Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling for Australian Small Business Owners
Friday, June 29th, 2007Business Coaching, Advice, Marketing Strategy, Professional Development & Education for:
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- Micro Business Owners,
- Small Business Owners,
- Franchise & Licence Groups,
- Small Business Professional Organisations & Networks
Dr Greg Chapman, MBA is a Small Business and Marketing educator, advisor, mentor, coach, professional speaker, author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success and publisher of the Small Business Achiever - Business Owner’s Brief.
Greg coaches small & micro business owners on how to change the thinking that has been an obstacle to their success and how to apply the new knowledge that he provides to transform their businesses. Although based in Melbourne, he has clients throughout Australia.
Why is this important?
The Australian Bureau of statistics reports that 42% of the businesses started in 2003/04 had not survived 3 years later. Small business failure is a significant issue, with few support mechanisms available after the business starts. This can have a big impact on suppliers, customers, staff and not to mention the owners themselves.
Yet small business is the backbone of the Australian economy. The ABS also reports that half of the Australian private sector workforce is employed in businesses with less than 20 employees.
All small businesses go through a lifecycle where their needs vary according to their maturity, with different challenges at different times. But there are two basic needs for the small business owner- finding more customers, and putting in place business systems that free them up from the day-to-day operations to create a Saleable Asset. When this happens, business owners are able to get their lives back and spend more time with their families, and enjoy life.
What business owners seek is direct advice for their own business to overcome these issues.
What is an Emerging Business?
The ABS defines Small Business as those with less than 20 employees. These businesses provide over 40% of the jobs in the country. It also reports that the average annual growth in active, employing businesses over the last 3 years as 9%. Which is an incredible statistic. But this hides an even more astonishing statistic. That fuelling this growth are, what is somewhat dismissively referred to as, micro businesses. That is businesses with less than 5 employees. This sector has had an average net growth of 11% over the same period and makes up an amazing 61% of all businesses.
What is happening here? A bubble is forming in the under 5 employee range. While there were exits and transfers to larger categories, this sector is growing faster than any other. Most micro businesses seem to be trapped within the bubble. With only a few emerging. Actually, the numbers look like this:
- New Micro Businesses each Year: 17%
- Annual Micro Business Failure Rate: 5%
- Net Annual Micro-Business Growth Rate: 11%
- Micro Businesses Emerging from the Bubble: 2%
(Note: These numbers are approximate and contain rounding errors)
Within the group defined as micro-business, there is another group that Dr Greg Chapman refers to as Emerging Businesses. These businesses differentiate themselves from all the other micro businesses as the movers. The action takers. The Emerging Businesses are leaving their fellow micro businesses behind. Only 2% of micro-businesses escape the bubble. Dr Greg Chapman calls the others that survive, the Micro-stayers.
The Micro-stayers can be defined as those who remain as micro-businesses, don’t fail, but don’t emerge from the micro-group. This may be as a result of a number of factors. It maybe lifestyle choice. Work-Life balance is becoming more and more important to many people. It maybe because they don’t have the knowledge to take their business to the next level, and become frustrated Micro-stayers. Or they may have progressed from frustrated to resigned Micro-stayers and have adjusted lifestyle and ambition in recognition of this.
The Emerging Businesses, on the other hand, retain their ambition, and where they have found they are lacking in skill or knowledge, have sought out advice. No-one knows it all, and everyone at some point requires help. This may be in the form of education through a course or reading, or it may be with a mentor or a professional advisor or coach. The choice here is a matter of personal style, and how quickly the owners want to achieve their ambitions. But as you see from the statistics, very few people know this and do it!
To become an Emerging Business just requires a determination to do so. The alternative is to become a Micro-stayer within the micro-bubble. This can be as a result of choice or by the lack of determination to emerge.
Where will you be when the bubble bursts?
Business Coaching & Marketing Advice
Dr Greg Chapman provides Business Coaching the following key areas for small business owners:
- Business Planning
- Marketing Strategy
- Business Systems
- Online Marketing
to increase profitability and make their business run without them. He also helps business owners achieve the ultimate objective of changing their business from a job to a Saleable Asset.
