[00:00:00] Fi Johnston
So three quite different businesses. One thing that is common between these three businesses is they have freaking excellent business models. According to me. They're creating products and services that people really want, and they're delivering them in a really innovative way. The other thing is they're made in Australia. We need more brands to be making their products in Australia from this small business expert who is a business model specialist. Tick, tick, tick. You're doing really well.
Intro Money Secrets Podcast
Are you a small business owner who'd love to be making more money while making positive change in the world? You're in the right place, friend. Hi, I'm Fi Johnston, a chartered accountant and money coach, obsessed with small business. In the Money Secrets podcast, I share strategies that you can use to make more money without working harder. You'll hear successful small business owners share what they've learned about money and business, and I'll help you to think differently and shift your [00:01:00] perspectives about money so you can grow your business and your impact. My mission is to get more money into the hands of good business owners like you.
Acknowledgement of Country
This podcast episode was recorded on the lands of the Wie people of the KO Nation, and I'd like to acknowledge them as the traditional owners and custodians of this land and water that I live, work, and play on. I'd like to pay respects to elders both past and present, and notes that sovereignty has never been seeded. This always was and always will be. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.
Fi
Hey there, listener Fi Johnston here. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for choosing this podcast to spend your time with. Now. Today I'm gonna talk about three businesses with business models that I freaking love, and I wanna clarify that I don't have any affiliation with these three brands. I [00:02:00] don't know them personally, although I have shopped with two of these brands.
I'm gonna explain what the three brands that I'm going to be unpacking today are. So the first one is Good Citizens, which is a recycled plastic, turned into really cool sunglasses. The second brand is Yarn, which is Australian made toilet paper where they donate 50% of their profits to indigenous literacy.
And the third brand we're gonna talk about is Wonky Farms, which is a 24 7 butcher where you serve yourself, and it is a regenerative butcher. So three quite different businesses. One thing that is common between these three businesses is they have freaking excellent business models. According to me. The other thing is that all of these brands manufacture in Australia, which is why I've grouped them together.
But before I jump into what I [00:03:00] think makes each of these three businesses really interesting. I wanna just go through some of the elements of a business model in case it's not something that you are familiar with. Now, my guess is that you've probably heard somebody on the internet talking about business models.
Maybe it was me. Business models are these things that people really like to talk about, but not everybody actually understands what they're, A lot of coaches that I hear talking about business models are really just talking about revenue models. And so let's break down the different elements of a business model so that you can start to kind of visualize what the hell it is I'm talking about.
So your business model has nine building blocks that fit together to make your business work really well. And when I'm working with a client one-on-one, this is not the first place we start, but it's like the second or third place that we [00:04:00] start. The, the stuff we do before this is around their vision for the future and what they want their business to do.
And then the business model is where we start to think about, okay, what does this business do differently from other competitors? And how can we use that competitive advantage to make this business run profitably and in the easiest way possible? So these are the nine components of a business model.
There's the unique value proposition, which is where we talk about what makes you different from other brands or businesses. It's your competitive advantage. Some of the parts of your unique value proposition are very meat and potatoes, like I'm an accountant, but some of them are much more descriptive, like I lead with empathy, or I'm a communicator.
And that's unusual in the accounting world. So your unique value proposition are the sort of sentences we want to see in your [00:05:00] marketing, and they describe what makes you different from other brands. Not better, because there's no such thing as better in business, only different. So your unique value proposition is your key marketing messages, and it's also, you know, the thing that makes your business really unique when we look at it compared to others.
One of the other components of your business model canvas is your customer relationships. So what kind of relationships do you wanna have with your customers? Are they in and out quickly? Do you wanna work with them for 10 years? Do you want to know the name of their children, or do you just wanna have a courteous relationship with them?
The next component is your distribution channel. So how do you actually sell your service? Are you an e-commerce provider? Do you deliver workshops in person? Do you deliver a lot of your work via email? Or how do you actually get your product or [00:06:00] your skill to your customer? The next component is your customer segments.
So who are the different types of customers? Or maybe you just have one customer type, but who are the customer segments that you can sell your products and services to? And we wanna think about beyond just describing these types of customers with a name, like I work with small business owners who wanna build impact and revenue.
We also wanna think about maybe some personality traits. Like for myself, I really love working with clients who are coachable. If somebody isn't coachable, then it's not going to work for them to be receiving advice from me. So think about in your own customer groups, like what are the demographic or psychographic elements?
What are the personality traits or the values that your customers share? And we wanna get [00:07:00] really specific about those. The next part of the business model, which is something that our people from the outside can see, just like all of the others that I've described, is your revenue streams. So how do you make money from the unique value proposition that you have?
So you sell whatever your value is to the customers who want that the most, and that is how you generate revenue. The other parts of the business model are more backend. These are the things that not everybody can see directly. So one of those things is your key partners. So who are your collaborators or your suppliers or your joint venture partners, people or businesses that have skills or.
Resources that you need to run your business, but they sit outside of your business. We also have another element called key activities. So what are the things that you need to be [00:08:00] really good at to run your business successfully? And of course, there's things like, you know the basics, like if you are a marketer, you need to be really good at marketing.
But also what are the things that your customers expect from you? Like being on time, meeting deadlines, having great customer service, communication. I think communication is the number one skill in business, no matter what industry you are in or what type of product or services you sell. So what are the things that you need to do well in your business?
