Navigating Career Pathways from VA to DBM, and Cybersecurity Professional
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In today’s evolving digital landscape, many professionals are seeking pathways that not only align with their skills but also offer growth potential. Among the most popular roles are Virtual Assistants (VAs), Digital Business Managers (DBMs), and Cybersecurity professionals.
However, transitioning from one role to another isn’t always straightforward, especially when it comes to moving from a VA to a DBM. In fact, for every 100 VAs that apply for a DBM role, only 3 applicants typically have the necessary experience. So, what exactly differentiates these roles, and how can you assess the right career path for you?
Let’s break it down, and if you want to see if you have the skills to be a DBM, take our free skills check, it only takes 5 minutes. –>
Suitability skills check
1. Virtual Assistant (VA)
Role Overview:
A Virtual Assistant is a remote administrative professional who supports businesses by handling various tasks such as scheduling appointments, managing emails, bookkeeping, customer service, and social media management. They are the go-to person for day-to-day administrative tasks, helping business owners free up time to focus on bigger-picture strategies.
Calendar management and appointment scheduling
Email management and response handling
Data entry and bookkeeping
Basic social media management
Customer support and communication
Common Job Tasks:
Skills Required: Action Skills
Strong Collaboration skills
Excellent communication skills (both written and verbal)
Proficiency with office software (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft Office)
Problem-solving and customer-focused
Level of Expertise:
VAs typically operate at an administrative or junior level. While many are highly efficient, the tasks are often task-specific and operational in nature, requiring proficiency rather than strategic expertise.
2. Digital Business Manager (DBM)
Role Overview:
A Digital Business Manager (DBM) takes on a leadership role, managing the operations, strategy, and implementation of digital projects. Unlike a VA who focuses on execution, a DBM is responsible for overseeing the entire business or project operations, making strategic decisions, and ensuring that goals align with business objectives. The transition from VA to DBM is challenging because it requires not just a shift in tasks but a fundamental change in mindset and skill set.
Common Job Tasks:
Project management and overseeing digital operations
Developing and implementing business strategies
Managing teams, freelancers, and other VAs
Monitoring KPIs and ensuring business goals are met
Financial oversight and budget management
Skills Required: Personal Skills
Advanced project management skills (e.g., familiarity with tools like Asana, Trello, or Monday.com)
Strategic thinking and business acumen, ethics and empathy
Leadership initiative and learning skills
Strong communication and cultural awareness decision-making skills
Experience with budgeting, forecasting, and digital marketing
Level of Expertise:
DBMs are mid-to-senior-level professionals with a deep understanding of business strategy, digital operations, and team management. The skill set is broader and more complex than that of a VA, which is why only a small percentage of VAs successfully leap to a DBM.
VA skills map
DBM skills map
Closing the “Suitability Gap”
Inception Network Australia has recognized this significant skill gap in the market and partnered with Brimble Recruitment to screen and identify DBMs who are ready to work for Australian small businesses. This partnership includes a certification process where accredited DBMs earn the BSBSS00102 Micro Business Skill Set certification*, which includes competencies like BSBESB301 Investigate Business Opportunities and BSBESB401 Research and Develop Business Plans.
With this certification, DBMs are equipped with the skills and knowledge to research new business opportunities and write comprehensive business plans that help create jobs for Australians. This is crucial in a landscape where 25% of all Australian businesses employ four or fewer staff (classified as micro-businesses), and 60% operate without any employees at all—relying solely on contractors like VAs.
These figures only account for businesses registered for GST (those turning over more than $75,000 annually). When you consider all the individuals working under an ABN for side gigs, the skill gap becomes even more apparent. There is a clear need for skilled DBMs to fill this gap and support the growth of small and micro-businesses across Australia.
3. Cybersecurity Professional
Role Overview:
A Cybersecurity Professional is responsible for protecting an organization’s digital assets. This includes safeguarding networks, servers, data, and systems from cyber threats and ensuring compliance with security protocols. Cybersecurity is a technical field that requires specialized knowledge of security frameworks, threat detection, and risk management.
Common Job Tasks:
Implementing and managing security protocols
Monitoring networks for security breaches and responding to incidents
Performing security audits and vulnerability assessments
Educating staff on security best practices
Developing and enforcing security policies and procedures
Skills Required: Thinking Skills
Proficiency with security tools and technologies (e.g., firewalls, encryption)
Knowledge of network architecture and security frameworks
Problem-solving and analytical skills
Continuous learning and adaptive mindset (cybersecurity threats evolve rapidly)
Certifications in both business management and formal training in Cybersecurity
Level of Expertise:
Cybersecurity professionals typically operate at a technical level but can advance to senior roles such as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) with experience and further education. The field requires a deep understanding of complex technical concepts, making it a highly specialized pathway.
Comparing the Pathways
VA to DBM Transition: While VAs excel in task execution, DBMs require a more strategic, leadership-oriented approach. For many VAs, the leap to DBM is challenging because it requires not only advanced project management skills but also an ability to think holistically about business growth and digital operations. For every 100 VAs applying for DBM roles, only a few have the combination of experience, strategic insight, and leadership skills needed to succeed.
DBM to Cybersecurity Transition: Moving from a DBM role to a cybersecurity position is an even more complex transition, as it involves acquiring technical skills in network security, threat management, and risk analysis. DBMs have a strategic mindset but would need extensive technical training and certifications to pivot into cybersecurity.
Choosing Your Path
If you’re considering transitioning from a VA to a DBM or exploring cybersecurity, assessing your current skill set and identifying the gaps that need filling is essential. Inception Network has a free Skills check to do that for you that matches the skills you need for each job role above.
Suitability skills check
If you’re considering transitioning from a VA to a DBM or exploring cybersecurity, assessing your current skill set and identifying the gaps that need filling is essential. Inception Network has a free Skills check to do that for you that matches the skills you need for each job role above.
For VAs, pursuing advanced project management courses and gaining experience in business strategy can help bridge the gap to a DBM role. For those interested in cybersecurity, acquiring certifications and technical training is the key to entering this highly specialized field.
Understanding these differences and preparing accordingly will set you up for success as you navigate your career journey. The right pathway is one that aligns with your skills, interests, and long-term goals.
*Skill Set Issued by Skills Recognition International, RTO 32373
Under-employment refers to a situation where individuals are employed in jobs that are below their skill level, qualifications, or desired number of working hours. In under-employment, individuals may be working part-time when they want full-time work or they may be working in jobs that do not fully utilize their skills and education. It is important to distinguish under-employment from unemployment, where individuals are actively seeking but unable to find any work.
Problems of Under-employment when there is an increase in the Cost of Living.
Financial Strain:
Under-employed individuals may struggle to meet their increased expenses due to rising costs of living. The limited income may not be sufficient to cover basic necessities, leading to financial stress.
Reduced Quality of Life:
Under-employment can affect one’s overall well-being and quality of life. Individuals may be unable to afford essential goods, services, or recreational activities they enjoyed before the cost of living increase.
Increased Debt:
Some under-employed individuals may resort to credit cards or loans to cope with the higher costs, potentially leading to accumulating debt.
Limited Savings:
Under-employment may hinder the ability to save for emergencies or future goals, leaving individuals vulnerable to unexpected financial challenges.
When was the last time you had a holiday away?
Four “Side Gigs” to Earn Extra Income:
If you have the skills to be employed, then you also have the skills to start your own business to offset the rising costs of living. Even if you have a full-time job, consider how many hours you spend doing your primary job role. This is the reason there are over 40,000 positions advertised on the internet each month in Australia for “clerical and office administration” roles.
While these roles are most likely to be Full-time positions, and the primary job role is to do important work for the company, more than 50% of the time these days is spent doing urgent but not important work, which can often be automated or AI.
It’s not about ego, or feeling unappreciated, but that is usually the reason people leave. It’s about job security when things get hard. Who is the first to get cut back? And why do they have to come back to the office when it was fine to work remotely during covid? Which takes higher organisational skills to WFH, yet if you want to do that now it generally comes with a pay cut.
But don’t worry, being sent out for coffee for company executives is likely to not be replaced anytime soon, and can’t be done by their Overseas Virtual assistant. Just don’t tell your boss that the local coffee shop lets you order online, not to mention uber eats.
The good news is, you have high enough digital literacy skills to do all the “fun stuff” that the sales and marketing departments in the larger businesses won’t let you do.
For example, if you work for a small business owner doing office work, they generally encourage you to hone your skills by doing what you love as a way to ratin you working for them.
Small business can use the skills you gain in their business if you start up the following in-demand side gigs:
Startup Group
Digital Content Creation:
If you have skills in writing, graphic design, video editing, or photography, you can create content and sell it to small businesses that don’t have their own marketing department. One of my marketing international students sold a photo to Brisbane City Council’s tourism department for $750 from an Instagram post. A steal at that price as it would have cost the council over $1500 to do the photo shoot.
Just don’t tell the client that it was taken by her boyfriend while staying in a city hotel for the night, and on her mobile phone. All you have to do is learn how to set your phone up right, but when I got my new Samsung this year they had already done that.
And with Canva and Website templates, graphic design work takes less formatting skills than making a PowerPoint presentation, but you still need the eye for detail to meet “professional” benchmarks that you have gain through your work experience over many years.
E-commerce/Dropshipping:
Start an online store and sell products through dropshipping, which allows you to operate without maintaining inventory. Research trending products and market them effectively. While this is becoming less common with websites like Wish and Temu, there is still a big 2nd hand market for this on Facebook marketplace eBay selling well known brands. You may have to hold stock for a couple of days, so technically not dropshipping, But it is simple enough for school kids to do and sell their grandparents stuff to help fund their retirement, for a small fee of course.
Online coaching/mentoring:
If you have expertise in a particular subject or skill, consider offering online tutoring services through platforms that connect tutors with students and new employees alike. I know a lot of business and marketing coaches who regularly attend local networking events looking for this service for their clients.
While options like fee-free TAFE exist, which is running out of places by the way, they are not taught how to monetise their skills in a classroom.
This is known as the “suitability gap” in the government’s official figure. This is the number of applicants that hold a qualification that are considered “suitable” by employers for an advertised job. Which currently says that only around 40% of “qualified” applicants are also suitable for the job.
The government’s internet vacancy index even says that “skill VET” (who hold a certificate III or IV in a related field) also need at least 2 years on-the-job experience to be considered for advertised roles with larger companies.
So how do they get the experience when they are fresh out of TAFE? While small businesses make up 97.5% of all businesses, and only employ 42% of the workforce, Small Business employs twice as many trainees and apprentices than larger businesses.
The problem is the only thing worse than training a person well and they leave is not training them well and they stay. That is one of the biggest expense to small businesses that are not set up to train new staff.
It costs big businesses over $30,000 to turnover staff in training costs and lost sales. And with 43% of all businesses not making a profit last year after all the government stimulus stopped, small businesses need this service to limit training coast if they want to survive this financial year.
Affiliate Marketing:
For small businesses, this is not about being an “influencer” on social media. It is more about sending the 20% of customers that cause 80% of your problems to other businesses in your network that can serve them better. If you don’t have to go out of your way to help people, you can help more people, which means you can take on more customers without increasing labour costs.