Business coaching is provided on two levels:
Empower Business Solutions
Dr Greg Chapman provides private one-one coaching to businesses which may have a turnover in the approximate range1-10 million dollars and up to 20 employees. These businesses, typically have been operating for five years or more and are from a variety of industry sectors.
Our coaching is undertaken in workshops with the individual owner, and with their staff, as appropriate. It involves education, problem solving with the owner, and advice with some consulting. The workshops, which are over two hours each, are based on a question and answer format where we challenge the existing way of doing things and roadtest new ideas with the owner. When we propose a new way of doing things, we explain how and why it will work. We adapt each idea to the specific situation that exists for that business.
Australian Business Coaching Club
While larger business are able to access business advice at the level they require, the micro-business owner, typically with less than $200,000 turnover, and less than 5 staff, are left largely to their own devices, as far as specific advice. Seminars are the normal source of information for these micro business owners, but it is in a group environment with little opportunity for private consultation with the owner. And traditional business coaching is right outside of their price range.
While there is plenty of advice available on starting up businesses, owners really don’t know, what they don’t know, until they have been operating for some time. Some of the traditional sources of advice are coverered below.
The TAFE’s provide advice for people preparing to start a small business. And universities are focused on the corporate world. Accountants do provide advice but are not really interested in education. Which is where business coaches come in. But traditional business coaches focus on businesses with turnover greater than $200,000 and seek to lock in businesses to $25,000 (and more) contracts. This is unaffordable to soletraders and businesses with just a handful of staff.
To cater for the neglected micro-business owner, Dr Greg Chapman created The Australian Business Coaching Club, which is a bit more do-it-yourself than private coaching, but still with access to private advice and support. And as the service is delivered online, by email and phone, the cost is a fraction of that of traditional private coaching. This Coaching Club is also the first of its kind in Australia.
Another neglected area of the small business market is regional business owners, who may well have been able to afford a private coach, but found their local choices limited.
But as long as they have access to the internet, and a phone, they can get the same quality advice as urban business owners through the Australian Business Coaching Club, and access to successful strategies tested in more competitive marketplaces.
For the remote business owner, mixing with their peers and hearing the latest ideas is far more difficult. But through the Australian Business Coaching Club, they have access to the latest ideas, and also how to expand beyond the confines of their local community and increase their market size. This is especially important if the region is suffering economic difficulties.
As the coaching is delivered primarily on line, but supplemented with email and phone support, the business owner can work on their business at a time of their choosing.
So how can the Australian Business Coaching Club assist these business owners?
By providing:
- a structured business curriculum Covering everything from systems to sales
- regular business interviews with experts on different aspects of business
- support and advice and direct coaching at a level that meets their needs.
The club has been designed so it gives maximum flexibility to its members. So there are no joining fees or contracts. Just pay as you go month by month. So if members are busy, they can drop out for a couple of months and come back without penalty. The curriculum is delivered online, so there is flexibility when they undertake the work. And pricing starts at $197 per month.
Business Courses
Dr Greg Chapman regularly provides business education in course format. Venues have included the Swinburne University Business School, University of Melbourne and the Council of Adult Education. Recent courses have included:
- Why Small Businesses Stay Small & What You can Do About Yours
- Take Your Business to the Next Level
- Business Systems to Make Your Business Run without You
- Make Your Website Pay
- How to Get More Clients
Dr Greg Chapman has previously taught in international industry forum and at Melbourne University whilst undertaking his doctorate.
Contact Dr. Greg Chapman to find out how he can tailor a course on a business topic to meet your organisation’s objectives.
Online Marketing & Website Strategy
One of Dr Greg Chapman’s specialties is online marketing and website strategy. Not only does he present courses on the subject, he also provides private coaching and advice.
