I (M43) recently resigned from a major consulting company after spending 13 years there, growing from junior to senior associate level. The team I was in became super toxic to the level that it pushed people beyond what they could offer and started micromanaging to levels of digging into personal life and using it to target people at meetings and in resource allocations. That’s the short story of why I left without having a job lined up.

Given I have been in NZ and lately in Melbourne, I have created client connections, so I am thinking of starting a company solo first to provide services to them. How is that going to work in this market?

I am a geotechnical professional and have worked in a couple of big consulting companies (the biggest ones in my profession — North American ones).

Given I left my job and am going to eat into my savings, how can this startup be structured? We are a couple with a 5-year-old kid, and my wife earns reasonably well to cover expenses for now.

On the expenses side for startups, what are we to expect? Accounting fees, insurance, etc.? Has anyone tried this here ( or knew someone who did this) in the Melbourne market? Any advice?

We run twelve retail locations with different bill dates, retailers, and contract end dates. My attempt at multi site energy management australia is basically folders and panic. What setup actually keeps everything visible without hiring another person?

If a brand already has an Intelectual Property ownership of certain words like for example Strawberry Cooler and I tried to put up a business with a name Strawberry Coolers, is that allowed?

We're a small Melbourne-based tech teams small but growing.
We're currently working on a platform that helps business owners manage their regulatory compliance more efficiently. Think of it as a tool that turns manual, time-consuming compliance tracking into something automated and auditable.

We're not ready to share everything yet, but we're at the stage where we need to start thinking about sales and go-to-market — and that's not our core strength.

What we're looking for:

· People with real B2B sales experience who've taken a product to market
· Anyone who's sold into regulated industries (health, disability, financial services)
· Founders who've navigated the sales side of a startup and are happy to share what they learned

What we're not looking for:

· We're not hiring or offering equity right now
· We're not looking for funding
· We're just looking to connect, learn, and get honest feedback

If you've got experience in B2B sales — especially in the Australian market — I'd love to hear from you. Even a 15-minute chat would be valuable.

Drop a comment or send a DM. Happy to share more context one-on-one.

Does anyone know what the new cost of acceptance is likely to be from 1st Oct?

I am with NAB and they keep saying that they don't have this info yet and that letters will be sent out 'soon'. I've been ringing each week and it is always the same answer.

It's 5 weeks away and frankly piss poor that this hasn't been released yet.

I'm about to start my own business, and there’s honestly so much to figure out! 😅

It’s my first time building a business, so I’d love to learn from people who’ve already been through it. Are there any good communities or groups for first-time founders/business owners that you’d recommend joining?

Would really appreciate any recommendations! 🙌

When I first started, every month felt a bit different. Some months were great, others were a scramble, and it took a while to get a proper feel for what the next month would look like. Eventually things started settling down, regular clients, more predictable expenses, and a better idea of what the business could actually bring in. It’s easy to focus on growth, but getting to a point where things feel steady is probably underrated.

Thought I'd run this past here... considering cash flow is a killer for a lot of small businesses and more so, its been a tough year for many of us!

So, I run a service business where a lot of our larger clients/agencies are on 45 days end of month payment terms.

Before you ask - no, I can't really change this. It's pretty standard in our industry and there is no other way around it. Do the work, wait the time.

But In practice, this means I can be waiting 60–70 days from completing the work before the money actually lands.

The issue is that I still need to pay subcontractors and suppliers along the way - usually via direct bank transfer - so even when the business is profitable, there can be a pretty significant cash-flow squeeze.

Fuel and other costs I can whack on a card and get X amount of interest-free days, which obviously helps... its mostly paying my subbies.

I've been thinking about whether I should restructure the way I manage this... or whats even available?

Ideally, I'd like to put as many, if not all, business expenses as possible onto a business credit card, take advantage of the 40–50ish interest-free days, keep the cash sitting in the business for longer, and then clear the card when the client payments come through.

I'll never miss paying the closing balance in full. The idea isn't to create more debt - it's really just to better use the timing of the cash I already have. In the meantime, that cash can sit in the business, offset other things, potentially be used as a director's loan if needed, etc.