It’s hard to do when you are starting up if the business is your main source of income, but if you are already earning an income from another source you build long-term customers through your expertise in giving genuine referrals.
If your business is your main source of income, this is also a skill you need to learn. Whom to say no to. Getting referral from the 20% stated above only increases them as a portion of your business. When they get to 25% of your clients/customers, 100% of your resources are taken up by fixing problems. You lose happy customers, you can’t grow, and slowly but surely start going broke.
I don’t like the word “collaborators” due to its association with dodgy business practices in the past, but essentially that’s what you do. The correct business term I use is called “complimentors”, which comes from Porter’s 6 competitive forces model as the opposite of competitors in your industry.
You can partner with companies and promote their products or services through your blog, social media channels, or website. You earn a commission for each sale made through your affiliate links, which many businesses will pay 10%-20% for.
There is even a free WordPress plugin I can show you that creates the links for your affiliate marketers to use that lets you see how many people come to your website from a social media post, and whether the person converts to a customer (or downloads your lead generation content).
This is how I ensure affiliate marketing is not just a one way street if you do a contra deal instead of commission. It’s how we teach startups to track if they get a return on investment doing work in exchange for “exposure” of their new business.
Want to start a side gig right now?
Remember, the success of side gigs depends on factors like your skills, dedication, and market demand. Always research and assess the feasibility and earning potential of any side gig before committing significant time and resources.
This is what we do in the first 4 modules of our bootstrap startup program. We hold your hand through all of the research needed to write a startup business plan and launch your business and start making sales in under 4 weeks.
But the support doesn’t stop there. It only takes a couple of hours a week to develop your business plan. You tap into our 30+ year’s experience of starting up businesses to only do the things you absolutely need to do when starting out. Once you have a business plan, we have all the information we need to start money coming in. If you need to put more than a couple of hours a week, depending on your business model, you still have another 4 weeks to develop your business into a viable enterprise with our support.
A basic business plan is an essential step if you are going to start a business, even as a side gig to earn a bit of extra income, or introducing a new range of products/services when expanding an existing business.
Still not sure what to do now?
Let’s have a free 15-minute chat. Click HERE to book that.
Small businesses are the backbone of many economies worldwide, providing employment opportunities and driving economic growth. However, despite their potential, many small businesses fail within the first few years of operation. According to the Small Business Administration (in the USA), about 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, even in the world’s biggest market.
Click here to do our free skills check
The stats are similar in Australia. The failure figures tell a different story when you look into it and it depends on your definition of failure. These days the barriers of entry to start your own business are so low, that it is more likely that 20% registered an ABN, but just never generated any income from it.
30% Fail in their second year, and nearly 50% by their third year.
In this article, we will discuss the three main reasons small businesses fail and how they affect business viability.
This is not a “failure” these days as more and more businesses are set up for purpose rather than profit. Even not-for-profits need to generate income, and Social Traders say 72% of social enterprises give 100% of their profits to the causes they support. For many, just creating a business is a way to bring their dream to reality. So if that’s your goal, and definition of success, who says it’s not a real business?
And who says it’s not a real business if you don’t employ staff? It’s OK to create a job for yourself! in fact, 60% of all businesses registered in Queensland are contractors that don’t employ any staff. Another 25% employ less than 5 staff.
If you turn the percentages around, it means that 4 out of every 5 people who intend to start a business successfully do that for the first year. It’s when they try to run it and grow it over the next 5 years that they tend to stuff thing up.
As a well-known business coach, Dale Beaumont would say,
“you are not in the business of what you do. You are in the business of marketing what you do.”
Let’s investigate that…
Business development and marketing
The marketing mix is a concept used by marketers to describe the four main elements that make up a company’s marketing strategy. These four elements are often referred to as the 4 Ps of marketing. They are critical to business success, and if you have a weakness in any one of the 4 Ps as a business will fail 100% of the time if you can’t overcome it.
You may have strength in the other 3 Ps, but this will just drag out the impending doom. Systematically causing a drain on resources and creating weaknesses in other Ps. Accelerating the downward spiral that is obvious to outsiders, including customers.
The marketing mix elements are:
Product (or service)
This refers to the actual product or service being offered to customers. Companies must carefully consider the design, features, quality, and packaging of their products to meet the needs and preferences of their target customers.
Price
This is the biggest challenge for startups. It refers to the price at which the product or service is sold. Companies must set prices that are competitive and reflect the value of the product to the customer. Value is what a customer is willing to pay. The price is what you want customers to pay, usually based of the costs involved with providing the product to make a profit. Demand, from market research, can only be confirmed when people are willing to pay you to supply their demand.
However, “the customer rarely buys what the company thinks it’s selling, and they never buy products” – Peter Drucker. They are buying the experience of using you product, and how well it satisfies your customer’s needed and wants increases the value for money invested by customers. Money is just a consequence of providing value.
Place (or position in the market)
This refers to the distribution channels through which the product or service is sold, such as online stores, physical retail stores, or wholesalers. Companies must choose the right distribution channels to ensure that their products are available to customers where and when they want them.
Promotion
This refers to the marketing and advertising activities used to promote the product or service to customers. Companies must create effective advertising campaigns and promotional materials to create awareness and interest in their products among their target audience. If you don’t have any obvious weaknesses in the above 3 Ps, you have “developed” a business that you can now promote. But if this P is your weakness, your business will still fail. What is the point of having the best product in the world if people don’t know how to get it?
By carefully considering and managing these four elements of the marketing mix, companies can develop a successful marketing strategy that meets the needs of their target customers and helps them achieve their business goals.
How to avoid weaknesses in your 4 Ps from startup
To come up with solutions to problems caused by weaknesses, you first have to define the problem, and in fact if it is a problem for you. If the whole industry has the same problem, it creates an opportunity for you to get a competitive advantage if you can overcome it. This is known as you Unique Selling Point, or USP.
This is not just what you do that no one else does. That’s about your ego and wanting to be different. But if people don’t want to pay extra for it, it’s not a selling point. And it can be a root cause of the problems in your business defined below:
Poor Cash Flow – Price
Poor cash flow is one of the primary reasons why small businesses fail. Cash flow is the amount of money coming in and going out of a business. A negative cash flow occurs when a business spends more money than it earns, leading to a shortage of funds to cover expenses. When a business is not generating enough revenue to meet its expenses, it may have to resort to borrowing money, which can be challenging for small businesses that lack collateral or a strong credit history.
Poor cash flow can arise from several factors, such as low sales, high expenses, slow-paying customers, or poor inventory management. In many cases, small businesses struggle to manage their cash flow because they don’t have adequate financial management skills or tools to track their cash flow. As a result, they are unable to anticipate and mitigate cash flow problems, leading to a cycle of financial difficulties that eventually lead to the business’s failure.
Poor Strategy – Place
Another significant reason why small businesses fail is poor strategy. Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term goal. A good strategy outlines the business’s direction, goals, and how it intends to achieve them. Without a clear strategy, a business may struggle to attract customers, generate revenue, or remain competitive in the market.
A poor strategy can manifest in several ways, such as lack of market research, poor product positioning, or an inadequate marketing plan. For instance, a business that fails to research its target market may create a product that does not meet its customers’ needs or fails to identify its customers’ pain points. Similarly, a business that does not have a clear marketing plan may struggle to reach its target audience or generate sales.
Poor Products – Product
A third reason why small businesses fail is poor products. A business’s product or service is its main offering to customers. Poor products can lead to low sales, customer dissatisfaction, and loss of market share. Customers expect quality products that meet their needs and provide value for their money. If a business fails to meet these expectations, customers may switch to competitors, leading to a decline in revenue.
Poor products can arise from several factors, such as a lack of product development skills, insufficient quality control measures, or failure to adapt to changing market demands. For instance, a business that does not have a rigorous quality control process may produce defective products that fail to meet customer expectations. Similarly, a business that fails to adapt to new market trends may lose its competitive edge and fail to attract new customers.
Feel like this?
Early intervention is the key to success.
Small businesses are vital to many economies worldwide. However, they face several challenges that can lead to their failure.
Click here to do our free skills check
Small businesses are vital to many economies worldwide. However, they face several challenges that can lead to their failure. Poor cash flow, poor strategy, and poor products are the three main reasons why small businesses fail. To avoid these pitfalls, small businesses must have adequate financial management skills, a clear strategy, and a commitment to producing quality products that meet customer needs. With these measures in place, small businesses can thrive and contribute to the growth of the economy.
The core sensitivities refer to three prototypes of core emotional experiences that individuals may have in response to challenging situations. These three prototypes are esteem sensitivity, separation sensitivity, and physiological safety sensitivity.
Each of these sensitivities is associated with specific behaviours that individuals may exhibit in response to challenges or stressors. Having kindness and empathy for people in this situation is essential to building long-lasting, trusting, productive relationships in business.
So to put humanity back into business, without getting too personal and crossing boundaries, here are 3 emotional triggers that can cause weaknesses in each of the 4 Ps
Esteem Sensitivity – Poor Product
Esteem sensitivity refers to the emotional experience of feeling insecure or uncertain about one’s worth or value in a social context. Individuals with esteem sensitivity may exhibit behaviours such as:
A strong need for recognition, approval, and praise from others
A fear of rejection, criticism, or failure that may lead to avoidance of challenging situations
A tendency to overreact to perceived threats to their self-esteem, such as perceived slights or insults
A focus on external validation, such as material possessions or status symbols, as a way to boost self-esteem
A tendency to compare themselves to others and feel inferior or superior based on these comparisons
Separation Sensitivity – Poor Cashflow
Separation sensitivity refers to the emotional experience of feeling anxious or distressed when separated from attachment figures, such as parents or close friends. Individuals with separation sensitivity may exhibit behaviours such as:
A strong need for closeness and intimacy with attachment figures
A fear of abandonment or rejection that may lead to clingy or dependent behaviours
A tendency to seek reassurance and validation from attachment figures, especially in stressful situations
Difficulty tolerating alone time or being in unfamiliar environments
A tendency to over-analyze social situations and interpret neutral or ambiguous behaviour as a sign of rejection or abandonment
Safety Sensitivity – Poor Strategy
Safety sensitivity refers to the emotional experience of feeling unsafe or threatened in one’s environment, such as in response to physical danger or social threat. Individuals with physiological safety sensitivity may exhibit behaviours such as:
A heightened sensitivity to potential threats or danger in the environment
A tendency to avoid situations that are perceived as risky or potentially dangerous
Difficulty regulating physiological arousal, such as increased heart rate or sweating, in response to stressors
A focus on physical self-preservation, such as avoidance or defensive behaviours, as a response to perceived threats
A tendency to experience hypervigilance, or constantly scanning the environment for signs of danger or threat
The core sensitivities describe three prototypes of core emotional experiences that individuals may have in response to challenging situations. These sensitivities are associated with specific behaviours that individuals may exhibit, such as a strong need for external validation in esteem sensitivity, a fear of abandonment or rejection in separation sensitivity, and hypervigilance or defensive behaviours in physiological safety sensitivity. Understanding these sensitivities can help individuals recognize and regulate their emotional responses to stressors and improve their emotional well-being.