For information on where to start with Online Marketing read the Article below:
Seven Marketing Questions to Ask Before You Get a Teenager to Build Your Website
As an example of his ability to help others to be on the front page of search engines, try undertaking searches on some of his keywords, such as:
and look for the Websites for Empower Business Solutions, the Australian Business Coaching Club and The Australian Small Business Blog.
He has helped many others to achieve the same success in their keywords. He provides this service through Empower Business Solutions. Or you can contact him on the form below. Contact Dr. Greg Chapman
Professional Speaking and Development for Organisations
Dr Greg Chapman is also a professional speaker and provides workshops at professional development days and at special seminars for:
- Franchisors & Licensors
- Distributor Reseller Networks
- Professional Organisations for Business Owners
His addresses are high on content and information your delegates can use to improve their businesses and therefore yours. The ideas he presents as a professional speaker are practical and easy to understand, with no academic theory of pseudo-scientific waffle. Just ideas that will work. Your delegates will appreciate your choice of professional speaker as they will come away with an easy to implement action plan which they know will work.
Some of the groups that he has worked for in the past include:
- Aussie Home Mortgage Network
- Australian Environmental Pest Management Association
- Box Hill TAFE
- CPA Accountants Group Melbourne
- Engineers Australia
- Housing Industry Association
- NAS Insurance Brokers Network
- Royal Australian Institute of Architects
- Sanofi-Aventis
- Southern Cross Brokers Network
Many of these business sectors have a high level of competition. And I have seen many small franchisees/licencees disappear. You can see on Seek, many ads for franchisees trying to sell their business. This is a high cost for these networks, as they need to recruit more franchisees/licencees to replace them, and then to train them. The personal cost to the individuals, of course is even higher.
Now most networks provide training to their members and have professional development days and use professional speakers. From speaking to franchisees/licencees generally, this primarily consists of review of new products, technical training, and some marketing and sales. But I believe there is a gap in their business education. That is the focus on business skills such as planning, budgeting, building systems, growing the business (not just increasing sales), and turning their business into a Saleable Asset.
So what would be the benefit to such a group to have Dr Greg Chapman as your professional speaker?
- Reduced attrition rate of franchisees/licencees
- Higher productivity of franchisees/licencees
- More sustainable growth of your franchisees’/licencees’ businesses
- Member appreciation of value add by their professional network
- Further enhancement of the Franchisor/Licensor reputation amongst its clients and future franchisee/licencee recruits
- Happier franchisees/licencees!
Dr Greg Chapman also does keynote addresses at conferences. Some of the topics that Dr Greg Chapman has presented include:
- Why Small Businesses Stay Small
- How to Take Your Business to the Next Level
- Crashing though Your Business’ Glass Ceiling
- How to Get More Customers
- Turning Your Practice into a Business
Contact Dr. Greg Chapman to find out more about his professional speaker services and how he can tailor a presentation or workshop on a business topic to meet your organisation’s objectives. Or have him speak at Your Conference.
Writing & Publishing
Dr Greg Chapman is also a writer, with articles published around the internet. Articles are also available on the Empower Business Solutions website. He is the creator and editor of
The Australian Small Business Blog and publisher of the Small Business Achiever - Business Owner’s Brief.
He is also the author of:
The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success -
Why most Businesses Will Stay Small and
What You can do about Yours
which can be ordered online. This book provides a step-by-step guide for small business owners seeking to emerge from the micro-business bubble.
He also produces a bi-monthly newsletter called Marketing Moments. His articles also frequently appear in other newsletters and magazines.
Dr Greg Chapman was also a participant at The National Small Business Summit.
If you would like Dr Greg Chapman to contribute an article for your newsletter or magazine, please fill in the form below.
Contact Dr. Greg Chapman
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Products
The following tools are currently available:
- A Business Plan Template that Really Works
- How Much should You Charge?
- Budgeting to Drive Your Business Further
Business Coaching Products are available HERE.
Support for Other Business Coaches
Empower Business Solutions in association with the Australian Business Coaching Club now offers, for the very first time, high quality, low cost resources that other coaches can use in their business.
