[00:00:00] Fi Johnston
We're not going to be able to make money in our businesses if we continually focus on all of the things outside of our control. What we need to do is think about, what do I have control over? I have control over how I show up. I have control over how I talk to and with my customers. Do the things that your customers value. Go the extra mile, and maybe we get to have fun.
Money Secrets Intro
I'm Fi Johnston, and you are listening to Money Secrets, the podcast where we talk about how to make and manage money as a small business owner while also creating a positive impact on the world. You'll hear from clients and friends of mine, and me, about how to unlock the secrets of money for your small business. I want to acknowledge that I am on Wurundjeri country and pay respects to elders both past and present from that community and any First Nations people listening to this podcast. This always was and always will be Aboriginal and [00:01:00] Torres Strait Islander land.
Fi
Small business is tough. It's always been tough.
And small business in 2026 is tough. It's its own version of tough. There are lots of forces beyond our control as small business owners that affect our headspace, they affect our bank account, and they affect the viability of our business. But when do we s- get to start having fun again? Small business used to be fun.
And I wonder if this is what we actually need in 2026, is to start looking at our businesses differently and start working out where do we get to have fun, and can that be an antidote to the doom and gloom that we hear on our TV screens every night? I wanna be real though. There are real economic forces that are playing against us, and we have no control over any of those things.
So a few big things that are happening for small businesses [00:02:00] at the moment is that the economy is in a downturn. Now, this is a cyclical thing. Economies go up and down, but I think for the last 20 or 30 years, it has been on a pretty steady trajectory up, and we've really gotten used to that, and we've built our businesses around this kind of constantly growing and always, you know, having space to grow as being the default.
But that's not always been the default in small business. Consumers are still spending, but they're making different choices with their money. They're being even more discerning than ever about what they value and what they don't value. Families are making different decisions about how they're spending their discretionary income.
Their discretionary income is getting smaller, and so they're being really mindful of thinking about what do we value most as a family or as a person or as a group of people that we want to [00:03:00] invest our money in. So people are still going out for dinner. They're still going to see theater shows. They're still going to see live music.
They're still going to the local cafe to buy, you know, coffee and, and lunch. But maybe they're doing it a little bit less often. We're still buying clothes and, you know, investing in skincare and health and beauty and fitness. Like, people are still investing in all of these things, but perhaps they're just being a little bit more discerning about where that dollar is actually being invested We've also got inflation, which is the cause of people's spending feeling a little bit tight.
Now, the causes of inflation are very complex, and I'm not gonna try to explain them because I only know them at a, a particular level. But we've got some forces, again, out of our control. So we have the price of petrol and diesel being pushed up because of what's happening in Iran and the Strait of [00:04:00] Hormuz.
We've got-- because of that war that's happening, we have unreliable supply chains. So people are afraid that there might not be enough petrol or diesel, so that of course pushes the price u-up as well. And the price of petrol and diesel actually feeds through everything that we buy because just about everything needs to be transported somewhere.
So we've got that force, which is happening on the other side of the world, and we also have inflation being caused by global, you know, economics, and we have-- a lot of inflation in Australia is actually caused by the extreme profits of our banks, our supermarkets, and our energy companies. And by the way, a lot of that doesn't stay in Australia, which makes it even worse.
So the price of groceries, the price of mortgages, the price of electricity and gas [00:05:00] is higher and higher and higher, and that additional price that those companies are getting is remaining in their businesses as profit. It's not coming from their supply chain. So we've got these huge banks and grocery businesses and e-energy retailers that are making bumper profits, that are making-- you know, producing less discretionary income for Australians in their bank accounts We also have the rise of data centers and AI.
So, you know, huge organizations and governments and billionaires are investing unprecedented amounts of money into data centers, AI, the chips that drive them. We're experiencing this huge change in what is valued in our society and what is invested into. So there's all of these forces at play. We've also just had the Reserve Bank [00:06:00] of Australia increase interest rates again, so I think we're now the highest that it's been since 2011.
So mortgages are now more expensive, which will mean that rents become more expensive and, you know, so on and so on. And the annoying thing is that inflation is so complex, but the only thing the RBA has at its disposal is the interest rate. It doesn't have any other levers that it can pull to try to curb inflation.
And so many people are angry about this particular rate rise because it feels so futile. So many people and experts do not see how this is going to create any relief for inflation in Australia. It does nothing to address what's actually causing inflation. So why would you just put more strain and pressure on Australian households at a time when everything is feeling so [00:07:00] difficult already?
So that's pretty doom and gloom, isn't it? And if you're turning the TV on every night listening to the news, you've got news feeds coming through your social media feed, it's really hard to avoid all of this kind of doom and gloom and bad news at the moment. And something that's happened very recently in Australia, which I just cannot get my head around, is the credit card surcharge ban.