The next element is key resources. So what are the people or assets or financial resources that you need inside your business in order for your business to work? So this might be your team members. It might be a particular machinery, it might be some intellectual property that you rely on to be able to do your work, et cetera, et cetera.
Things that you own [00:09:00] or that sit inside your business like your employees. And the last bit is costs. So what are the costs that need to be paid for in order for you to deliver these products and services to your customers? And, um, if I'm allowed to, I'm gonna add a 10th section to the business model, which is your marketing channels.
So this is slightly different from your distribution channels, which is about how you get your product and service to your customer. Your marketing channels is more around like, how do you actually talk about yourself in the world? What are the different channels or platforms that you use to tell the world about your product or service?
If you are a small business, you should probably only have between one and three main marketing channels that you put effort into. You might have up to five channels that you work with, but a couple of them will probably be a little more passive so that you can [00:10:00] really get good at one, two, or three of your channels.
So for example, my main marketing channels are this podcast, hello, my email newsletter, which is called The Peach Weekly. By the way, if you are not getting it, you should head to my website and subscribe because it is really damn good. And the third most, uh, important channel for me is Instagram. Now I'm also on LinkedIn and I also have a website that I do put time into, but those two are less, not less important, but I put less time into those two channels because I've gotta work out where to put my time.
So that's a business model. Let me just quickly go through those nine blocks. There's your unique value proposition, your customer relationships, your customer segments, your distribution channels, and your revenue streams. And the behind the scenes parts of your business model are your key partners, [00:11:00] key activities, key resources and costs.
And by the way, we have some training for business model design, which is on demand. You can literally purchase it anytime you want. If you're interested, go and have a look at the show notes to find the link to that program program. So now what I wanna do is start to unpack these three different brands who have business models that I freaking love.
So let's start with good citizens. So good citizens. Their tagline is UNR the Planet, which I love. Their key sentences are modular, eyewear, endless looks, recycled frames made in Australia. So what these guyses do is they have these really cool sunglasses. There's only three designs to choose from. There's a range of colors, and each of those pair of sunglasses is made from recycled [00:12:00] plastic water bottles.
I think we can all agree there's way too many plastic water bottles in Australia and in the world. So it's great to see a small or perhaps medium business tapping into how do we actually turn that into something really useful. I'm reading some notes from their website. So what sustainability and ethics means to us, they say these words get thrown around.
We prefer to show you exactly what we do, how we do it, and why it matters. No greenwashing. So then they go on to explain what all of their certifications and code of conduct is. They say at Good Citizens Eyewear, every pair reflects our commitment to an ethical Australian manufacturing certified recycled materials, premium lenses from global leaders and safe, fair workplaces under Australian law.
Tick, tick, tick. They also go on to explain [00:13:00] that they're locally made, how they comply with ethical labor, that their materials are certified, that they have world-class lenses with all kinds of, you know, fancy letters. They've got inclusive employment, so they dispatch run with NDIS, supported Avenue French as forest.
They're fully insured and they do monthly visits to the factory by the company director. So what I love about this is that. Feeling of transparency. So when an organization claims to be ethical, but then there doesn't seem to be anything tangible about what that means, it sends up real red flags for me.
What I love about this is that they know that their consumer is likely to be somebody like me who goes and has a look at their sustainability page and their about page. And when I don't get enough information on a page [00:14:00] like that, I'm going to assume that they're actually not as ethical as they want them to be.
So I love how this brand has just shown right there on the website all of the things that they're attempting to do, rather than just greenwashing and saying, yeah, we're ethical and sustainable. Which, let's be frank, a lot of businesses just say that they're ethically made. And that's the end of the sentence.
I also wanna talk about how this business was born. So let's just skip away from their business model for a moment and talk about the fact that their marketing is fantastic. It's very, you know, the founder is really involved. It really feels like you are buying from a family business, but it's done in a way that feels really, it has enough polish to feel like you're buying something premium, but enough transparency and authenticity that it feels real.
So here's how the business idea [00:15:00] came to be. The idea was born in 2018. Harry, who was eight, and Archie who was six, were upset about all the plastic waste piling up in the world. These two are the sons of the founder. Two months later, a plan was in place to help Untr the planet trademarked, sentenced, by the way.
We scribbled down four guiding principles only use 100% recycled materials. Make products that last don't exploit people or the planet and employees get time with their kids or loved ones. To this day, the kids still make decisions in the business. I love this. I love that the sons were so passionate about seeing all the plastic waste piling up and they didn't just sort of complain about it.
They talked to their dad about it and said, we wanna do something. And the dad was like, hell yeah. Let's, let's do this. Like let's actually [00:16:00] see if we can create a business out of here. And I love that the kids are still part of the decision making in the business. Like those boys or those children are almost undoubtedly gonna grow up to be entrepreneurs too.
So the next part of the story. After 2,503 nos, we got a yes. It took us 752 days to invent away to turn the plastic of one single use bottle into a pair of 100% recycled and ethical sunglass frames. These were some very dark days, but eventually we cracked it and the sun came out. I love this storytelling.
It's so simple. The copy is amazing. They could have said after 2,500 nos, but they chose to say, after 2,503 nos, we got a yes. It just makes me feel like they're really telling the truth, and I love [00:17:00] picturing this dad and his two sons, you know, sitting there trying to work out how to turn this plastic bottle into a pair of sunglasses.