A secure attachment strategy – Promotion
If you have confidence in your 3 Ps above, you are less likely to be triggered into creating a weakness leading to a downward spiral in your business.
Fake it till you make it rarely works in an age where people are so exposed to on social media. While you may not believe, consciously, you have a weakness in one of the above 3 Ps, when you start to promote yourself on social media the crack in your Armor will soon appear.
How you handle the “keyboard warriors” is often the test of if you still have doubts about your 3 Ps. But if you feel secure and have confidence in your business development, you also develop a secure attachment strategy that will prevent you from getting dragged back into discussions that don’t serve your business needs.
A secure attachment strategy refers to a healthy and secure emotional bond that individuals have with their attachment figures, such as parents or caregivers. Individuals with a secure attachment strategy tend to have positive and trusting relationships with others, feel comfortable seeking help and support when needed, and have a positive sense of self-worth.
Behaviours of people who have a secure attachment strategy may include:
Seeking help and support:
Individuals with a secure attachment strategy tend to feel comfortable seeking help and support from others when needed, as they trust that others will be responsive and helpful. It’s not a sign of weakness, and I’ve found this is a surefire indicator that a person has a weakness in one or all of their 4 Ps if they struggle to ask for help or can’t delegate tasks when they do get help.
Feeling comfortable with intimacy:
Individuals with a secure attachment strategy tend to feel comfortable with intimacy and closeness with others, as they trust that their emotional needs will be met in relationships. In a business sense, this relates to having complementary skills. You can’t do everything (see point 1), and people with a secure attachment strategy know if they have Action, Thinking, or Personal skills as their strengths. They generally seek out 2 other people to collaborate with to fill in the gaps.
Being independent:
Individuals with a secure attachment strategy tend to feel confident and secure in their ability to be independent, while also valuing and maintaining close relationships with others. Doing everything yourself does not make you independent, in fact, this can project your own insecurities and break the cycle of trust. Again, see point 1.
Feeling comfortable with the emotional expression:
Individuals with a secure attachment strategy tend to feel comfortable expressing their emotions, as they trust that others will be accepting and supportive. Not showing emotion is a sign of low emotional intelligence in business. Fear can prevent you from doing things, but it can also save your life. If you are not comfortable in expressing your emotions, both positive and negative, look into help to overcome executive dysfunction.
Developing positive self-worth:
Individuals with a secure attachment strategy tend to have a positive sense of self-worth, as they have received consistent and positive feedback from attachment figures throughout their lives.
Overall, individuals with a secure attachment strategy tend to have healthy and positive relationships with others, feel comfortable seeking help and support when needed, and have a positive sense of self-worth. These behaviours reflect a healthy and secure emotional bond with attachment figures and the ability to form positive relationships with others throughout life.
If this blog resonates with you, and you want help or want to chat, book a call through our website HERE.
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of optimizing (improving and enhancing) a website or online content to improve its visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of SEO is to increase the quantity and quality of traffic to a website from search engines through organic search results.
Techniques used in SEO include optimizing the website’s structure and content, as well as building backlinks from other websites to the site being optimized.
The problem is that most businesses don’t set their websites right from the start with the basics, so they need to do some work before they can start doing SEO.
You can’t improve something that does not yet exist, so before we look at doing SEO, let’s have a look at your website and see how you’ve set it up.
Optimizing the website’s structure and content
Optimizing a website’s structure and content refers to the process of making sure that the website is easily crawlable and understandable by search engines. This includes a variety of technical and content-related best practices.
Some ways to optimize the website structure include:
Using a clear and consistent navigation structure
Using a hierarchy of headings (e.g., H1, H2, H3)
Creating a sitemap (see below)
Making sure the website is mobile-friendly
Ensuring that the website is accessible to people with disabilities
In terms of content optimization, there are several best practices to follow, such as:
Using relevant keywords throughout the website’s content
Creating high-quality, unique and informative content
By following these best practices, a website can be more easily indexed and understood by search engines, which can in turn improve the website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
It should be noted that SEO is an ever-evolving field, and changes in the algorithm of Search Engines could make some practices outdated, it’s important to keep updated with the latest trends and best practices.
Empty office waiting for clients to arrive
how do you create a “sitemap” on a WordPress website
A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website and is used by search engines to crawl and index your website more efficiently. There are several ways to create a sitemap for a WordPress website, including using a plugin or manually creating the file.
One popular method to create a sitemap on a WordPress website is to use a plugin, such as Google XML Sitemaps. Once the plugin is installed and activated, it will automatically create a sitemap of your website and update it as you add or remove content. This plugin also can ping the main search engines such as google, bing, yahoo and more for updating the crawler about the new content.
Another method to create a sitemap is by using online sitemap generator that can take your website url as input and generate a sitemap for it. Once you have the sitemap file, you can upload it to your website’s root directory and then you can submit it to search engines like Google Search Console.
It’s worth noting that many SEO plugins, like Yoast or All in One SEO includes the functionality of generating and updating sitemap for your website.
SEO processes SEO experts regularly use
There are many different SEO processes that SEO experts use to improve a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are a few examples:
Keyword research: Identifying the keywords and phrases that people are using to search for products or services similar to those offered on the website. These keywords are then used throughout the website’s content, meta tags, and URLs to help the site rank for those terms.
On-page optimization: Optimizing various elements of the website, such as title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and content. This can include using relevant keywords, ensuring that the site is mobile-friendly, and making sure that the site is accessible to people with disabilities.
Technical SEO: Analyzing and making sure that the website is technically sound and free of any errors that could prevent search engines from properly crawling and indexing the site. This can include implementing structured data (Schema.org) and making sure that the site is secure (by using HTTPS)
Backlink building: Obtaining links from other websites to the site being optimized. This is an important factor in improving a website’s visibility and ranking as search engines use links as a way to measure the credibility of a website.
Content creation: Creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that is relevant to the target audience. This can include blog posts, articles, infographics, videos and more.
Analytics tracking: Setting up and monitoring analytics tools, like Google Analytics, to track website traffic, bounce rate, time on site, and other data points to make informed decisions about website improvements.
Monitoring and Reporting: Regular monitoring of the website’s progress, keep an eye on the SERP ranking and report back to the client or stakeholders.
Where do you go from here?
These are just a few examples of SEO processes that SEO experts might use to improve a website’s visibility and ranking. SEO is a ever-evolving field and SEO experts would have to keep updated with the latest trends and techniques.
This is why SEO is one of the things Small Business owners regularly outsource to marketing professionals, particularly if you use Google ads. If you don’t get the SEO basics right, Google doesn’t know exactly who to send to your website.
Even if you pay more for your ads, this won’t help you get sales if your website can’t convert them into clients, and you also waste more money on retargeting to people that are not your ideal clients.
Small Businesses can’t afford to do that.
If you’d like to know more about what you can do right now, you can book a free chat HERE.
The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a strategic management tool that helps entrepreneurs and businesses visually describe, design, and pivot their business models. It was created by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur in their book Business Model Generation. The BMC allows businesses to map out the key components of their operations on a single page, making it easier to understand how all parts of the business interact.
The 9 Components of the Business Model Canvas:
1. Customer Segments:
Example Source: Market research reports, customer interviews, surveys, competitor analysis.
Explanation: Defines the different groups of people or organizations a business aims to serve. These are the target customers or users of the product or service.
2. Value Propositions:
Explanation: Describes the unique value or solution that the business provides to its customers. It explains why customers should choose your product or service over others.
Explanation: Outlines the different ways the business delivers its value proposition to its customers. This could include online platforms, physical stores, partnerships, or delivery methods.
Example Source: Customer journey mapping, logistics analysis, marketing strategy plans.
4. Customer Relationships:
Example Source: Customer service data, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, competitor relationship models.
Explanation: Describes the types of relationships a company establishes with specific customer segments, such as personal assistance, self-service, automated services, or community building.
5. Revenue Streams:
Explanation: Identifies how the business earns revenue from each customer segment. This could include sales of products or services, subscription fees, licensing, or advertising.
Explanation: Lists the essential assets that are necessary to deliver the value proposition, reach customers, and sustain the business. These can be physical, intellectual, human, or financial resources.
Example Source: Company inventory, intellectual property listings, workforce analysis, financial statements.
7. Key Activities:
Example Source: Operational workflows, supply chain management, service delivery processes.
Explanation: Describes the most important actions or processes a business must perform to create and deliver its value proposition.
8. Key Partnerships:
Explanation: Identifies the network of suppliers, partners, or other external organizations that help the business operate. Partnerships can include alliances with suppliers, distributors, or technology providers.
Example Source: Partnership agreements, supply chain data, industry networking events, legal documents.
9. Cost Structure:
Explanation: Details all the major costs involved in operating the business. This includes fixed and variable costs, costs of key resources, activities, and partnerships.
Example Source: Financial statements, expense tracking, budgeting forecasts.
How the Business Model Canvas is Used:
Business Planning: Helps new businesses design their operations and understand how each part of the business connects.
Pivoting and Innovation: Established businesses use the BMC to re-evaluate and adjust their models in response to market changes or new opportunities.
Team Alignment: Provides a shared understanding of the business model across teams, ensuring that everyone is aligned with the company’s objectives.
Investor Communication: Entrepreneurs can use the BMC to explain their business models to investors clearly and concisely.
Example of Filling in a BMC:
Imagine you’re creating a business that offers your typical home gardening services:
Customer Segments: Homeowners, rental property managers, elderly people needing help with garden maintenance.
Value Proposition: Convenient, affordable, and expert garden care that enhances the beauty of homes.
Channels: Website bookings, mobile app, phone service, community events.
Customer Relationships: Friendly, personalized service, loyalty programs for repeat customers.
Revenue Streams: Service fees, subscription plans, upselling products like fertilizers or tools.
Key Resources: Skilled gardeners, gardening tools, vehicles for transportation, proprietary software for managing bookings.
Key Partnerships: Tool suppliers, local nurseries, community organizations for referrals.
Cost Structure: Wages for gardeners, fuel costs, tool purchases, and marketing expenses.
By filling out the BMC, you gain a comprehensive view of your business and how to execute your strategy.
Introducing Local Home and Garden Repairs Marketing cooperative
Local Home and Garden Repairs is not your “typical” business setup. For a start, It’s a marketing cooperative, which means that it only generates revenue if it gets work for the service providers who join the cooperative. Think of it like having franchise support systems, but without the expensive franchise fees that are usually a large barrier to starting a new business in an industry.
Another way it is different is Local Home and Garden Repairs gives back to the community through a Social enterprise business model, which looks after the triple bottom lines of People and the planet, and the purpose of the business, which relates to the “Circular Economy”.
What’s The Circular Economy?
The Circular Economy looks after the physical environment by repurposing or reusing products that would normally go to the dump as landfills. It is also different to recycling or a 2nd hand market, although that may be part of it.
New products are reused first, and then find new uses for products when it comes to the end of its life-cycle. Products are then repaired until they are worn out to the point they no longer work, and are replaced by new products, and the old products are mostly recycled to make new products, and the cycle starts again.