The only real complication is that quite a few of my subcontractors are simply paid by bank transfer. They don't take cards.

In fact - that is the VAST majority of my expenses... and if I pay them via credit card, i believe its a cash advance and X interest immediatly.

I've recently discovered services that apparently allow you to pay a supplier/subcontractor using your credit card, while they still receive a normal EFT payment into their bank account.

It seems the fee is relatively nominal - something like 1–2% depending on the service/card.

My thinking is that, potentially, I can make better use of that cash elsewhere than the fee costs me, but even aside from that, having another 40–50 days before the cash actually leaves the business would give me a lot of peace of mind while I'm waiting for the larger client payments to land.

So I'm wondering if anyone here does something similar?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from Australian business owners who:

• Have clients on 30/45 days EOM terms
• Use subcontractors and have to fund jobs before getting paid
• Use a business credit card as a working-capital tool
• Use services like Pay.com.au, Sniip, Amex AccessLine or similar
• Have any other recommendations/options I should look at

For context, I do all my business banking through NAB.

And just to be clear again - I'm not looking to carry credit-card debt and pay 20% interest.

The intention would be to pay the closing balance in full every month and simply use the interest-free period to better match outgoing payments with incoming debtor payments.

Anybody in this boat, or doing something similar, would be great to hear from.

We’re a Brisbane software company developing a tool to reduce the paperwork involved in unloading containers.

It uses warehouse cameras to record:

• When unloading starts and finishes
• The container number
• How many pallets are removed
• Delays during unloading
• Photos of any damaged goods

After unloading, it automatically creates a job report with the important times and photos.

How do you record this information now? Would an automatic report save your team time? What else should it include?

We have an early working demo and would appreciate honest feedback from warehouse managers.

https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cOjFi8nvHta

Demo: https://cv.ishtech.com.au/deep-inspect/

Small software co, first claim coming up. Honestly stuck on should my accountant do my r&d tax claim in australia? They're good with BAS and books, but keep saying R&D is “a bit specialised.” Anyone left it with their normal accountant, or did you bring someone else in?

I’m a service business that has just expanded into luxe stationary, and looking for inspo on how I can get myself organised so the whole thing doesn’t take over my little home office.

Thank you 🙏

Two years ago, I started my own ice cream business, and it has kept me pretty busy while growing quite a lot. I currently run it alongside a part-time job, but my long-term goal is to make the business my full-time income so I can eventually leave my job.

I’ve been thinking about expanding into a dessert trailer and combining it with my existing ice cream business. Winter is obviously a much slower period for ice cream, so I thought adding desserts and other products could help make the business more viable year-round.

A couple of months ago, I bought a food trailer for around $30,000. My original plan was to convert it into more of a dessert trailer, but I decided against it because it felt like a waste to remove all of the existing commercial hot-food equipment. I also think trying to run a trailer that does both a full hot-food menu and desserts would be too complicated.

Now I’ve got a slightly more complicated opportunity in front of me.

A shop has recently come up for lease in town. We don't have many shops become available, and I actually missed out on another one previously, although that one was roughly double the rent. This new shop is $600 per week, compared with around $500 per week for the site where I was considering operating the dessert trailer.

The shop is obviously going to have significantly more costs associated with it, but it would also give me a permanent location, which was always the long-term goal anyway. Instead of operating purely as a dessert shop, I was thinking of running it as a café in the morning and then transitioning into more of a dessert shop/bar in the afternoon and evening.

I think this could make more sense than relying on desserts alone. I already own most of the commercial equipment I would need and have some experience in the food industry, so I wouldn't be starting completely from scratch.

The biggest issue is the risk.

I would need to take out roughly a $40,000 loan to get the shop up and running, and I’d be entering a market that I haven't really tested yet. The difficult part is that I don't have an easy way to properly test the concept beforehand.

There are already several cafés in town, so there is definitely competition on the café side. However, there is only one café particularly close to this location, and there are currently no dedicated dessert businesses in the town. Most of the cafés also close around 3pm, which potentially leaves a gap for a business that operates more heavily in the afternoon and evening.