The next part of the story is they wanted the product to be made in Australia, which is one of the things I love about this brand. It says, we set up our own manufacturing to make sure no person nor the planet is exploited, and everyone gets paid a fair wage. The day we go out of business will be a good day for the planet.
We're not crazy, we're just honest. The day we run out of discarded single use bottles to recycle means that together we've done our bit to help the planet. I love everything about this and I know that this is marketing and it's, I'm supposed to love it, so I'm trying to take it with a grain of salt. But I wanna tell you about a few other things about this business that I really love.
So I own these [00:18:00] sunglasses. And if you, um, read my emails, you may have seen that I lost my pair. I left them at the Gold Coast somehow when we were doing a site tour of Miami Marketta, which is where, uh, the next ripple festival is gonna be. Hint, hint, do you have your ticket yet? Um, somehow I left my sunglasses there and I'm one of those people who cannot leave the house without sunglasses on My eyes are like lab rats.
Like I just cannot handle the smallest bit of glare in my eyes. So I didn't even think twice about how I was gonna replace those sunglasses. I was 1000% getting a replacement pair from good citizens. So I have tested the products. You can get regular lenses or Polaroid, of course. Me with the lab, rat eyes needs the Polaroid lenses and they're really good quality.
I think I paid around $160 or so for a pair, which I think [00:19:00] is a really great price. And they're really high quality sunglasses. The lenses are fantastic. They feel really solid. They're not like, they don't feel like cheap sunglasses because they're not. So I wear these sunglasses, you've probably seen them in some of my videos, and the product is incredible.
The other thing I love about their backstory is that when they were first deciding, you know, once they'd worked out how to manufacture the plastic bottle into the pair of sunglasses, then they started thinking about how are we gonna create sunglasses that people wanna buy? And this is where the business model stuff starts to get really cool for me.
So rather than having 50 different. Designs. What they did is they went hard on trying to work out what are the sunglass designs that look good on most people's faces. [00:20:00] I can't remember exactly how long they said that they worked on this for, but my understanding is they literally went out into the street and got people to try sunglasses on.
They, you know, got their friends and family and potentially some of their audience to try different shapes on, and they ended up landing on three different sunglass shapes that they worked out that between those three shapes they were gonna be able to cover most people's faces. Now I don't know anything more about the story than that.
I don't know which faces they were tested on, but what I freaking love is that rather than going, being like a traditional sunglass brand. That launches with like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 different styles. They've picked three. I think it is just such a bold move to pick three styles, and [00:21:00] that is the one of the parts of their business model that I really love.
So now I've told you some of the different elements of their business. I wanna look at it through a business model lens and why it is that I love this business so much. So just rehashing a few of the things, it's modular eyewear, so there's three different styles and a range of colors. The sunglasses have little things on the side that you can swap the colors of, so you can kind of mix and match between different pairs.
They're modular, like a modular couch where you can kind of add different little bits in. They're made in Australia from recycled plastic. And this is a business run by a family where the children of that family still get to be part of what is happening. They're so transparent about what they do and how they do things behind the scenes, and they really wanna go out of business because [00:22:00] they want there to no longer be plastic water bottles that need to be recycled.
So one of the elements of this that I really love is, let's think about the key resources. So for a manufacturer, one of the really expensive resources is the machinery, the equipment, you know, setting up the molds or whatever they're called in the sunglass world. Probably should have researched that.
There'd be different molds or different kind of shapes that they create, and those are really expensive to come up with. So I love that. Rather than waste all of their resources on creating all of these different shapes and molds and different things that need to be used to create their product, they've honed in on three.
So my assumption is that their manufacturing is actually really simple. They've got three different molds and they've got the recycled plastic and the [00:23:00] colors that they have chosen, they don't have a huge amount of colors. Let's say there's probably about nine colors. So I love this part of their business model, which is that they have really kept the cost of production down by keeping their product range really small.
All accountants love small product ranges because we know. That a small product range is almost always more profitable than a big product range. So that's one of the things that I really love about their business model, is the way that they have treated their resources and the way that that would impact their costs.
I imagine that they have a relatively low cost of production, although yes, they're manufacturing in Australia, which is frigging awesome, but I imagine that the choice to go down to those three shapes and for them to be modular would really help their [00:24:00] cost per item. I also wanna talk about some of the elements of their unique value proposition that I just think are so well done.
They're made in Australia. We need more brands to be making their products in Australia, not just because we need the industries here. We need the employment here, but also because of the amount of, uh, fossil fuels that are used to ship products from one side of the world to the other. So I love that this brand manufactures in Australia.
I love how great their copy is. It is so well written. I love how they've really leaned into being transparent in their ethics and sustainability. They're laying it all out on their website. I love that they lean into founder, um, the founder story and the kind of founding story of the business. And [00:25:00] I love how it's a recycled plastic bottle that's turned into a pair of sunglasses.
It's so visual and it's so easy to imagine in your mind. So I think that they've really nailed it. Made in Australia from recycled materials, three designs only. They're really cool and the brand just feels really fun, but also really well done. So tick, tick, tick, tick to good citizens. I love your brand. I know you.
I'd love to know you, and if anybody listening to this episode knows anybody at Good Citizens, please send this along. I think your tagline, unr the planet is freaking awesome and I love that you've trademarked it too because it is really great. I hope that you go out of business too, but I think we have a lot of plastic water bottles still left in circulation, so I think you're gonna be in business for a much longer time.