Discover a New High Quality, Low Cost Resource to:
- Increase Your Profile
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A high quality resource will increase Your Credibility and differentiate you. But low quality or no resources will do the opposite. Find out how you can access high value, low cost premium Intellectual Property in an innovative medium that will add to rather than detract from Your Brand.
To find out more, please contact Dr. Greg Chapman on the form below.
About Dr Greg Chapman
Throughout his 25 year career, Dr Greg Chapman has applied his business experience in seven countries, including eight years in the US and UK.
Because of this experience, there was an opportunity to pass on the international best practice business management expertise he had acquired, to businesses that would otherwise have no access to experience at this level. In part, this led to his current coaching business.
Dr. Chapman has been responsible for the operation of businesses and projects ranging from the micro scale to billion dollar businesses. He lives and breathes a wide range of business solutions “from experience”.
Through his company, Empower Business Solutions which provides one-to-one business coaching and advice, and now the Australian Business Coaching Club, Dr. Chapman is dedicated to assisting Australian business owners with the ‘Right Kind of Help.’ He has created the Australian Business Coaching Club in response to the demand by those who want access to his knowledge but were unable to afford one-to-one coaching.
As a result of his direct knowledge & experience in running businesses, Greg’s approach is not like that of an accountant, a sales person, or a bank manager. He thinks and acts like a business owner. The advice he gives is based on his own knowledge – not from a manual written by someone else. So he is able to tailor his programs for the needs of individual business owners.
Greg’s successes include the doubling of the return of capital from one business for which he was personally responsible, increasing sales by 400% for one of his clients, and increasing productivity by 30% for another.
His focus is always on the maximisation of his clients’ time and financial investment and the realisation of their goals through ongoing training. His approach addresses the need for acquiring knowledge, the creation of a plan and support while taking action to achieve goals in taking the client’s business to the next level. The approach in all programs is extremely practical in meeting the needs of small business owners.
Apart from coaching private clients, Greg also teaches at the Swinburne University School of Business, and the Melbourne CAE. His qualifications and memberships include:
- Ph.D. from Melbourne University
- M.B.A. from Deakin University
- Certified Master Coach from the Behavioral Coaching Institute
Memberships of the following organisations:
- Australian Institute of Company Directors
- Council of Small Business of Australia
- International Coach Federation
- International Coaching Council
- Dr Greg Chapman is the creator and editor of the Australian Small Business Blog and is a Telstra Business Awards and a Marketing Communications Executive International Awards Judge.
- Empower Business Solutions t/a The Australian Business Coaching Club was also a Finalist in the Rotary Club Enterprise Awards
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In Greg’s words “my personal objective is to see business owners realising the dreams they had when they first went into business; dreams that may have been buried in the day-to-day pressures of running their business.”
Dr Greg Chapman is the Business Brain Surgeon.
To find out more, please contact Dr. Greg Chapman on the form below.
Media
Dr Greg Chapman regularly writes articles for publication and is available for media interviews related to the subject: “What makes Small Businesses successful”. He is also a regular speaker on a variety of business subjects. He is the expert on turning a Small Business into a Saleable Asset. Dr Chapman has been published around the internet many times.
He has been in the media in:
What You can Do about Yours
(An Interview of Dr Greg Chapman
by Melbourne Business TV - 8 mins)
- The Daily Telegraph
- The Age
- The Herald-Sun
- Franchising Magazine
- Launceston Examiner
- Women in Business
- My Business
- Management Today
- The Australian
- The Financial Review
Articles have also been syndicated in:
He is also the author of the extremely popular eBook: “The Four Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success”. This book is available for download from the home page of The Australian Business Coaching Club. Please note that this eBook may not be republished without permission.
High resolution professional photography is available on request.
To find out more, please contact Contact Dr. Greg Chapman on the form below.
Contact
Mail:
Dr Greg Chapman
Suite 22 / 738 Burke Rd,
Camberwell, Victoria 3124
Australia
Phone:
+61) 1300 76 35 45
Contact by Email:
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The Australian Small Business Blog