Now, I think the intent for the government was to try to reduce the, uh, transaction fee that the consumer pays when they use their card at a terminal. But instead of addressing that directly and saying to the banks and the merchants, "You need to charge less per transaction than you're currently charging," instead of doing that, which I agree would've been very difficult, but that's what they're trying to address.
Instead of doing that, [00:08:00] they've said to merchants, so small and medium and big businesses, "You can no longer charge an extra fee for the surcharge at the terminal." So when you go to a cafe or a hairdresser and what you're purchasing is $49 but it ends up being $52.70 or whatever it is, that fee that the cafe or hairdresser is charging you is just recouping what they're being charged by the bank to take your card.
So the intent may have been to try to decrease the overall cost for consumers, but that's not how business works Businesses have to pay that merchant fee, and it's, uh, it's actually a really significant amount. So for most small businesses, it can be between 1.5 and 3% of that transaction goes to the bank, depending on the size of your business and the type of card that is being used.
And small businesses [00:09:00] actually pay the highest amount for merchant fees because our volumes are lower. So this is just another reason why small businesses can't try to be affordable, because our economies of scale just are not there. So small business owners pay the most in merchant fees, and we are now unable to add that surcharge on at the terminal.
And there's been all this crazy talk on social media this week about, you know, hairdressers, dog walkers, cafes throwing the EFTPOS machine in the bin, and now only wanting to accept cash or bank transfer. That is a really, really dumb idea. So what we need to do is work out what the menu price needs to be, inclusive of transaction fees, increase the menu price, and move on.
The amount the consumer pays is exactly the same as it was before, it's just that now that [00:10:00] price is captured in your menu rather than at the terminal. Perhaps you can give a discount for cash rather than expecting that everybody is going to bring cash to your hairdresser, salon, or cafe. Now, I can understand why small business owners are furious about this, because it is
it's absurd. It doesn't actually address anything for the consumer. No consumer is going to end up paying less because of this stupid ban. And it's really disappointing to have a law put in place that is so ill-conceived and, you know, it really just makes you think, like, who did they ask about this legislation?
Did they ask anybody who runs a business or who knows anything about business? That if that cost is still there, it will be borne by your customer, whether the government want it to happen like that or not. Imagine how incredible it would be if the banks actually had to reduce the amount [00:11:00] that they charge their customers for merchant transactions.
Then we would actually see maybe even a slight decrease of inflation, because that is a big part of the profits that the banks make, and consumers are the ones paying it So for an episode where I started to say, "When do we get to have fun?" I have talked about a lot of un-fun things. Because I wanna be real.
Small business is tough. It's always been tough. Making a profit isn't easy. It can be simple, but being profitable and running a successful business has never been described as easy. So what can we do when times feel like this?
Good Money Club Ad
I was feeling really lonely, and I was feeling like I didn't have a lot of things in place for my business, and I really wanted to put it out there to find a group of really heart-centered female small business owners. This is Mel Williams from Zebras Australia. [00:12:00] I happened to stumble across it on Instagram, and I didn't really know much about Good Money Club or what Fi was about at that point, but I just felt so drawn to it. And now from a financial perspective, I feel so much more confident. I can read financial statements now and use those to actually make really data-driven decisions. There's just such an amazing community that Fi has built around herself and around Good Money Club. It has paid for itself over and over and over again. I just can't put a price on what Fi has offered me in terms of her time and her knowledge, the access to her contacts, her community. So I think jump, jump in both feet.
Fi
I really do think that we need to lean into the fun elements of small business, the great elements of small business.
Small business will never be able to compete solely on price compared to other businesses, and it's a really fast track to the bottom of the pile if you are trying to compete on price. [00:13:00] What we can compete on is everything that makes small business amazing. Being able to personalize and customize, building strong relationships with our customers that feel real.
We can solve really tricky problems because we're small and agile. We are so much closer to our customers than big corporates are. They would love to have the kind of direct consumer, kind of two-way communication that we have. We get to talk directly to our customers every day So we can be personalized, we can be customized, we can be fast, we can be slow, we can be detailed, we can be quick and dirty.
We can actually deliver products and services that our customers want, and we can do it in a way that feels really valuable and tangible and authentic. We can actually [00:14:00] use our passion for what we do really well to help improve the lives of our customers and improve the businesses of our customers. But we're not going to be able to make money in our businesses if we continually focus on all of the things outside of our control.
The economy, inflation, the credit card surcharge, the government of the day, payroll tax. My God, that is a bad one. But payroll tax and land tax, you know, GST, PAYG, super increases. All of those things are tough, but we have no control over them. So what we need to do is think about, "What do I have control over in my business?"
I have control over how I show up. I have control over how I talk to and with my customers. I have control over the sort of customers that I want to work with. I have control over my prices. I don't have control over whether somebody says yes to my price, but [00:15:00] I do have control over my pricing and who I am targeting that at.
The businesses that will continue to do really well in 2026 and beyond are the businesses who are amazing at marketing and communication. You just cannot be a business owner who doesn't market themselves. And if marketing is not your strong suit, learn. Get the skills to market yourself. Get the skills and the runs on the board.