And thank [00:26:00] you for the epic Suns. I frigging love them. Alright, so the second brand that I wanna bring to your attention in this series that I'm doing about businesses out there that have freaking great business models, this brand is called Yarn. And to be clear, I don't have any association with this brand.
I don't know this brand, but I will thank one of my clients, Jara Braley from Jam Packed Agency. They are one of her clients and she is how I know about the brand. So shout out to Jara from Jam Packed Agency. They do their, um, meta ads and they do a damn good job of it. So that is how I found out about Yarn.
And so let me tell you a little bit about this brand. It's Australian made toilet tissue. It is First Nation's Own. It's quality made as soft as a cloud tissue. 100% recycled blue roll. 50% of profits are donated to First Nations youth. It brings culture, [00:27:00] learning, and joy to bathrooms across our island home.
Let's all share a yarn to carry on our journey of generational change together. I am absolutely obsessed with this brand. I think they've absolutely nailed it. I love their value proposition. It's so well articulated on their website and on their socials and the design. The design of their website is awesome.
I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about the brand. So our yarn is to bring First Nations culture to households across Australia. Yes, meet Lane, proud Wiradjuri man, father mate, and former tradie, the founder of Yarn. From a Candu building site attitude to a movement that has improved the lives of all our Australian young janin is our tool to create real generational change.
In Australia. We believe that education is key to true generational change. Yes, yes, yes. Nan is our chance to make a difference together. [00:28:00] Um, it goes on to explain that 50% of their profits go directly to the education of First Nation students in Australia through a not-for-profit called yo. And the goal is that they want to keep, uh, essentially they wanna double the amount of impact they have through their association with ULA every year.
Here is where they've laid out their impact in numbers. Now I am obsessed with impact reporting. I think it's something that so many more small business owners can be doing. I think the not-for-profit world and the social enterprise world, which is what Jain is, they're a social enterprise, at least by business model.
We need to take a leaf out of their book where they're actually measuring the impact that they're making. So rather than just telling us that they're ethical or telling us that they do this X, Y, or Z, actually measuring the impact that they're making, this is something that I [00:29:00] do in my business at least once a year, and it's something we do for Ripple Festival too.
So here is the impact that yarn has had so far. 22,000 mature trees saved. That's a forest the size of 28. Footy fields, 3.4 million liters of water have been saved. That's enough to fill 14 Olympic swimming pools. 5.3 million kilowatts saved. This would power 850 Aussie homes for an entire year. 255 containers avoided from not needing to import from Asia.
That's 1.6 million kilometers of shipping avoided or 40 trips around the world. They've diverted 1,296 tons of paper from landfill and saved the equivalent of 2.8 million off sheets already. So I love that [00:30:00] their impact report or the impact that they're reporting on their website speaks directly to the sort of things that they're wanting to showcase.
They're showcasing the fact that the toilet paper is made from recycled materials, which is just bloody smart. And the fact that it's made in Australia is also bloody smart, my friends. It's actually one of the reasons why I love your business model. So I wanna talk to you a little bit about their collaboration with ya.
So YA has been around since 2005 and it's been providing indigenous children. From regional and remote communities across Australia, the opportunity to receive a full boarding school scholarship for their entire secondary education. Wow. It's led by founders Waverly Stanley, Australian medalist, ah, sorry.
AM and Lou Mullins, who've been privileged to witness firsthand the care, community and spirit yo [00:31:00] provides to each student preparing and providing them the best opportunity to be a change maker of tomorrow. So through buying yarn, you are directly contributing to a better future for our whole island home on your bungees.
I love that. Uh, thank you for sharing your indigenous language with us as well. Um, here's some more transparency. So, for more than two years, Janin has worked closely with yo, an organization providing quality education opportunities for First Nations children. From regional and remote communities.
Through this partnership we've seen firsthand the remarkable difference that access to education can make. Not only in the lives of students, but across their families and communities. Our commitment is simple. 50% of yarns profits are shared directly with ya to help fund these life-changing opportunities.
When you choose yarn, you are helping create lasting educational [00:32:00] pathways for young First Nations Australians. Your support ensures that every purchase contributes to a stronger, more equitable future for our nation. Ah, I'm obsessed. I haven't heard of yo before, but I love that they are. It's not a bandaid or a short term solution.
It's full boarding school scholarship for a, a young person's entire secondary education. So each of the students that they work with is having an experience that probably lasts five years and beyond into their future. So I love the way that EULA works. It's also worth noting that yarn and is a pretty new company.
I think they've probably only been going for a couple of years, so they've made a really big impact just within those couple of years. Now I wanna talk about the fact that I have used yarn before I have ordered from them. And this podcast [00:33:00] is the kick up the ass that I need to stop my subscription with.
Who gives a crap, which I'm gonna come back to in a moment and start up my yarn subscription. I am committing to doing that the second that I finished recording this podcast. So please hold me accountable. Listeners, I wanna tell you why I am switching from who gives a crap to Janin, and this speaks to.
What is so great about their business model and the thing that I feel, who gives a crap is missing, at least for me. So some of the things I love about who gives a crap is I love their, their, um, social enterprise model. I love the convenience of having the blue roll just arrive at my door. Actually, I've been getting a subscription to my home and to my parents' home, which I pay for, for about six years now.