This circular approach to products and resources aligns perfectly with the mission of Local Home and Garden Repairs. By extending the life of tools, equipment, and materials, we’re helping reduce waste while ensuring affordable service options for pensioners and low-income households.
At Local Home and Garden Repairs, our cooperative model also means that we’re supporting local tradespeople. Each service provider in the network is handpicked based on their commitment to quality and sustainability. As a member of the cooperative, they benefit from a steady flow of work within their community, while customers enjoy fixed, affordable pricing with the confidence that the work is being done by trusted professionals.
By choosing Local Home and Garden Repairs, you’re not just getting your lawn mowed or your garden maintained—you’re becoming part of a movement that values people, the planet, and purposeful business practices. We’re here to make a difference in our local communities, one garden at a time.
Business Model Canvas: Local Home and Garden Repairs
1.Customer Segments:
Primary: Pensioners, low-income carers, elderly homeowners, and their family members seeking affordable, reliable home and garden maintenance services.
Secondary: Community service providers (local tradespeople, gardeners, and handymen), and carers looking for trusted service providers for the people they care for.
Niche: Environmentally-conscious homeowners who prioritize sustainability and community-driven initiatives.
2. Value Proposition:
Trusted and Vetted Providers: Only uses trusted, vetted local tradespeople to ensure high-quality work.
Affordable and Fixed Pricing: Provides pensioners and low-income families with transparent, fixed-price services.
Local Community Focus: Supports the local economy by partnering with local service providers, ensuring jobs stay within the community.
Social Enterprise Model: Gives back by prioritizing affordable services for those in need while contributing to the community through environmental sustainability.
Circular Economy Commitment: Focuses on reducing waste by reusing, repairing, and recycling products and materials where possible, minimizing the environmental footprint.
3. Channels:
Website and Online Platform: Easy booking and information access via a user-friendly website.
Local Community Networks: Promotions through word-of-mouth, community groups, and local events to reach elderly homeowners and their carers.
Social Media: Targeted Facebook ads and social media presence to reach younger family members of the elderly and environmentally-conscious individuals.Partner Networks: Referrals through affiliates, aged care providers, local councils, and community support organizations, and full-service operators looking for easy to do regular local work.
Phone Support: Accessible phone service for customers who may not be comfortable with online bookings.
4. Customer Relationships:
Personalized Service: Provides a human touch, with empathetic customer service focused on the needs of elderly and vulnerable individuals.
Trust and Reliability: Building long-term relationships by being a trustworthy provider that prioritizes customer satisfaction.
Loyalty Programs: Rewards for repeat customers and discounted rates for carers or those booking multiple services.
Community Involvement: Active participation in local events and charity activities to reinforce trust and connection within the community.
5. Revenue Streams:
Service Fees: Fixed prices for basic home and garden repairs and maintenance “do and charge” services with no upsells, making the cost predictable for customers. Full-service options add on extra costs.
Subscription Plans: Monthly or seasonal subscription services for regular home or garden maintenance at a reduced rate. 3-star service options and priced accordingly.
Social Enterprise Grants: Possible funding from government programs or non-profit organizations supporting the circular economy and community welfare initiatives.
Partnerships: Revenue through partnerships with local businesses that provide equipment, tools, or eco-friendly products for home use.
6. Key Resources:
Local Service Providers: Skilled tradespeople, gardeners, and handymen who are members of the cooperative and share the business’s social and environmental values.
Digital Platform: An efficient booking and management platform that matches service requests with local providers based on location.
Sustainability Network: Partnerships with recycling centers, eco-friendly product suppliers, and repair services to support the circular economy.
Marketing and Community Engagement Teams: Teams responsible for community outreach, marketing campaigns, and customer relationship management.
7. Key Activities:
Service Delivery: Coordinating and delivering home and garden services using local tradespeople and a fixed pricing structure.
Provider Vetting and Onboarding: Ensuring service providers are vetted, trained, and aligned with the business’s sustainability and social values.
Circular Economy Practices: Implementing strategies to repair, repurpose, or recycle materials and products, minimizing waste in home and garden services.Community Engagement: Actively participating in local events, charities, and workshops to stay connected with the target market and promote sustainability.
Marketing and Promotion: Promoting the business through digital marketing, local community groups, and word-of-mouth recommendations.
8. Key Partnerships:
Local Tradespeople and Service Providers: Engaging trusted local providers who deliver quality services within their postcode areas.
Community and Government Programs: Collaborating with organizations that support pensioners, carers, and those focused on environmental sustainability.
Recycling and Repair Centers: Partnerships with recycling depots and repair centers to support the circular economy initiative and reduce waste.Product Suppliers: Collaborating with local suppliers of eco-friendly or refurbished home and garden products that align with the company’s sustainable values.
Local Councils and Non-Profits: Partnering with local councils, aged care facilities, and non-profit organizations to offer subsidized services for those in need.
9. Cost Structure:
Service Provider Wages: Payments to local service providers, based on cooperative agreements that ensure fair wages and benefits.
Marketing and Outreach: Costs for digital marketing, local advertising, and community outreach programs.
Operational Costs: Expenses related to the digital platform, booking system, and phone support infrastructure.Sustainability Initiatives: Costs associated with recycling, repurposing, and repair activities to maintain the circular economy model.
What Makes Local Home and Garden Repairs Different?
Triple Bottom Line Focus: Unlike traditional businesses, Local Home and Garden Repairs emphasizes the welfare of people, the planet, and purposeful growth through a social enterprise model.
Community-Centric Approach: The cooperative only succeeds if it benefits both the local tradespeople and the community it serves, with profits reinvested into creating a sustainable and socially responsible operation.
Circular Economy Practices: Most competitors are not focused on sustainability, but Local Home and Garden Repairs actively reduce waste through repair and reuse, distinguishing itself from businesses focused solely on cost-cutting and quick fixes.
Interested in starting your own local service business?
Go to the Local Home and Garden Repairs website and see if your postcode is still available.
Are you ready to take control of your future and start your own business? Whether you’re over 55 with a wealth of life experience, under 30 and tech-savvy, or a mum returning to the workforce, the Inception Network Australia’s upcoming startup course is designed for you! We’re excited to announce a new group intake starting next month, focusing on helping you launch a sole trader or micro-business (with four or fewer employees) in Australia.
Spring into your new business and create rapid growth as part of our September Group intake.
What Sets This Course Apart?
Our course is not just about getting your business up and running—it’s part of a formal skills recognition program in Australia. Throughout 4 to 8 weeks, you’ll not only start making money but also gain formal skills recognition from the Australian education system.
Upon completion as part of this course at no extra cost, you can apply for certification in the BSBSS00102 Micro Business Skill Set, including BSBESB301 Investigate Business Opportunities and BSBESB401 Research and Develop Business Plans. Our training partner, Skills Recognition International, RTO 32373 issues this certification.
This formal recognition is especially valuable for migrants looking to gain employment and experience in the Australian market, as the Australian Government classified 88% of all businesses in Australia as micro-businesses. By participating in this program, you’ll be equipped with the credentials and practical experience needed to thrive in this vital segment of the economy.
Here is a list of the top 5 businesses in high demand at the moment.
Tap into our 30+ years of business startup experience and industry mentors to get your business up and running and making sales in the first 4 weeks.
1. Online Business Managers
Online Business Managers (OBMs) are essential for businesses looking to streamline operations and manage their online presence. As an OBM, you can offer services like:
Project Management: Overseeing and coordinating projects to ensure they meet deadlines and budgets.
Operational Support: Implementing systems and processes to improve business efficiency.
Team Management: Leading virtual teams and ensuring effective communication and productivity.
Premium Services Customers Pay For:
Custom business automation systems.
Comprehensive project management packages.
Tailored team-building and leadership strategies.
2. Support Businesses for NDIS and Aged Care System
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Aged Care system are growing fields where support businesses are in high demand. As a service provider, you could offer:
Plan Management: Helping participants manage their NDIS funds effectively.
Support Coordination: Connecting clients with the services they need and ensuring they achieve their goals.
In-home Care Services: Providing personal care and support within the home environment.
Premium Services Customers Pay For:
Specialized NDIS plan management software and consultation.
Tailored support coordination packages for complex needs.
In-home care services with personalized care plans.
3. Starting Your Own Law Practice
Launching a solo law practice allows you to offer specialized legal services that cater to niche markets. Some popular services include:
Family Law: Providing advice and representation in divorce, custody, and related matters.
Estate Planning: Helping clients with wills, trusts, and estate management.
Business Law: Offering legal advice for small business setups and operations.
Start Your Law Practice
Premium Services Customers Pay For:
Comprehensive family law packages including mediation services.
Tailored estate planning consultations with ongoing support.
Business legal retainer services for startups and small enterprises.
4. White labelling Marketing Services to Agencies
Contractors get paid for outcomes, no matter how short or long you take.
If you’re skilled in marketing, you can offer white-label services that agencies can rebrand as their own. This includes:
Copywriting: Creating compelling content that agencies can use across various platforms.
Website Setup and Management: Building and maintaining websites for agency clients.
Social Media Management: Managing and growing social media accounts for brands.
If you’re skilled in marketing, you can offer white-label services that agencies can rebrand as their own. This includes:
Copywriting: Creating compelling content that agencies can use across various platforms.
Website Setup and Management: Building and maintaining websites for agency clients.
Social Media Management: Managing and growing social media accounts for brands.
Premium Services Customers Pay For:
High-conversion sales copy packages.
Complete website design and SEO services.
Full-service social media management with analytics and reporting.
5. Home and Garden Repairs and Maintenance
With our marketing co-op, “Local Home and Garden Repairs,” you can tap into a market that consistently needs reliable services. Consider offering:
General Handyman Services: Fixing and maintaining homes, from plumbing to electrical work.
Garden Landscaping and Maintenance: Designing and maintaining gardens and outdoor spaces.
Home Renovations: Providing renovation services to improve home functionality and aesthetics.
With our marketing co-op, “Local Home and Garden Repairs,” you can tap into a market that consistently needs reliable services. Consider offering:
General Handyman Services: Fixing and maintaining homes, from plumbing to electrical work.
Garden Landscaping and Maintenance: Designing and maintaining gardens and outdoor spaces.
Home Renovations: Providing renovation services to improve home functionality and aesthetics.
Premium Services Customers Pay For:
Customized home renovation packages.
Specialized garden design and landscaping services.
Full-service home maintenance contracts.
Why Join Our Course?
Our startup course is designed to empower you to take action. With a focus on formal skills recognition and practical business setup, it’s perfect for anyone looking to enter the Australian business landscape. Whether you’re new to business or looking to pivot your career, we’ll equip you with the tools, skills, and confidence you need to succeed.
Learn how our skills check makes sure you do only what it takes to start earning money.
If you are accepted into the group intake, you’ll get $100 off the cost of our normal course. The group intake is limited to businesses based in Southeast Queensland only as you will need to have face-to-face meetings to access local support and referral networks to ensure your successful launch.
Ready to start? Take the first step by completing our free Skills Check on our website here. Let’s make your business dream a reality! Applications must close on Sunday 8th of September for this group intake as the course starts the following week.
To apply, do our free skills check as your first step to starting your new business
Today’s talk is about workforce planning for micro businesses and why you absolutely need to do it.