Build that sort of confidence and capability to market yourself and communicate yourself and explain what it is that you do well, why somebody should choose you, and then deliver an exceptional experience, an exceptional product. Do the things that your customers value. Go the extra mile because Amazon is not putting a handwritten note into a package [00:16:00] going to one of their customers.
But guess what? You can. There are so many things that we can do as small business owners that actually increase the joy that our customers feel when they experience our brand, and maybe we actually get to have fun So many people loathe Instagram, and I totally get why. It's a massive multinational corporation that makes huge amounts of money from all of our businesses.
But guess what? It is a tool that is at our disposal. LinkedIn is a tool that is at our disposal to market ourselves and connect with others, and maybe actually have some fun. When did our marketing get so serious? When did my marketing get so serious? Sometimes I look back at the marketing that I've done over the, you know, the years that I've been in business, which is 16, and some of it is just so boring.
It's boring. It's same, same. It's, [00:17:00] you know, communicating the same thing without any new passion or anything new for somebody to be interested in. But that era, for me at least, is over. You may have noticed if you follow me on Instagram or you read my weekly email. By the way, if you don't, you need to head to peachbm.com.au/subscribe to join the Peach Weekly, which comes out every Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM Melbourne time.
But you might notice that my marketing has been changing because I'm trying to have more fun. I wanna have fun. I wanna bring fun to the businesses that I work with. I wanna show you the incredible, fun, exciting, nurturing passionate things that happen in the businesses that I work with, and in my business.
Because if we're not gonna be having fun, what are we doing this for? We've gotta be able to see that the good and the bad [00:18:00] parts of small business. It's tough, it's hard, it's relentless. Nobody does the work for you. Every decision is yours. Everything sits with you. And not only that, you are the ceiling, my friend.
You are the ceiling to your business, so your business will only ever grow as far as the ceiling that you have set for it. And one of the ways to clear energy and have a n- a, a new perspective and be fresher with what you're doing is to have a bit more fun, a bit more joy. So maybe that's something that you could try to bring to your business.
I'm thinking of an example this week of one of my clients who owns a advertising agency, and she said to me that she felt like she'd stopped being fun, and now all she does is solve problems all day, every day. So we worked on a couple of ideas to help her start to feel more energized, you know, exercise, all of those kind [00:19:00] of things.
And then I said, "Why don't we create a persona for you, where you put an imaginary cape on and you get to work and you are like, 'I am the problem-solving queen. Pew, pew, pew. Come at me, problems.'" And she laughed, and then she realized, "Actually, this could transform my experience of being the problem solver in my business."
That is what business owners are. We are problem solvers, and the problems don't stop just because you want them to. There will always be a new problem to solve. So maybe we can be joyful and silly about solving the problems that we're trying to solve in our businesses. And this leads me to the last thing that I wanna share with you on this podcast episode, which is that behind the scenes I have been working on my next brand campaign, and it drops next week.
I'm really, really excited to share it with you, and the reasons why I created this campaign is everything that I just [00:20:00] said about my own marketing. I feel like I had become stale and serious, and everything felt the opposite of fun and joyful. It felt dreary and miserable, and what I wanted to do is start to create marketing and start to position myself as someone that helps amazing businesses with six, seven, and eight-figure revenues.
This is the clients I work with, by the way. I wanted to show you the amazing things that we do together, and the amount of fun that we have while we're doing it. So the campaign will be coming out next week. It's like nothing else I've ever seen, to be honest. I've never seen a campaign like this before in my life.
I hope you find it as entertaining and interesting as I do. It's been designed to entertain and, you know, share some of the, the hard bits of business, but [00:21:00] also the solutions and how we can move through really difficult decisions in our business using play and fun, and maybe even that little bit of competitive spirit that's inside us, to make better businesses.
So next week you'll be hearing from me and the people who are part of that campaign. So four different clients of mine were involved, and we also had a lot of people supporting in, you know, on campaign shoot day. We had a whole crew, and I had other people helping me pull the campaign together and get the strategy right, the thinking right.
So you're going to be hearing from all of those people across the next four weeks, I think. Um, so you might start to feel a little bit of a different flavor to the Money Secrets podcast from next week onwards. And yeah, I really can't wait to share it with you. Um, I want your feedback. I wanna know what you think.
Actually, I [00:22:00] wanna know what you think about this episode. If this episode has been interesting to you as a small business owner and you have a friend who needs to hear this, please share it with them. I'd love to get into their ears as well. And if the Money Secrets podcast is something that has helped you, please leave me a review.
Please leave me a rating. That is how other people find out about this podcast, and the more people that listen to the podcast, the more effort we can be investing into the podcast and bringing you amazing guests and bringing you amazing content that actually helps you to make more money and impact through your small business.
Thank you for being here, and I cannot wait to see you again next week.
Money Secrets Outro
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'd subscribe to the podcast, but leave us a [00:23:00] 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