So I have had a lot of who gives a crap lu paper. I love that it's recycled. I love that 50% of profits go [00:34:00] into water and sanitation projects around the world. It's great. But the thing that really bothers me about who gives a crap is that the toilet paper is not made in Australia. And the thing about that that's really odd is that we make toilet paper in Australia.
It is actually one of the things that we can do here. So I'm really perplexed as to why they don't manufacture here. If it's a cost thing, I think the cost of their LU paper is low enough that they could easily add some margin on top to cover that being made in Australia, and I really do think that their users would pay for it.
So putting that to the side, enter Janin. Janin has done the thing that I don't think who gives a crap has managed to pull off, which is they're made here. It's Australian made toilet tissue. A lot of the other aspects of their business are quite similar to who gives a crap in that it's a [00:35:00] subscription toilet roll service.
50% of profits are donated, but their donations go to a First Nations youth organization. But some of the things about it that are different is that it's made in Australia, it's First Nations owned, the donations are staying in Australia, which for me is actually really important. I donate. Money to various organizations, but in the last couple of years, I've really honed in on donating my funds to organizations that operate in Australia.
So I love that their donations are going to Australian, um, children. I love that it's made here. I love that it's First Nations Own. I love the artwork and I love the collaboration with artists. I really hope to see lots more artists collaborations with yarn in the future because it's such a great, uh, it's such a great platform or medium to see art.
[00:36:00] We're all using Lu paper every single day. So Janin, I love the way that you do business. I love your unique value proposition is very clear. What I think is really great about your business from a business model perspective is how you've chosen your partners. I'm pretty sure that Janin isn't making the toilet rolls themselves.
They have likely partnered with a manufacturing partner, which is what a lot of e-commerce and product brands do. What they have chosen to do is they have partnered with an Australian manufacturer. They've also chosen to partner with an indigenous Australian, not-for-profit called ula. So the partners that they have chosen to do business with are all centered on this continent, and that is what I think is so incredible about this business model.
They've got all of the great things that we [00:37:00] expect as modern consumers, convenience delivery to the door, great quality, recycled. You know, we wanna know that the profits are going somewhere beyond just the business itself, but the way that they have chosen their partners as Australian manufacturers and an Australian not-for-profit chef's kiss from me.
I love what you are doing, lane. I think if you ever come to listen to this episode, I'll be so chuffed. Uh, to know that you are listening. I think the business that you have built is incredible and I hope that you continue to have really great success with what you're doing. But from this small business expert who is a business model specialist, tick, tick, tick.
You're doing really well, mate. And um, yeah, I hope that continues for you long into the future. Alright, the third brand that I wanna bring to your attention as part of this business models that I freaking love, [00:38:00] a series that I'm doing is called Walkie Farm. I really hope I'm saying that correctly. So let me tell you a bit about Walkie Farm, but I also wanna shout out Mia Fireman, who is the one who told me about this brand, and Carly Smith, who's the one who found this brand when we were trying to remember the name of it.
So thank you ladies that's made, uh, me be able to share about it on this podcast. So let me tell you about Walkie Farm. So they are a regenerative butcher that's open 24 7. I know it's a pretty big concept. So Walkie Farm is a boundary pushing regenerative agriculture farm based in a New South Wales.
They ship freshly frozen, grass fed beef, grass fed lamb, grass fed pork, and other goodies such as rendered grass fed, tallow and large your door. Building a community of informed consumers. They do a really great job of articulating [00:39:00] what they stand for and how they do things. So they have the five pillars of walkie farm.
Why they do what they do, and which values guide our decisions and attracts the people that they want to work with. They call it the five pillars of production. They say these pillars are interconnected. If we compromise one, the others will also fail. Nothing happens on our farm unless it meets values in our pillars of production.
The pillars are animal welfare, environmental backbone, healing, food building, community and profit. I love that. Profit is listed. Number one, welfare advocacy. So at this farm, they say they're actively pushing the limits on the definition of animal welfare. To us, high welfare should mean more than just not being cruel.
Basic animal respect should mean that it doesn't get caged kicked, prodded or starved. We believe animal welfare should be contextual to the animal's nature and environment. [00:40:00] Contextual welfare means treating different species of animals appropriately, allowing them to mi mimic their behavior in the wild.
It's important to us for both animal welfare and environmental impact. The next pillar is about environmental backbone. So they really lean into the fact that hey, cows get a bad rep because they're belching, bovine, and so does farming in general. But did you know that animals can have a positive environmental effect?
Think about it. Animals are the environment, so how can they be the problem? Animals aren't the problem. It's the management. Here at Walke Farm, we're working with nature not against it, which is not only undoing the damage caused by traditional farming methods of the past, but also improving our environment for future generations.
True biodiversity doesn't come from eliminating animals. It comes from treating animals correctly and allowing them to act as nature intended, [00:41:00] et cetera, et cetera. The next pillar is around healing food. We all know that food fuels some understand that good food nourishes. At Walke farm, we believe food can heal and maintain excellent health.
We're talking about real food, authentic food, raised with respect, and in line with nature's principles, no feeding, herbivores, grains, cruel confinement abuse, nasty chemicals, gross promoters, antibiotics, synthetic nitrates, glyphosate or junk. If food can bring you health, it is fair to conclude that it will not only bring a better quality of life, but will save on doctor's visits and medications.
