfarmers, Woolworths and Telstra." Click here to read the full article online.

In the area of competition law, we will continue to take a strong line on cartel conduct, anti-competitive conduct and practices, and where we can, misuse of market power,” Mr Sims said.  Click here to read ACCC's  article.

"Why unnaturally big is always bad for business" by Peter Strong  Click here to read the Smart Company article.

Connect
Join the pre-Summit conversation through social media channels:


/COSBOA
COSBOA

@COSBOA #NSBS16

Enquiries
Sane Event Group
T: 02 9553 4820 

Poet's Corner: The Thinker's Hub
It was somewhere up the country in a town built from rock and scrub
That they formed a little business, it was called The Thinker’s Hub
It was a place for all to meet and enjoy some beer or cake and tea
And from the owners’ clever son some fancy repartee
He could argue about politics or philosophy and sport 
While the owner made a living from selling coffee by the quart
And the owners’ daughter challenged all the men to change their point of views
About the modern world and women as they sipped upon their brews
This business opened every day and was popular and keen
But then Westfields moved into town and completely changed the scene

Those big landlords who lived elsewhere needed money in their bank
Their practices were hardly fair in fact they were quite rank
They tricked the local aldermen to only see their views
They met the town planners and then applied the screws
They quickly got approval to build a huge monstrosity
They called it architecture but it was more like an atrocity
It was just an ugly eyesore in the middle of the town
The locals didn’t visit it and wished they’d knock it down
The locals went to The Thinker’s Hub where the culture was so rich
The big landlords took offence and worked on a tricky switch
They convinced the council that things weren’t what the people need
They showed them fancy made up stats and the Mayor rapidly agreed
So all the carparks in the town were moved quickly underground
All the bus stops and the taxi points were now in the malls compound
The streets were made to go one way mostly to the mall
Then Coles moved in and for the town the writing was on the wall
The local supermarket that was there for over 60 years
Found their customers couldn’t get a park that was anywhere called near
The butcher’s shop found itself isolated from the town
The green grocer noticed that no one seemed to walk around
The people had been forced into that monstrous mall
The landlords blamed the local businesses when bankruptcy took a call
They said that the consumer preferred the fancy new slap dash
It was the small business’s fault if they weren’t good enough to get the cash

But the Thinker’s Hub it seemed Ok as people liked its style
See the owner owned his own carparks which he knew were quite worthwhile
The other shops and premises that were near that Thinker’s Hub
They seemed to trade quite OK it was a local business club
But the landlords did not like that as they needed all the trade
They appealed to the council about the unfairness that this made
“Why our shareholders expect more from us and I want my bonus too”
They dropped their prices to drive a wedge and make a blow or two
They tried to drive other shops to ruin, the baker, newsagent and the pub
Who could not compete on prices so couldn’t make the rub
If all those shops had to close then higher prices would be fudged
But the shops near the Thinker’s Hub they refused to budge
The other shops that had closed down now reopened near that Hub
It was a vibrant happening place, plus a new nightclub
The landlords took exception as they were the ruling class
They decided to make an offer to this underclass
They offered the Hub’s owner more than a million all in cash
The Hub’s owner only laughed, then gave them a tongue-lash
“I value culture more than wealth and people more than brass
Take your mongrel greedy ways and stick it up your arse’
The locals cheered, the Mayor resigned a new one was chosen soon
A Mayor with a belief that from bullshit was immune
He showed the landlord for what he was a lying scheming shark
The landlord had no real ticker and moved to another mark
So The Thinker’s Hub continued on it’ll always be around
Entertaining people with feet firmly on the ground
But is this story possible can the ruling class be beat?
Hopefully they can and save our culture and our main street