Owner To Owner Podcast

Bill Lang from Small Business Australia on learning from other business owners and getting all 3 levels of government to better understand small business.

Episode Summary

Bill Lang from Small Business Australia understands how critical it is to support small business owners. We chat about his tireless work to ensure owners can more easily do what they do best in their local communities.

Episode Notes

Bill Lang is Founder and Director of @smallbusinessaustralia.org.  He's a #HarvardMBA, and a seasoned #smallbusinessowner and operator. 

It started in the #foodvan industry with Doctor Dog, selling hot dogs outside of nightclubs and pubs in Melbourne in the 1980's.

But more recently the businesses he's involved with are all about helping (including coaching and mentoring) owners;

• better use the internet
• better use digital tools to attract customers
• attract staff, and 
• run their businesses more efficiently.

In our wide-ranging discussion we cover;

• why small business is bigger than jobs and being the economic backbone that we hear politicians spout
• small business owners are the hearts and souls of their local communities (and not the big companies)
•  why politicians really do not understand what makes small business people tick
• why it's his concern that big business gets looked after (a number of them have quite anti-competitive tactics that drive many, many small businesses out of town)
• how we're now competing with millions and millions of competitors, unlike pre-internet times
• turning the in-depth research from business owners across the country into particular policy initiatives and requests for governments at all three levels 
• incentives to get people to buy local and support local businesses
• www.buylocal.smallbusinessesaustralia.org
• www.businessadvantage.online
• the #invoicingclass
• why if you've never sent an invoice and then had to chase it up, you don't really understand what it's like to be in business for yourself and your family
• @judobank
• Jim Penman from @JimsGroup 
• why the best business advisors are other people in business
• why it's wrong to believe the best way to learn is by making mistakes - the better way to learn is by learning from other people's mistakes and thats what you can learn from other business owners that might be a few years older, maybe in different industries

@kerrcapital