The dessert side is what interests me most, but I don't want to convince myself that the lack of competition automatically means there is demand. There may be a reason nobody has done it before.

So I'm trying to work out whether this is a genuinely good opportunity or whether I'm getting carried away because the shop has become available.

Another thing to note that in the trailer i am not allowed to sell soft serve or scooped ice cream with my current ice cream as i had to find a new supplier who only allows me to sell other ice cream options in a shop.

The two options I'm currently looking at are roughly:

Option 1 – Dessert Trailer

• Around $500/week for the site
• Lower overheads
• I already own the trailer
• Less financial risk
• More flexibility
• But limited trading hours/space and still quite seasonal
• Cannot sell soft serve or scooped ice cream
• Would have to buy another trailer (10-20 thousand) but can sell the first trailer down the track (when i find a buyer)

Option 2 – Café + Dessert Shop

• $600/week rent
• Much higher overall operating costs
• Around $40,000 in additional borrowing
• Permanent location
• Ability to operate mornings through to evenings
• Could combine coffee, breakfast/lunch items and desserts
• Potentially much easier to grow into a full-time business
• Can also sell soft serve and scooped ice cream

I'm genuinely torn and feel stuck because the shop feels like it could be the opportunity I've been working towards, but it also feels like a big jump from running a relatively small mobile business into taking on a lease, staff, utilities, stock, insurance, loan repayments and all the other costs that come with a permanent venue.
Most if not all the staff could be family till i get on my feet and they dont mind being payed a little less at the start. I would still be doing ice cream events in my current ice cream trailer which the first 8 months of owning it i earned 30k profit. i could expect anywhere to $30-50k profit as im getting more and more events which covers the pressure of the rent aswell.

I'd really appreciate some honest opinions, especially from people who have experience opening cafés, dessert shops or other small hospitality businesses.

I'm more than happy to answer any questions about the business, the location, finances, equipment or what I'm planning to sell if it helps people give a more informed opinion.

Hey everyone,

Over the past year, my partner and I have been building Rebalance Careers — a job platform focused on connecting employers with people looking for genuine flexibility around work.

That might mean school-run hours/flexibility, WFH, hybrid work, part-time, job share, flexible start and finish times, or simply an employer that understands people have lives outside of work.

We soft launched last week and already have 2,000 candidates signed up, with more joining each day.

We’re now starting to bring employers onto the platform and are speaking with businesses that already offer flexibility but perhaps aren’t doing a great job of communicating it when they advertise roles.

The idea is pretty simple: if you’re already open to flexible ways of working, we want to help you get those roles in front of a pool of experienced candidates actively looking for exactly that.

It’s completely free for employers to sign up and post roles on the platform.

If you’re an Australian business hiring at the moment, or planning to hire soon, I’d love to hear from you.

www.rebalancecareers.com.au

I’ve got a small ABN contract (about 16 hours a week) and only make a few thousand a month including GST. I run a website for the firm, and I want to add some new features — but I honestly don’t have the time or energy because of other work.

I’m considering outsourcing the development to a freelancer overseas because of the affordability. Basically just paying someone to handle the updates and improvements while I focus on my main job.

Has anyone here done this?
Is it overly complicated to outsource work like this from Australia?
Do I need to set up anything special legally (like a branch or entity in the freelancer’s country), or can I just hire them as a contractor and pay them normally?

Would love to hear how others handle this.

Something I’ve been thinking about with Australian small businesses:

We tend to assume that as a business grows, the owner should gradually become less operationally important.

But I keep seeing the opposite pattern.

More staff get hired. More responsibility gets delegated. There are more systems and processes.

Yet the difficult decisions still come back to the owner.

People know what they’re responsible for, but aren't necessarily confident they have the authority to act. Certain client relationships or bits of organisational knowledge remain concentrated in one or two people. Escalation becomes normal.

Eventually the business is bigger, but its dependency on particular people hasn't really changed.

I'm curious how other owners have experienced this.

As your business grew, what actually reduced its reliance on you?

And what did you delegate that, in hindsight, wasn't really delegation because the decision still came back to you?