Scroll down to the end to view the webinar, If you prefer reading, here is a summary…
“The first question that I normally get is, “What is a micro business? Is it like a small business?” Well, yes, it’s a type of small business. When you look at how businesses are categorized in Australia, you see that a small business is any business employing fewer than 19 staff. But within that category, there are other types of businesses that make up the general population of all businesses called Micro-Business. This includes self-employment opportunities such as entrepreneurs, sole traders, and contractors working in professional services.
It’s important to note that these figures exclude people in the gig economy because the Australian government figures from the ABS only count businesses registered for GST. So, they are not just side gigs. Interestingly, 61.2% of all businesses in Australia do not employ any staff. However, this figure can be misleading because these businesses often employ a bookkeeper, a virtual assistant, or someone to handle their marketing and SEO. Technically, they might be classified as non-employing businesses, but they fit into the category of micro-businesses, which are defined as any business in Australia employing between one and four staff.
When you reach businesses employing 5 to 19 staff, they are defined as small businesses. Currently, small business employers make up 8.9% of businesses in Australia. Before COVID and the increase in automation, that figure was around 12%. Microbusinesses made up around 24%, and self-employment was about 59 to 60%. Because of automation, many jobs in smaller businesses have been contracted out, transitioning them from small businesses to micro businesses.
As micro businesses grow, they have different needs. This seminar focuses on workforce planning for micro businesses, showing you the models and how you can implement them. Many employers make the mistake of trying to do everything themselves. Training often targets small, medium, and large businesses, particularly in the qualification framework. There is a micro business skill set, but it only includes two units at the Cert III or Cert IV level of new business and entrepreneurship.
When starting up businesses, people often think of the startup game in universities focusing on young people under 30. However, the average age of a business owner is now 50. Fifty years ago, around 15% of businesses were owned by people under 30, while about 30% were owned by those over 50. Now, only 6% of businesses are owned by people under 30, a figure that is slowly increasing towards 8%. Many under-30 business owners do not register for GST, so they do not appear in these statistics until they start earning a full-time income.
Moving on, we will discuss workforce planning using the Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent and Important Matrix. Microbusinesses generally have four types of people in their organization. The business owner handles urgent and important tasks. As the business grows and you delegate tasks, you can hire someone to handle urgent tasks, often using automation and digital technology. This is where the synergy between under-30s and over-50s works well, as the younger generation is comfortable with technology and AI, while the older generation provides strategic insights.
As your business grows, you will need people to handle more critical tasks such as strategic thinking, creativity, adaptation, and innovation. These are the important tasks that help your business grow. Trainees, casual workers, or partners often handle urgent tasks, earning an income while discovering what they love to do. As they gain experience, they may take on more important tasks, becoming proficient and potentially business leaders. Having someone handle both urgent and important tasks allows the business owner to focus on working on the business rather than in it.
For a business to thrive, it needs employees with various skills. Personal skills include learning, initiative, ethics, empathy, and cultural awareness. Thinking skills encompass critical thinking, creativity, adaptation, and innovation. Action skills involve using digital technology, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and customer focus.
The next two sections are just an overview of what we go through in detail in the full video above. We could spend a whole course on these 2 parts, but for now, lets just start with the end in mind and come back to it after your have developed your workforce plan.
The last part of the video relates to how you can use the talent you bring into your business to specific job roles to scale up, using your workforce plan as a launchpad. It will help you craft vision and mission statements that will attract the right type of talent you are looking for to help you along on your business journey.
Understanding buyer behaviour is crucial for sales and marketing strategies. The five steps of buyer behaviour include need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase experience. A solid understanding of these steps helps in crafting effective marketing strategies.
To achieve sustainability, businesses must consider the triple bottom line: people, planet, and purpose. A sustainable business looks after the environment, and its people, and fulfils its purpose. Workforce planning models help determine the type of people needed for different aspects of the business, such as product development, market placement, and promotion of the business’s purpose.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jobs@inception.net.au.
For more free training, visit our website inception.net.au/blogs where you can find detailed blogs explaining the topics discussed here.
I’m Brett from Inception Network, and I look forward to talking to you soon.
Click play to watch the full video from the Founder of Inception Network, Brett O’Connor
A dyslexic and a blind lady walk into a cafe… it sounds like the start of a joke, but access to effective digital communication it’s no joke for over half of the Australian population that is now living with some form of impairment.
So what do you get when a dyslexic and a blind lady meet up for a chat? With absolutely nothing in common except for the desire to put humanity back into business and just treat people like human beings?
A blog, A podcast, and a YouTube video. Content created with the use of AI and existing technology that is freely available to make life easier and grow small businesses. But most people don’t know how to use it.
Startup Group
Video recording: Samsung A34 phone
transcript: YouTube
Captions: Clipchamp
Blog editing: ChatGPT
Interviewer: I’m here with Narelle Gatti, and I’d like her to explain her role.
Narelle: I’m actually a digital accessibility auditor, and I work with digital access solutions and assistive technology to remove communication barriers on websites, digital content, and various documents.
Interviewer: Is this similar to SEO?
Narelle: It’s different from SEO, but it complements SEO efforts. We focus on websites, PDFs, emails, and computer-generated documents. We provide techniques and strategies to ensure that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can access and understand these documents and make informed decisions.
Interviewer: So, it’s about inclusivity for all, not just those with disabilities?
Narelle: Yes, exactly. We consider a wide range of users, including those with zooming, hearing, sight, and cognitive impairments, as well as brain injuries and neurodiverse individuals. Many people rely on captioning tools, and if documents aren’t designed with accessibility in mind, these tools can’t be used effectively.
Interviewer: So, in terms of accessibility, it’s not just about accommodating people with disabilities. It also benefits search engines like Google.
Narelle: Absolutely. Following digital accessibility guidelines not only helps users but also benefits search engines like Google. They rely on text-based content, so by incorporating descriptive text, we help Google understand and index content, even images. For example, a simple description of an image can make it accessible to Google’s algorithms.
How did you get into this field?
Narelle: It’s an interesting journey. I used to work for a company called Spark Solutions about 15 or 16 years ago. I was diagnosed with a severe eye condition, which eventually led to significant vision impairment. About four or five years into the job, I started struggling with accessibility. We sought help from Vision Australia, and that’s when Mark Muscat, co-founder of our business, came in to teach me assistive technology tools. However, these tools were limited by the structure of documents, which is where our focus shifted.
Interviewer: So, it’s not just about having the tools; it’s about structuring documents correctly?
Narelle: Exactly. Having tools is essential, but they rely on well-structured documents. If a document’s structure isn’t suitable, even the best tools won’t be effective. It’s like having a chair with a missing leg.
Businesses have a fear of using technology and AI. Why do you think that is?
Narelle: It often comes down to a fear of change. Many business owners are of a certain age and might not be tech-savvy. They see AI as a significant change and are hesitant to embrace it without a clear strategy.
Interviewer: So, businesses need to understand that accessibility isn’t just about accommodating people with disabilities but also about good communication and structure.
Narelle: Absolutely. Accessibility is about ensuring that all customers, regardless of their abilities, can access and understand information to make informed decisions. It’s not just a matter of sending information via email; it’s about structuring that communication effectively.
Interviewer: You mentioned that the tools for accessibility are already present in software programs. Is it a matter of people not knowing how to use them?
Narelle: Yes, exactly. These tools are readily available, but many people don’t know how to use them effectively. That’s where we come in, providing guidance and expertise to make these tools work for everyone.
How to approach accessibility
Interviewer: So, rather than creating specific programs for individual needs, your approach is to create a program that can address a wide range of situations.
Narelle: Yes, that’s correct. Instead of reinventing the wheel for each situation, we aim to create a program that can handle the majority of cases effectively.
Interviewer: You also mentioned standards and guidelines. Can you elaborate on that?
Narelle: Certainly. In Australia, there are established digital accessibility standards and guidelines maintained by Standards Australia. These are backed by the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, enforced by the Human Rights Commission. Ensuring accessibility also aligns with international human rights conventions.
Interviewer: So, accessibility is not just a matter of inclusivity; it’s also a business imperative?
Narelle: Precisely. Accessibility benefits everyone and is essential for businesses to thrive and meet their obligations.
Why would someone visit a place if they can’t read the menu? They can’t make a decision about what to eat. This could be due to the choice of fonts used. For example, a menu with dark text on a background with insufficient contrast can be hard to read. When menus are difficult to read, customers tend not to return. It’s almost as if they are no longer thinking outside the box; they have become the box that you have to fit into.
Who does accessibility affect?
Narelle: I’d love to know the percentage of people with perfect vision, hearing, touch, smell, and mobility. I believe it’s a very tiny percentage. When you know someone who works with accessibility, like Mark and this company, it’s because you’ve encountered accessibility challenges. People might suggest solutions, but if you’re content with the way things are, you might resist change. However, it’s not about more effort; it’s about doing things differently.
Think about how technology has evolved. We used to highlight entire words and go through a process to copy the text. Now, it’s as simple as Ctrl+C for copy. Similarly, email and mobile phones have become everyday tools. Starting a business or adapting to technology isn’t as challenging as some may think. If you can use email, Facebook, and Google, you have the tech skills needed for many aspects of business.
Even if you don’t want to start a business, it’s essential to learn about digital accessibility standards. For instance, if you have an image, right-clicking to view alt text and describing the image in under 100 characters can make content more accessible. However, many businesses are reluctant to invest in accessibility, often due to perceived costs. However, the cost of not making content accessible is lost sales, a significant detriment.
Changes to business due to COVID
Interviewer: During the COVID-19 pandemic, some businesses couldn’t afford to go online, which emphasized the importance of accessibility. But you can build a website with fewer formatting skills than creating a PowerPoint presentation. SEO practices are essential because search engines like Google rely on text-based content, and accessibility helps them understand content.
Narelle: One critical aspect of accessibility is proper grammar and punctuation in captions. If someone with a hearing impairment relies on captions, incorrect grammar or misplaced punctuation can change the meaning and message, making it crucial to double-check captions.
When it comes to people, we’re all different. Treating everyone with respect and acknowledging differences is essential. We may have varying needs and opinions, but we can agree to disagree respectfully.
Confidence in being oneself is crucial, and it’s something that takes time to develop. Making mistakes is part of the learning process, and it’s essential to learn from them and move on. Additionally, it’s crucial for both parties to acknowledge and accept mistakes, fostering understanding and growth.
The world has changed, with the introduction of AI and assistive technology. However, assistive technology has been around since the birth of computers. While it may be new to some, having empathy and understanding for these changes is essential. Learning how to adapt to new technologies and the evolving business landscape is part of the journey.
Failing forward
Interviewer: Errors are a part of learning, as Narelle mentioned. It’s essential to admit when something isn’t accessible and learn from it. Consider starting with a clean slate when rebranding, launching new functions, or releasing new products. Follow a startup process, like the seven steps, and reach out to Narelle to learn how to make it accessible.
Narelle: Once you know how to do it, it becomes as natural as using Ctrl+C.
Starting with the end goal in mind is crucial. While accessibility may stand out for some, others might not notice it until they need it. It’s not a matter of cost for some but a challenge to change habits. We hope that people develop accessibility as a habit.