We think so because it has in our family. Um, and they go on to talk a little bit more about that. They say. Having this farm is a privilege and an honor and something they take very seriously. The fourth pillar is community conscience. They say there's no greater [00:42:00] community than our Murray community and we aim to support it as much as it supports our family business.
We lead with integrity and transparency and we're building a kind informed and generous tribe who, who are committed to farming and living better, and we're incredibly proud of that. At the farm. We regularly host farm tours for families and school groups. Here on the farm, guests are encouraged to soak in the wide open spaces, pat farm animals, and here are tale or three about how our regenerative farm is improving the local landscape.
These days we generally have hundreds of school kids come through the property monthly. We believe that if a business has an opportunity to offer work experience to a young person, donate to a charity, offer a workshop, share experiences through social media and employ local people, then it would be a fulfilling way to grow and support others in the community.
And the last element is profitable farms. The last thing we consider when [00:43:00] pricing a product is profit. Now that may sound backwards. Surely being a for-profit enterprise pricing for profit would be the first thing we'd do yet wrong. Okay, interesting. At Walkie Farm, we first address animal welfare, environmental impact, quality, production, and community involvement.
Then after we've accounted for these costs, we add our profit margin. Here's why. If we strive to become hyper competitive with the commodity market, we'd be compromising one or more of our other values. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Love it. We price for profit so that our family can live comfortably while expanding our operation.
We're not playing it small. A bigger walkie farm means more animals out of jail, slavery, and onto pastures. As nature intended, it means more community members accessing quality produce and they go on. To explain a little more, I wanna talk a little bit more about the business element. So their butcher is open [00:44:00] 24 7 to members.
We'll come back to that. It's completely self-serve. It's open 365 days in Aubrey New South Wales, and they call it the modern day Farm Gate. Our members only butcher is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year in Aubrey New South Wales. The Walke butchery in Lavington is a completely self-service butchery experience, taking convenience to the next level.
Membership is free, but places limited. If your membership is approved, you're given access to the butchery where you can purchase your local grass fed produce and small goods. And then they talk about the membership system. So the membership allows us to open the retail doors of the butchery 24 7 unstaffed to approve members who share the same values as us and are as honest with us as we are with them.
We're protective of the community, we're cultivating. [00:45:00] They're conscientious, supportive, honest, and willing to vote with their dollar for the change they wish to see in their food system. It truly is a relationship when you join the Wonki tribe. Want in, become a member by joining us on a farm tour. For times when farm tours aren't running, we're developing an online question.
So membership is free places a limited shop whenever is convenient to you. All right, so let's unpack this. So now I've explained what Wilkie Farm. Looks like it's a regenerative farm. It sounds like they are really committed to, you know, being good custodians of the land and taking care of the animals, growing healthy food, building community, and making a profit.
And I love, like I said before, I love that that is part of their pillars because a farm that is not profitable is a farm that is not able to continue doing anything. And I [00:46:00] love their approach to making sure that everything that they want included in the price is included and then the profit is added on.
And I love that that is their approach rather than, than trying to be competitively priced. They're pricing for the value that they have to offer. So let's talk about this from a business model perspective. And I wanna say just for a little bit of context, that I am somebody who eats meat. I also have family who are organic cattle farmers.
So I've got a little bit of insight into what it's like to grow animals and to take care of the land in Australia. So I think even people who don't eat meat will still be able to see the benefits and the, the ethics and transparency of this brand and see that being a regenerative farmer is much better for everybody, [00:47:00] the animals, the land, and the future of that land than traditional farming.
But let's talk more about the business model and why I love it so much. So just generally, I love the way they're communicating their vision and their mission. I love that their way of delivering their product to their customers is so innovative. Like, what the hell? A self-serve butchery. I have never heard of anything like this in my life, and it doesn't feel like the cold, sterile type of retail environment that I imagine the kind of Walmart or the Amazon kind of model that I think they're trying with all of the AI that's coming in.
So the two parts of their business model that I think are really interesting and unique are their distribution channels and their customer relationships. The customer relationships part is really interesting. So to become a member, you need to go to the [00:48:00] farm. They want to meet you. This is such a cool thing because they're saying, Hey look, if you wanna join our membership, we want you, it's free to join, but we need to meet you first.
We need to understand who you are and what your kind of relationship to this community is. We wanna make sure that we have people who have like-minded values that are all really interested in putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to buying really top quality produce. So I love that their customer relationships go well beyond the sort of customer relationship a butcher would normally have.
So in an old school kind of butchery butcher, there is a great long-term customer relationship that's forming at the shop, but in this model, the customer doesn't get to talk with anyone when they [00:49:00] purchase their produce. They go in at whatever time of day they want to, they grab whatever it is they want and then they self-check out before they leave.
There's a trust system from what I can understand. So I love that the customer relationship is about the trust that is between the customer and the business. And it sounds like, or if they're not already doing this, then they probably totally should be running in-person events for their members, getting them together, having experiences, you know, really making that relationship as deep as possible.
I'm sure they're already doing that. The other part of the business model that I think is really fascinating is that distribution channel. So most regenerative farmers, like a lot of regenerative farmers, are now selling produce through an e-commerce business style. So they're shipping directly from the farm to your [00:50:00] door, or they're, you know, working with a city butchery and you know, that's how they're distributing their product.