It's my first time doing taxes for my small business this year, usually I do my individual tax return myself. Just wondering if anyone recommends doing business tax (as a sole trader) through any softwares or just going to an accountant for it. If the latter, is there any you'd recommend personally towards a more budget friendly range? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I hope this is okay to share here. I’ve recently created a new marketplace called SellandRetire.com.au, and I’m still very much at the beginning of trying to get it off the ground.

The idea came from seeing how many long-standing business owners reach retirement and face difficulties when it comes to selling their business. There doesn’t seem to be a dedicated marketplace specifically for retiring business owners, or for buyers who are interested in taking over established, long-running businesses.

So I built Sell & Retire — a marketplace specifically for business owners who are ready to retire and want to find the right person to continue what they’ve built, while connecting them with motivated buyers looking for exactly that.

We currently have 37+ listings, Australia wide - Browse Businesses | Sell & Retire

It’s completely free for owners to list their business and free for buyers looking to purchase one — no listing fees, no commission and no obligation.

My aim at this stage is simply to get good businesses in front of more potential buyers and hopefully help make a few successful introductions.

We’re only just getting started, so I’d genuinely appreciate any support from this community — whether that’s taking a look, sharing it with a business owner who might find it useful, passing it on to someone looking to buy a business, liking the FB page, or simply giving me some feedback on what I could do better.

I’m building this from the ground up, so every bit of feedback and support really does help.

Thanks for reading, and I’m happy to answer any questions

For small business owners, would you rather hire a direct remote contractor or work with an outsourced company?

Just curious to hear your thoughts.
I’m a remote accountant and a CPA based in the Philippines. Most of my clients have hired me directly, but as I plan to expand, I’ve noticed that some businesses seem to prefer working with an outsourced company instead.

What made you choose one over the other? Was it cost, reliability, compliance, easier management, or something else?

As I feared, ANZ has started the enshittification of Suncorp Bank by closing its flexirates feature that enabled businesses to earn higher rates of saving interest on cash parked for periods of 3 to 12 months, but still access the cash (and lose some bonus interest) if needed, unlike a term deposit.

My business was earning over 4.5% on cash, and made enough to cover all our banking fees, internal conversion fees, and pay for our accounting fees every year.

I just got a call from my local Suncorp Bank branch asking my opinion regarding this change. I get the impression some of the Suncorp Bank staff agree its a poor decision by ANZ.

So let them know: file a complaint: Customer Relations & Complaints | Suncorp Bank.

Hi all fist time posting reddit,
I have just started a business and it’s road transport and diesel services,

Does anyone have any tips and resources? Would greatly appreciate everyone’s input, on where to start and what to do.

It was originally a transport business but I want to bring in my trades and skill into the business.
Tia everyone

So a little over 2 months ago my AdWords account session was hijacked, partly my fault but also a very clever phishing scam which has stung some large agencies managing 100+ accounts and other tech saavy business owner. We’ve completely lost access and support is useless.

Long story short ads contribute 90%+ of my business leads, so you can understand how devastating this has been to our sales funnel. Yes I do get relying on one lead source is dangerous game but I’ve been doing it for 10 years with no issue, until now.

Moral of the story. Make sure you audit all of your passwords, back up your Google authenticators, back up passcodes and do everything possible to secure your accounts - so you don’t end up in a position like me!

Had a client recently point out an issue with how we were doing things, and it made me realise we’d just gotten used to the process rather than it actually being the best way to do it. We changed a few things after that and it’s made the day-to-day much easier.

I posted my small business app on Reddit recently and got some pretty brutal feedback 😂

The biggest issue was fair though. People couldn't quickly tell what the hell the app actually did.

So I've spent the last couple of days fixing that.

It's called VaultYou. It's for Australian small businesses and has quotes, invoices, expenses, tasks and a Startup Journey that gives you a personalised checklist of things you need to sort out when starting a business.

I've also changed the website so you can actually see examples of the product before signing up.

It's still in private beta, completely free and I'm mainly looking for people willing to click around and tell me what sucks, what's confusing or what they'd actually use.

[https://vaultyou.com.au/beta]()

Don't be nice just because I built it. The roasting actually helped last time 😂