I heard about the Matildas, who have a deaf player, playing soccer. She’s not letting anything hold her back, and that’s fantastic.
Contacting Narelle…
Interviewer: It’s been great chatting with you, finding common ground, and learning from each other. If you want to get in touch with Narelle, click her name for the link. She’s passionate about accessibility and eager to connect with others who share her passion. It’s all about making life easier. Thank you very much for your time!
The concept of “placement” is one of the elements in the traditional marketing mix, also known as the 4Ps of marketing. The marketing mix consists of Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, and it’s a framework that businesses use to develop a strategic approach to marketing their products or services.
In this context, “place” refers to the distribution strategy, which includes getting the product to the right place at the right time to be easily accessible to the target customers. Which also determines your place in a competitive market.
Place (Distribution):
“Place” in the marketing mix refers to the strategies and channels a business uses to make its products or services available to the target customers. So, as a strategy, has more to do with your position in the market than a physical (or even virtual) location.
It involves decisions related to the distribution network, retail locations, and transportation, including transportation of data as well as data is the most traded commodity in the world (now ahead of Oil/Gas and coffee as numbers 2 and 3 respectively).
Add in inventory management and logistics, and you can quickly see how being an Entrepreneur becomes more of a full-time job than the laptop lifestyle sitting at the beach that you see on social media.
The goal of the “place” element is to ensure that customers can conveniently and efficiently access the product, which helps in maximizing sales and customer satisfaction. Entrepreneurs tend to use the “jobs to be done” theory, the practical application developed from the theory of disruptive innovation (Christensen). At its core, is the belief that customers don’t buy products, they hire them to do a job for the customer, which is the benefit of buying a product from you (it solves the customer’s problem).
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself
Peter Drucker
In business development, part of the startup process, your placement in the market determines the price, so must be decided first.
The price is then set by looking at Porter’s 6 forces model of profitability. If the strongest market force is the power of the buyer, then it drives prices down. So, you may not have a viable product.
However, if you place your product to do something no one else can, known as your unique selling point (USP), to power moves to the suppliers. As there is no comparison for customers, you can charge whatever you like.
I often hear people say, “I know what I’m worth, and I won’t drop my price”, but this is a fatal mistake. It is usually an indication of esteem sensitivity, one of the 3 psychosocial hazards behind the 3 reasons all businesses fail (as we explained in this blog).
It is usually followed up by “but my business model is ‘like’ Amazon, for [insert your industry here]”. If your product was really so good, wouldn’t Amazon (or Elon Musk) already be selling it?
Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are NOT in the room
Business owners photo
Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder)
Entrepreneurs and Distribution Strategy:
The place in the marketing mix is an entrepreneur’s primary job role. So, for successful ones, this is their primary skill set – Thinking skills.
They normally outsource the rest (personal and action skills) as part of their implementation plan, which is why “key partners” is point #1 on a Business Model Canvas.
Most entrepreneurs still use the diffusion of Innovation to set timeframes for their dreams.
A dream is just a plan without a timeframe
Brett O’Connor, founder of Inception Network, cat lover.
Entrepreneurs need to carefully plan their distribution strategy to ensure their products reach customers effectively. The bigger the problems they solve, the more money they make.
It’s simple, but by no means easy. Otherwise, everyone would do it. Here’s how they approach it:
Channel Selection: Entrepreneurs determine the most appropriate distribution channels for their products. They might choose between direct distribution (selling directly to customers) or indirect distribution (using intermediaries such as retailers, wholesalers, or distributors).
Retail Partnerships: Entrepreneurs might collaborate with retailers or online marketplaces to showcase and sell their products. This could involve negotiations, creating appealing displays, and providing promotional support.
Online Presence: In the digital age, having an online presence is crucial. Entrepreneurs set up e-commerce websites, partner with online retailers, or use social media platforms to sell and promote their products.
Geographic Reach: Entrepreneurs decide where their products will be available geographically. This could involve targeting specific regions, countries, or even global markets.
Logistics and Inventory: Entrepreneurs manage the logistical aspects of getting products from manufacturing to distribution centres to retail locations or customers. They also need to balance inventory levels to meet demand without excessive overstocking.
Customer Convenience: The distribution strategy should prioritize customer convenience. Entrepreneurs aim to make products easily accessible, whether through brick-and-mortar stores, online platforms, or both.
After-Sales Support: Entrepreneurs consider how customers will access after-sales services, warranties, repairs, or returns. A well-structured distribution network can aid in providing efficient support.
Data and Analytics: Entrepreneurs often use data and analytics to track the performance of different distribution channels. This helps them make informed decisions to optimize their distribution strategy over time.
In essence, “place” within the marketing mix involves the strategic decisions entrepreneurs make to ensure their products are available to customers when and where they need them. It’s a critical aspect of a comprehensive marketing strategy that helps entrepreneurs effectively reach their target audience and drive sales.
How do you know who will pay for what?
This is something, again, most people struggle with. So having an Avatar in the previous step can usually help.
As avatars don’t buy products, people do, entrepreneurs now use their research in the previous step to find their first 5 customers. Why is 5 the magic number? To me, this seems to have more to do with putting humanity (back) into business. more to do with motivational psychology than mathematics:
we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with
Jim Rohn
Known as “foundation customers”, they are not your target market, and you don’t ask them what price they would pay. Early Adopters will find your target market, and what problems their friends have that need solving.
Early adopters are motivated by being the first. As Simon Sinek says, “They will line up all night to be the first to get the new iPhone”, when you could walk in next week and walk out with one straight away. They are also motivated to find the people who will pay 3 times more for a new product that is only twice as good, those people are the avatar you are looking for.
australian-cash-100
So, how do Entrepreneurs do it?
They have a process for everything. “SOPs” are part of scalability! And “monetizing” is the Entrepreneur catchphrase.
So, from what I’ve seen over 30 years in business, the process of setting a price for a brand-new innovative products goes something a little like this:
Talk about what you believe, and only talk to others that believe what you believe, as Sinek would (again) say, start with why you do what you do. Steve Jobs said “We believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently” (AKA, neurodiverse?)
If you have to convince them why they should work with you, walk away. The late majority are the sceptics at the other end of the mass market you are looking for. Come back to them later on
If they ask the “how” questions, how do I get it, how do I use it, you have what HR executives would call “management buy-in”. Empathic resonance is a key emotion that is an indicator that a customer is ready to make a purchase as part of the 5 step buyer behaviour process.
That does not mean you are there yet. What you are looking for is the “what if” questions. What if [this] happens, etc. They are asking can you adapt it to another situation. Not their situation, early adopters don’t have problems, but they would have just thought of a friend that you have a solution for. They can ride in like a white knight on a bay mare, just like The Witcher, played by the same actor who was also Superman.
This is where the horse-trading begins. They don’t want to pay, anything, but FOMO kicks in. But they will, as a free trial, in exchange for a testimonial. The line you use now is “I don’t think you are a potential customer, but maybe you know someone who is”?… “WELL, as matter of fact, I DO”, and just like that, hook, line, and sinker, you know their all in.
But it doesn’t end there…
You are teaching people how to fish, so they can feed themselves for life. You are NOT teaching fish how to bite.
The 2 key questions you need to teach foundation customers to ask their friends are:
Is this a solution to your problem?
What would you pay for it?
What would you be willing to pay extra for?
See what I did there? Gave you extra value, right? No. If you don’t get a yes to the first one, no point asking the next 2. If you don’t ask the qualifying question, then you are not fishing for information. You are teaching fish how to bite, and they MUST (Make Up Stuff Too) answer questions that are irrelevant to them.
This turnaround strategy works for startups too, or businesses restarting. This is effectively what many businesses are still trying to do after COVID. Particularly if they “rebranded” in the downtime during lockdown, which could be a factor in why 43% of all businesses failed to make a profit last year.
Step 3, in this process (again, Entrepreneurs love a good process), is “think money in, not money out. Which is why you ask question 2 in the above section. They will give you a list as long as your arm of what they will pay for. This is known as a “point of parity”, and Identifies what they see as the competition charge. However, this price places you in a crowded market and opens up the threat of substitution as a strong force against you.
Step 4 is “Ask the right customers the right questions“. Which we covered above already.
What’s next?
Step 5 out of 5 in the turnaround process above is “let the inmates run the asylum”. Sounds crazy, right?
But this is when a business transitions from being a startup into a going concern. The concern is, in a post-COVID economy, businesses have to go through this process again and again if they want to survive.
Not the full startup process but look at the data on the implementation of your placement strategy, in what many in business know as a 90-day “reset” (of goals and desired outcomes).
Find the wrong customers, in the business development phase and it will create a weakness in one of your 4 Ps that is difficult to recover from. Your business is doomed from the start, 100% of the time.
Customers are important, but not urgent. I think Henry Ford explained this best when he created a production line that is still used for manufacturing successful products today.
If I’d listened to my customers, I would have made faster horses.
Henry ford
If you’d like to chat about any of this, and how we can help you develop your business, click below and book a discovery call. Or if you don’t like talking to people, send an email. Whatever works for yo is fine with us too.
Inception Network, click to contact us.
About Inception Network: Inception Network was founded five years ago with the mission to create self-employment opportunities for individuals. It focuses on supporting contractors and sole traders to grow their business so they receive regular work and can afford to put on staff to help.
About Business and Jobs Expos: The Business and Jobs Expos, formerly known as the Small Business Expos, have been successfully running for the past 8 years. These expos provide a platform for all businesses, Governments, education, and training providers to connect under one roof (three times this year), to collaborate and explore support options for local small businesses to grow across southeast Queensland. To book your spot at the next B2B marketplace Expo, go to their website.
Of course, we asked ChatGPT to answer that question. I’ll put its response below as to why it happens, but the solution is a lot simpler than that. In fact, in our experience, all of this can be avoided if people would just do what is now about 2 hours of work “on” their business right at the start. It’s usually too late after that.
When does a business start?
When you first get paid to do what you love. Which most people find out by accident. How often do you see a post on social media of someone’s handy work and someone asks where can you buy that?
Or as we call it, Business Inception starts when you start to believe you can get paid to do what you love, even if it just getting a job. It’s not imposter syndrome that prevents people from starting a business. In fact, that’s an advantage when starting a business these days as we explain in one of our other blogs.
It’s not out of fear of having to put on staff as the next common reason for not starting a “real” business. The fact is, in this case in Australia, over 60% of all registered businesses are deemed “non-employing” businesses. Sole traders, or partners, working under an ABN. And with an average turnover of $220,000 per year, confirmed for us by the ATO, ABS, and the Queensland treasury department, that’s not a low-paying job.
You can have a six-figure income, but profit includes the 2 figures after the decimal point. This means that on average, again in Australia, businesses only make 10% profit, and the small business ombudsman says last year 43% of all businesses didn’t make a profit. So if you don’t have financial literacy skills, you would make more money if you were on Job Seeker with Centrelink.
People that start a business are not as affected by rising costs of living, or the rental house crisis in southeast Queensland, so this is not a reason stopping people from starting a business. They probably even get a bigger tax deduction because of those rising costs as most would have a home office set up. Again, the fact is, COVID made it more acceptable to work from home, which is different to doing remote work (under fair work, WHS, and ATO definitions), but home many of you reading this understand that?