My understanding is that Wilkie Farm also has an e-commerce option, so I could buy from them online from Melbourne, and they send the produce to me Frozen. Totally great to have that distribution channel in their business, but this distribution channel in their business where a local person who is a member can go and help themselves to the products and pay for them on the way out.
I think that is such an interesting and innovative distribution channel. And the thing about it that's really clever is that it is all built on trust, and the longer that somebody is a member of this community, the more likely they are to continue buying from them. Like I can't imagine anybody who's part of that membership who's not going there on a regular basis, like the amount of loyalty and [00:51:00] kind of good vibes that would come from being able to purchase in this way.
Would mean that their customer loyalty would be really strong, but they've also taken out a whole cost, which is staff. So one of the things that's very difficult about retail in Australia is that our wages are really high relative to other countries. Uh, we could talk about that for a whole nother podcast episode, but they've taken a whole line item out of their profit and loss statement, which is retail wages.
So not only have they made this incredible system of trust and long-term customer, you know, loyalty and retention and repeat customer, you know, when you have that kind of a relationship with a brand, you are more forgiving of price rises. You are happy to support new ideas that they have. You know, they've done all of these amazing things on the customer side, but they've [00:52:00] also taken out a whole line item of cost.
Which is retail wages. I don't know whether that was done because they found it difficult to find retail staff, whether it was because they found that it was difficult to pay the wages and the rent and you know, make a profit on top of their produce. I'm not sure. But either way, I love their distribution channel, and I love the way that they look at their customer relationships as something more than what a normal in Inver commas Butcher would be doing.
And you know, it's a regenerative farm, so it makes sense that there's a little bit more under the surface, it's a values led, impact driven business. So it makes sense that there would be more under the hood than just going and buying meat from a regular butcher. So Wilkie Farms, I don't know you, but if anybody.
Does know Walkie Farms and wants to share this episode with them. Please do. I'd love to hear from you, [00:53:00] like, I think your business model is really fascinating. It sounds like you know, you really have thought about what you're doing. It looks like your business is really successful, and I think that's awesome.
All right, so now I've broken down those three business models from the outside. I don't know anything about these businesses on the inside, and I have made a lot of assumptions in these assessments that I've done on their business model. But what I wanna do now is really think about how we can translate these really great concepts in these great business models to our businesses.
So let's start with good citizens. So the thing about them that I found really fascinating was how they had managed their costs and their key resources by being really smart about just having three designs. They have three designs. They did so much research upfront to understand what were the three most popular designs to suit the most face [00:54:00] shapes possible.
And the fact that they've kept it at just three means that their cost of production would be lower because there's less variables. This would mean that they're more profitable. And I also gonna make a really big assumption here. I bet that the conversion on their website is higher than other e-commerce brands, because one of the things that stops shoppers from buying is overwhelm.
There's too many products. We dunno which one we want. We are not sure about this color or that color. And I bet you the fact that there's only three designs to choose from, my guess is that they're. Conversion from website visited to customer is higher than your average e-commerce brand. So what can we learn from this?
First of all, we need to research what people want. Rather than making assumptions about what our products and services should be. We need to ask [00:55:00] people, we need to get on the phone, we need to get out to the shops. We need to get onto forums and be asking people, what are the issues that you are having?
What are the problems you have? How could I solve them? So doing market research doesn't actually have to be that hard, but it's something we really need to do so that we're designing products and services that people wanna buy. The other thing that I think we can all learn from good citizens eyewear is that the beauty of having a small product range, if you have more products than you need, consider getting rid of some of them.
If you offer too many variations, if you have too many product ranges, you have too many options for your service business. CU Sum, every product or service that you sell requires marketing. It requires admin, it requires customer service, and the smaller [00:56:00] your product range, the more profit you'll make. So that is something that all small business owners can reflect on.
Okay, let's move to Nan. So the thing that I really loved about Nan was how they had chosen their key partners. So they chose to partner with a manufacturer in Australia. I personally think that we need to protect Australian manufacturing. Almost at all costs for so many reasons. We need that skillset in Australia.
We need those jobs in Australia, and we need to stop spending money and fossil fuels on shipping products from other parts of the world to our country when it's something that can be manufactured here. Why aren't we? And toilet paper is just, it's amazing that Janin has decided to partner with an Australian manufacturer of toilet paper.[00:57:00]
I also love the way they chose their charity partner as well to really align with what they're doing. And what that does is it offers consumers a different choice. Would you like to go with this toilet brand that's gonna deliver to your door that supports projects all over the world, which is amazing.
Or would you choose to support this brand yarn, which is Australian owned, indigenous owned? It is manufactured in Australia, and 50% of profits go to an Australian indigenous organization. So I love the way that they have partnered and been so intentional about who they partner with. You can do the same.
Who do you partner with? Do you run products, collaborations, and who are you running those with? Are you really intentional about whether or not that's the kind of partner that your customers want you to be associated with? [00:58:00] Are you buying your products from the right suppliers? Have you really thought about whether you could be sourcing your products or your subscriptions or whatever you spend money on?
Have you thought about, am I investing that with my values in mind? So in my business, so I think about my partners as the contractors who work for me, so I have. A range of contractors and coaches and trainers that I work with, they're my partners in my business, and that is one of my impact drivers is that I am spending money with Australian women in business.
So that again, is something that you can look at. Have a look at where your money is going from your business, who are your suppliers and is there another supplier that matches your values or the values of your customers better? Who are you collaborating with or who are you buying [00:59:00] resources or products or services from?
And do you need to put a little bit more thought into that? The last one is Wilkie Farm. And gosh, I hope I'm saying it right because I've said it a lot of times. So a couple of the things about that business that I find so fascinating is their distribution channel choosing to. Go in a completely different direction from other butchers that would set up a retail store on a high street in a town or city in Australia and have people paid to run it.
Instead of that, they've chosen to have a self serve 24 7 butcher open, and in that butcher you can buy all sorts of grass fed meat and you can also buy other products. I suspect they probably also have some products from other brands that they love in the butcher, but I'm just making an assumption there.
So [01:00:00] this distribution channel of really bucking the trend of a retail store needing to have people working in it and instead focusing their time and efforts on the other parts of their business, which I'm sure are extremely labor intensive. The other thing I love about Wilkie Farm is the way they think about their customer relationships.
They're not called customers. They're called members. And in order to become a member, you have to actually do something. You've gotta go to the farm and meet them. I love this kind of like skin in the game that they're asking their customers to have. They're not customers, they're members, they're part of, um, they're using the word tribe, which I find a little bit problematic, but I'm just gonna go with it for this story because it's their words.
So they have built this community of members, people from their local area, and Aubrey in New South Wales is an [01:01:00] incredible location. It, it's like surrounded by so much sort of fresh produce and farm and agriculture. So I imagine that they have people coming from quite a distance to come and access their butchery.
I've got no doubt that it's not just limited to people in Aubrey, but I love how they're asking their customers to do more than just show up at a shop with their credit card. They're saying, you need to come and meet us because once you become a member with us, you actually get to have this level of trust and honesty between us and you that most businesses wouldn't feel comfortable doing.
So how can we apply this to our own businesses? Thinking about the distribution channel, are you actually distributing your product in the most effective and innovative way that you could? Like if you are still just doing in-person sessions, could you finally start doing Zoom? Could you go the other [01:02:00] way round and stop doing Zoom sessions?
And now you only do in-person. One of the things that we love about Ripple Festival is that it is an in-person event in a time where people are craving that kind of eyeball to eyeball kind of connection of being in a room with people. We totally could have distributed Ripple Festival as an online festival, and it probably would've been really good, but it is gonna be so much better because the way we're delivering it is in person.
So are you really thinking about your distribution channels in the best way for you? Are you thinking about the wholesalers who could be available to you? Are you thinking about how you choose your wholesalers? Are you thinking about if you usually are a wholesale business, do you have a direct to consumer offer?
What we're finding in some of my clients that have been around for a long time that have [01:03:00] relied almost exclusively on wholesale for their food businesses, retail and having a direct line to your consumer is becoming a bigger and bigger part of their business. Because consumers, especially after going through COVID and realizing that the supply chain of food and other products that are necessary for us, it's more fragile than we we thought it was.
And so a lot of consumers are wanting to buy their food and products and toilet paper and regenerative beef and olive oil and all of these different things. We wanna buy it direct from the brand. We're not necessarily looking to get everything from the kind of retailers that we've all relied on. So are you thinking about how your products and services are being distributed?
Are you actually thinking about all of the ways that you could be delivering your work? So for example, if you are a creative, are you thinking about how to present your [01:04:00] work in a way that your customer can actually use it? You know, so many creatives present like a brand or a, you know, set of photographs without showing the client, Hey, here's how you could use these.
This is how I would apply this branding to your social media. Here's how I would use these three photos from your brand shoot that we've done. So, are you actually thinking about how your product or service is being received by your customer? And then that other part of Wilkee Farm, the business model that's so great is that customer relationship.
So how are you talking about your customers? Are you calling them your customers, your clients, your members, your stakeholders, your beneficiaries, your whatever. How are you describing them? What kind of relationship are you having with them? How strong is that relationship? Are you actually asking your customers to put a bit [01:05:00] of skin in the game, um, in order to become your customer?
So just a couple of examples might be, rather than sign up here, it's apply here. There's lots of subtle ways that we can get our customers to put a little bit more skin in the game or feel like they are part of a more exclusive group of people or a more. Specialized or a more tailored or targeted community, rather than just being a customer that buys toilet paper from you.
So we can tailor the words that we use in our marketing, in our customer relationships, in our kind of even simple things like here's your order. We can use words in those emails to make our customers feel like they are really part of what we are doing. That's something that Wilkee Farm is doing so well.
So I really hope you enjoyed this [01:06:00] episode 'cause I would like to do more of them. I think it is really interesting to look at these great business models around Australia. You know, they're creating products and services that people really want, and they're delivering them in a really innovative way. I hope that this has given you something that you can try in your business.
And if you love something about this episode, get in touch with me. You can find my details in the show notes and tell me, or better yet, write me a review. That means that so many more people will see my podcast, and that will mean that I can keep making them more often and putting more and more time into each episode.
Either way, I'll see you next week, and I hope you have a great week.
Outro Money Secrets
Thank you so much for listening right up to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Money Secrets, where we talk about the money secrets of successful small business owners. If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love it if you subscribe to [01:07:00] the podcast, but leave us a review or share this episode with one of your friends. I hope you learned something. I hope you got a new perspective and I really hope you enjoyed the listening experience.