It’s even easier now than ever before in history, to create a side gig income and multiple streams of income. And an ABN stands for Australian Business Number, so no matter what you do, if you have an ABN, it is a real business.
Why don’t more people do it? I don’t know!
But here’s what ChatGPT thinks…
ChatGPT’s “Whys”
The phenomenon you described (in the blog title) can happen for several reasons:
Passion vs. Obligation: When people start making money from a hobby, they often enjoy what they do, and it doesn’t feel like work initially. However, as they turn it into a business, they might feel obligated to maintain a certain level of productivity and consistency, even when their passion starts to wane. This shift from doing something they love to something they must do can lead to increased workload and stress.
Lack of Business Experience: Hobbies and businesses require different skill sets. While someone might excel at their hobby, they might lack the knowledge and experience to effectively run a business. This can lead to inefficiencies, poor decision-making, and increased workload as they try to figure things out.
Scale and Growth: When a hobby turns into a business, there is often a desire to scale and grow. This means dealing with more customers, managing inventory, handling marketing, and other aspects of running a business. Scaling up can be challenging and require more effort than initially expected.
Customer Expectations: As a hobby becomes a business, customers’ expectations may change. They might expect faster response times, better customer service, and a more professional approach. Meeting these expectations can require more time and effort.
Administrative and Legal Responsibilities: Running a business involves administrative tasks like bookkeeping, taxes, and legal compliance, which can be time-consuming and burdensome.
Competition and Market Demands: As a hobby transforms into a business, it enters a competitive market. To stay relevant and successful, individuals may need to invest more time and effort into differentiating themselves and meeting market demands.
Pressure to Monetize: Turning a hobby into a business might be driven by the desire to make money, leading individuals to take on more work and opportunities to increase revenue.
Balancing Passion and Profitability: Sometimes, turning a hobby into a business requires making compromises to make it profitable. This could mean taking on projects that are less enjoyable but financially rewarding, leading to an increase in workload.
It’s important to note that while some individuals may experience these challenges, others manage to strike a balance between their passion and running a successful business. The key lies in understanding the demands of running a business, seeking guidance from experienced entrepreneurs, and finding ways to preserve the joy and enthusiasm that made the hobby enjoyable in the first place.
Thanks for that Chat (Australians shorten everything)! It even alludes to how to overcome these issues, even though I didn’t ask it that. Go AI, thinking for us and all that.
This raises the question we’ll answer in our next section, “What do experienced Entrepreneurs (or mentors) do?”.
Simple, to me. Ironically, they avoid doing too much work. That is how they are able to keep doing what they do without burning out.
How to avoid doing “too much” work
I often hear business coaches say, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. More than just a cliché, or as a friend of mine said on her LinkedIn page today, “Indecision is a decision” to do nothing about your current situation.
I believe, when it comes to business, the only what it can truly fail is to do nothing. And the Government seems to agree. It’s not that 30% of businesses fail in the first year (according to government figures), they just don’t do anything about it.
The opposite of a good decision is not a bad decision. Indecision is the opposite of both.
The first tip for avoiding too much work takes about 2 hours of thinking and writing dot points that I mentioned at the top of the page.
Start a business plan.
I was chatting to a friend, Shalini Nandan-Singh, a solopreneur who owns a law practice that specializes in custom drafting contracts, and predominantly deals with women in business when they are looking to scale up.
We discussed the lengthy business plans the government-funded training was getting students to do to start up a business, and we couldn’t think of any successful business owner who did that when starting out. Maybe that’s because it takes an 8-week course at TAFE to fill it out, and even if you don’t have to pay for that course, who can afford to go without income for that long with no guaranteed income outcomes?
Sure, that is what you need to do to answer questions from investors on Shark Tank when starting a company and pitching for funding, or as Uni’s would call it, a “start-up”. And some parts of the complicated plans were relevant, in theory, but in reality, they were anything but when you started dealing with real customers.
We set about creating a template that was practical enough to start a business that employs 4 or fewer staff. Called “micro-businesses” by the Government, they make up 85% of all businesses in Australia.
The outcome of our collaboration
The result is up on her website, and an example of how collaborations should work.
“This business plan guide is designed to help small business women gain direction and clarity in their business, mitigate risks, attract customers and aligned partners, and set a foundation to potentially seek funding or investors in their business” Shalini says.
“You can download the Essential Business Plan Guide (for free) and access a comprehensive resource covering everything you need to know about crafting an effective plan. From executive summaries to legal considerations and more, our guide breaks down the process into manageable steps, ensuring you don’t miss a beat.” – Love your legals website.
And yes, it should only take you 2 hours to fill out if you are already selling products and/or services as a hobby, or you may be overthinking things. If it takes longer than that, do more research into the market viability.
In this case, we suggest picking just one product or service to start off. What Entrepreneurs call a minimum viable product (MVP).
Fill out a business model canvas (download HERE) on one product first, then add 2 more. Then transfer that to your business plan. The Canvas is essentially a 1-page map of your business showing you the 9 key areas you focus on to ensure business success. If you can’t answer section 9, revenue, you have a hobby, not a business. So, you will continue to do it if you don’t get paid if you love doing it, but it will only add to the costs of living.
Marketing Professional/assistant employment data
Double $50, not $10
Our last tip relates to the “value” of your work to paying customers.
The whole gig economy exists because people get paid to use their existing skills that they have strengths in, and someone else will do the rest. Even the 60% of all businesses that don’t employ any staff don’t have to do everything themselves.
They often engage an online assistant that gets paid for outcomes, who usually have other side gigs themselves to do other work for the business owners, like updating their websites or marketing content needed by the business as well.
If you do a course, even a free one, it’s to overcome your weaknesses, so it’s like doubling $10. This increases the costs and barriers to entering a side gig, and you are unlikely to recover those “sunk costs”.
You will find local networking events that are full of people that do this and have already doubled their $50, which is the average hourly rate a specialist would earn as an employee. So now with $100 to spend on doing the same work, they can afford to through you $30 per hour to do 5 hours of work and still be $20 in front.
But the incentive for the gig economy is you get the work done in half the time, you still get paid the same. My hobby of building startup websites started out as a side gig where I would charge $100 per hour for around 6 hours of work.
Good money 5 years ago. But better money today. I traded training services and helped mates in Marketing create their own courses, and they created templates and told me what apps to use to make the same website in under 1 hour. Still charge $600 as people will pay for your experience, even if they can do it themselves.
What are the costs of entry?
If you don’t know what you love doing, then quitting your job now may be too big a price to pay. The cost is low, but it could cost you more time and effort than your saving will be able to afford. Which is a big gamble to take if you are not sure it’s what you really want to do.
In business decisions, it’s not about what things cost. It’s about how much revenue can be generated from the cost, known as ROI, or return on investment.
That is how you add value to a business. This is a common question asked in an interview, too. If they pay you $50 an hour, how much money can they make from your skills in the job is the real question. So you have to decide if owning a business is right for you.
If you can’t find someone to give you a job doing what you love, how can you expect customers to pay you to do it?
I final piece of advice if you are still struggling to decide what to do now. Think about whether you are doing what you love, or do you love what you do. Make a decision on that to guide you.
The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, is a simple yet effective tool for prioritizing tasks and making better use of your time. It was popularized by former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said, “I have two kinds of problems: urgent and important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” The matrix helps you distinguish between tasks that are urgent, important, both, or neither, and allocate your time and resources accordingly.
The matrix consists of four quadrants, each representing a different type of task:
Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important
Quadrant 2: Important but Not Urgent
Quadrant 3: Urgent but Not Important
Quadrant 4: Neither Urgent nor Important
Now let’s explore how a small business owner could use the Eisenhower Matrix to grow their business:
What to do first
Quadrant 1:
Urgent and Important tasks are the top priority, as they require immediate attention and can have serious consequences if not dealt with promptly. As a business owner, these tasks may include putting out fires, dealing with customer complaints, handling urgent deadlines, or managing unexpected crises. It’s important to allocate the necessary resources to address these tasks quickly and to try to prevent them from happening again in the future.
Quadrant 2:
Important but Not Urgent tasks are the next priority, as they have long-term benefits but can be overlooked in the face of urgent tasks. As a business owner, these tasks may include developing new products or services, creating a marketing plan, building relationships with customers, or investing in staff development. It’s important to allocate time and resources to these tasks regularly, as they can have a significant impact on the success of your business over time.
Quadrant 3:
Urgent but Not Important tasks are the third priority, as they may seem urgent but don’t have a significant impact on the success of your business. As a business owner, these tasks may include responding to non-urgent emails, attending unnecessary meetings, or dealing with minor administrative tasks. It’s important to delegate or eliminate these tasks whenever possible, to free up time for more important tasks.
Quadrant 4:
Neither Urgent nor Important tasks are the lowest priority, as they don’t have a significant impact on the success of your business and can be a distraction from more important tasks. As a business owner, these tasks may include browsing social media, watching videos online, or engaging in other non-business-related activities. It’s important to minimize or eliminate these tasks altogether, to focus on the tasks that matter most to your business.
Common decisions Micro-Business owners need to make.
Here are examples of common tasks done as part of an operational plan, and the skill required by people best suited to complete the tasks on the list:
Quadrant 1: Urgent and Important
Dealing with a sudden decrease (or increase) in sales
Fixing a production problem
Handling a major customer complaint
Meeting a critical deadline
The skill required to complete these tasks would likely come from the Thinking skills area, which includes critical thinking, creativity, adaptation, and innovation. As a business owner, if this is not your strength, so don’t be afraid to ask for help and get feedback from specialists in this area. But as it may be too late to get help when things come to this, lining up help before you need it is essential for the survival of micro-businesses.
You may have friends in business that will take your call. But without formal collaboration or advice agreements, you are taking a risk that you may lose more than the cost of employing someone with the skills in the following 2 quadrants if your friends don’t take your calls.
There is a saying, “you have no friends in business”. You also don’t support small businesses by asking them to do things for free. So if you can’t think ahead to what happens if you can’t get help when you really need it, then it’s likely you do not have the skills to run your business long term.
Quadrant 2: Important but Not Urgent
Developing a new product or service
Building a marketing plan
Networking with potential partners or customers
Investing in staff development
For this one, skills such as Initiative, Cultural Awareness, Ethics, and Empathy should be high on your list as they are used to decide what is important to your ideal customers.
These skills fall under the Personal Skills category, and you may hear business and leadership coaches like Gary Vaynerchuk and Simon Sinek say these skills are the most important to have for the long-term survival of your business, for a very good reason.
If you have someone working with you that does the important tasks before they become urgent, this is the reason some business owners can sit on a beach or go on a holiday, and others cannot.
While passive income is a buzz term that I don’t think exists, this is about as close as you will get. Particularly for people that want to keep earning income well into retirement. They have other things to think about and leave the action to the younger crowd.
People with Personal skills are also least likely to be replaced by AI anytime soon, unlike hard and soft skills. So ironically, the older workforce seems to have the future skills business needs. If you look at the jobs being taken by automation, they are likely to be the jobs done by Gen Z, who currently do jobs in the next section.
“Train them well enough so they can leave, but treat them well enough so they don’t want to
Richard Branson
Quadrant 3: Urgent but Not Important
Responding to non-urgent emails
Attending unnecessary meetings
Filling out paperwork
Running errands
Annoying complaints about things you “should” do.
As you may have guessed, this quadrant primarily requires Action skills. If they make mistakes, the consequences are minor to the business. Everything is urgent and important to your customers, but not everyone is an ideal customer.
The 20% of your customers that cause 80% of your problems just care about what you do about their problems. The 20% of your customers cause 80% of your profits by telling you what to do and the ones the business owner listens to.
This can be hard to do when money is tight, and you think you need the sales, but it increases the costs of doing business, so think about what it costs you to give them your attention. There are other people you can get sales from.
But if you are looking to attract and retain talent to your organization, you are looking for people with action skill, which includes, using Digital Technologies, Communication skills, Collaboration, Problem Solving, and Customer Focus.
They will stick around to learn how to do the important stuff from you if you let them. But if you are too busy doing the urgent and important stuff to develop them, Gen Z will find someone who will. Often a competitor, who usually pays them less money long-term. So it’s not about the money that you make to afford them. They will cost you more if they leave, or if they stay and you don’t keep them engaged.
The only thing worse than training people up and they leave, is not training people well and they stay
Henry Ford
Quadrant 4: Neither Urgent nor Important
Browsing social media
Watching videos online
Checking personal emails
Playing games
This is for employees that are not interested in developing skills, likely because they don’t know what they love doing. If your heard the term “quiet quitting”, this is what those employees tend to do.
Micro-business owners can’t afford to pay people to do this, and they can’t hide it.
But there are jobs that pay them to do this, but you have to engage them in doing this activity in a work context.
Suggest if they would be interested in doing your business’ social media posts, or watching videos to learn how to use business technology. Playing games with customers is part of customer service too.
So if you can afford to put someone on to do the tasks in this quadrant, you can keep them by promoting from within to the roles above and see what they like.
His works especially well if you have family working in your business. They know you won’t sack them, but they are more productive if they do the things they do to overcome boredom to develop their skills.
That’s called a win-win if you use the Eisenhower matrix.
The 5 steps model of buyer behavior was first introduced by John Dewey in 1910, in his book “How We Think”. However, the model was further developed and popularized by Engel, Blackwell, and Kollat in their 1968 book “Consumer Behavior: Theory and Practice”.
This model, also known as the EBK model, outlines the five stages that consumers go through when making a purchasing decision: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation. The EBK model has since become one of the most widely used models for understanding consumer behavior in marketing and business.
The 5 steps in buyer behavior are a framework that describes the typical process that a consumer goes through when making a purchase decision. These steps are:
1. Problem Recognition:
The first step in the buyer behavior process is problem recognition. This is the stage where the consumer becomes aware of a need or a problem that they want to solve. This could be triggered by internal stimuli, such as a desire for a new product, or external stimuli, such as an advertisement or a recommendation from a friend.
2. Information Search:
Once the consumer has recognized a problem or need, they will typically engage in an information search to gather more information about the product or service that they are considering. This could involve gathering information from various sources such as personal experiences, family and friends, online reviews, and other sources.
3. Evaluation of Alternatives:
After gathering information, the consumer will then evaluate the various alternatives available to them. This could involve comparing the features and benefits of different products, considering their price and quality, and assessing how they meet the consumer’s needs and preferences.
4. Purchase Decision:
Once the consumer has evaluated the alternatives, they will then make a purchase decision. This could involve selecting a specific product or service, choosing a particular brand or store, and determining the quantity and timing of the purchase.
5. Post-Purchase Evaluation:
The final step in the buyer behavior process is post-purchase evaluation. This involves evaluating the product or service after it has been purchased and used. This could involve assessing whether the product met the consumer’s needs and expectations, whether it was a good value for money, and whether they would buy it again in the future. This stage is important because it can influence the consumer’s future purchase decisions and brand loyalty.
Overall, understanding the five steps of buyer behavior is important for marketers and businesses as it provides insights into consumer behavior and helps them develop effective marketing strategies that align with the consumer’s needs and preferences.
Australian cash $100. Remember this?
The 5 types of empathy.
You will hear people like Gary Vee say you need to use empathy in business to be successful. Everywhere for getting sales from customers, to giving “kind candor” to your team to develop their skills, and better manage performance expectations from business owners.
You will also hear leadership coaches talk about using kindness and empathy as a skill that great leaders possess.
But what I rarely hear is people talking about using different types of empathy in different situations. So, it depends on a person’s understanding of empathy as to what type of empathy they use.
Empathy is one of the 5 “Personal Skills” that are essential in a modern work environment to build trust in your team. Trust can easily be broken if there is a mismatch between the type of empathy you use, and the type of empathy others are looking for.
This breakdown in trust is more obvious in buyer behaviour as you lose contact with customers at different stages of your sales funnel.
With all the talk about AI taking over, personal skills are in no danger of being replaced anytime soon. So to put humanity back into business, let’s talk about the 5 types of Empathy Human Beings generally look for at different stages of your sales process. Mapping it to Dr. Dan Siegel’s five types of empathy as a model you can use:
2017 Research Symposium
1. Cognitive Empathy:
Cognitive empathy involves understanding the thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives of others. This type of empathy is more focused on understanding the other person’s point of view and is less about sharing their emotions. This type of empathy is important for resolving conflicts, negotiating, and building stronger relationships. This requires a person to use thinking skills, particularly critical thinking, to identify problems that your customers are looking for solutions for (without creating the problem).
2. Compassionate Empathy (Sympathy):
Compassionate empathy involves feeling the emotions of others and having a desire to alleviate their suffering. This type of empathy is often described as having sympathy for others and wanting to help them in some way. Compassionate empathy is important for building relationships and fostering a sense of community. The trick at this stage is to show you understand your ideal customer’s situation by giving them 3 options to investigate to solve their problem without looking like you are telling them what is best for them. If they see the options are viable for them, they will continue to the next step. So obviously your solution will be one of the 3 options. This is known as soft-selling in old-school marketing days to identify red-hot leads for the sales team to convert.
3. Perspective Taking (or Mentalizing):
Perspective-taking involves imagining oneself in another person’s situation and understanding their emotions from their point of view. This type of empathy helps us understand the reasons for another person’s behaviour and can help us avoid negative judgments or misinterpretations. This is when you get the opportunity to explain to potential customers why your option will solve their problem. But you are not there yet, and you may lose them at this stage by “overselling”. Which is generally giving too much information that the customer doesn’t need about other ways they “could” use your product. It breaks trust if they don’t see themselves using it in that way. The question is if you actually have bothered to get to know them at all, so this is the stage where you ask the most questions.
4. Empathic Resonance:
Empathic resonance involves feeling the emotions of others and resonating with them. This type of empathy is often described as “feeling someone else’s pain” and is important for building emotional connections and fostering a sense of compassion. If you don’t feel this when you get the sale, it may be a hollow victory. They will most likely be the 20% of customers that cause 80% of your problems, or worse leave a bad review if you don’t feel it at the point of sale. It is a gamble, but if you go over the last step again, you can confirm if you would be better off referring them to another option in the previous step. Reminding them of your refund policy at this stage may lower the risk of making the purchase, or suggesting payment plan options (such as Afterpay or Bpay pay in 4) could show you understand their situation even if they don’t mention it.
5. Empathic Joy:
Empathic joy involves feeling happy or joyful when others experience positive emotions or success. This type of empathy is important for building positive relationships and can foster a sense of connection and goodwill between individuals. You will feel this if the customer gets a solution to their problem that is best for them, whether they buy from you or not. These are the customers that you will feel comfortable asking for them to put a positive review online, and they will refer others to you. If you don’t feel this, think about the last step if you missed something. If there is any doubt, there is no doubt that you didn’t resonate with them. But it’s not too late, don’t dwell on it. Flag them for a follow call to see “if there is anything else I can do for you”. Asking “Were there any problems” may project that there normally are problems, so they would be less likely to give a referral and can undo all your hard work in the first 4 steps.
Overall, these five types of empathy provide a useful framework for understanding the different ways in which we can empathize with others. Each type of empathy is important in its own way and can be useful in different contexts and situations.
Happy campers
Putting it all together into a marketing strategy
The biggest challenge, particularly for micro-business owners, is finding metrics that indicate a return on your investment efforts for each type of empathy you are required to project to move people down your sales funnel to generate revenue.
Put simply, whatever definition of empathy above sound most like what you do will determine what content you would be best suited to develop to share on social media, as this is your strength.
You can outsource the rest. Even if you just use ChatGPT, trying to overcome your weaknesses is not good for business. What would you rather double, $10 or $50?
Using empathy take practice, so go with your strength and double $50. Then you have an extra $40 in your pocket while you spend the $10 on overcoming your weaknesses.
That all sounds good in theory, but in the real world you need to put budgets and track results of your marketing spend. Particularly when you outsource to a cheap overseas VA for $10 per hour who may not have a full understanding of the culture of your target market.
So using the above example, you could spend $40 an hour on a local assistant to help, which is well above the minimum wage, but you still need to put a dollar figure on this to ensure it is productive work.
Let me join the dots (points above) for you… Day 1 (points 1) in Monday on your social media post topic, and day 5 is your Friday post topic. I’m sure you can fill in the gaps for the rest of the week.
If not, let’s chat about that.
Another 5-step model to use for marketing metrics…
This model may be familiar to business owners who have been through startup training. Or if you have used a Business Model Canvas you may also have seen it.
It has many uses, but here’s how we suggest using for your marketing metrics, even if you are a solopreneur as you can use free apps to track results and divide up your sales results to create a marketing budget.
Marketing Value Pirate Metrics in action
Dave McClure, a venture capitalist and startup advisor, introduced the “Pirate Metrics” model in 2007. This model, also known as AARRR, provides a framework for analyzing and optimizing the growth of a startup or business. The five metrics are:
1. Acquisition:
Acquisition refers to the number of new customers or users that are acquired through marketing efforts or other means. This metric measures the effectiveness of a company’s marketing strategy and is the first step in the customer journey.
2. Activation:
Activation refers to the percentage of acquired users or customers who take a desired action or engage with the product or service for the first time. This metric measures the effectiveness of a company’s onboarding process and the quality of its user experience.
3. Retention:
Retention refers to the percentage of users or customers who continue to use the product or service over time. This metric measures the effectiveness of a company’s customer experience and its ability to keep users engaged and satisfied.
4. Revenue:
Revenue refers to the amount of money generated by the business through sales, subscriptions, or other means. This metric measures the effectiveness of a company’s monetization strategy and its ability to generate revenue from its user base.
5. Referral:
Referral refers to the number of new users or customers acquired through word-of-mouth marketing or referrals from existing users. This metric measures the effectiveness of a company’s product or service and the satisfaction of its user base.
Overall, the Pirate Metrics model provides a useful framework for understanding the key drivers of growth for a business. By focusing on these five metrics, any business can identify areas for improvement and optimize its strategies to drive growth and success.
