Aussie Painting Contractor August 2019

Five Myths About ON-LINE LEARNING Learning outcomes is how much students are engaged by the information.

BUSINESS SUCCESS What does it mean to you?

Subcontractor Insurance Requirements Grow your business with a GOVERNMENT GRANT Grant opportunities available to businesses

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CONTRIBUTORS

From the Editor

• Andrew Podger • Angela Smith

Hey Everyone,

• Anthony Igra

Welcome to the 87th Edition of the Aussie Painting Contractor Magazine.

• Daniel Wurm • Jim Baker • Justin Kenardy • Leo Babauta • Robert Bauman • Robert Slonim • Sandra Price

EDITOR

In the last 2 months we have travelled throughout Qld training apprentices and talking with painters. I would like to thank Bristol in Rockhampton, Wattyl in Townsville, Taubmans in Townsville and Wattyl in Mackay for their hospitality as we trained apprentices in their stores. It was a great trip talking with painters from all different regions and finding out what is affecting them for the better and worse. I greatly appreciated the honesty showed by you all and I hope we were of assistance with the advice we were able to share.

I hope you have all got through the end of financial year and hit the new year running. Don’t forget to speak to your accountant or bookkeeper about the new Single Touch Payroll that the Government is rolling out.

If you haven’t already joined our Facebook Group Click Here to get all the tips and tricks from other in the industry. We now have well over 1700 Members with it growing by about 50 painters a week. This is the easiest way of communication throughout the industry and keeping all the latest updates and questions or assistance from others within the painting industry. If you have any painters as friends on Facebook tell them about the group and let them share their stories as well.

Nigel Gorman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Caroline Miall GRAPHIC DESIGNER J. Anne Delgado

'Till next time, Happy Painting!!

Nigel Gorman

nigel@aussiepaintersnetwork.com.au

07 3555 8010

Advertise with us...

1800 355 344 07 3555 8010 info@aussiepaintersnetwork.com.au

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Contents Five Myths About ON-LINE LEARNING Inducing consumer paralysis: How retailers bury customers in an avalanche of choice Practicing with the Fear & Pain of Missing Out on OPPORTUNITIES THE FACTS ABOUT RPL for Painters

6 8

Subcontractor Insurance Requirements

19

There is a problem with 23 retirement incomes, but it isn’t the super guarantee

12

Creative ways to grow your business with a GOVERNMENT GRANT

16

Why a Grant Could Solve Your Business Growth Problems

26

28

GOOD BLOKE’S DON’T GET PAID

33

36 Marketing checklist for painting businesses 38 BUSINESS SUCCESS What does it mean to you?

Industry Idiots

42

Important Contacts

43

Opinions and viewpoints expressed in the Aussie Painting Contractor Magazine do not necessarily represent those of the editor, staff or publisher or any Aussie Painters Network’s staff or related parties. The publisher, Aussie Painters Network and Aussie Painting Contractor Magazine personnel are not liable for any mistake, misprint or omission.

Information contained in the Aussie Painting Contractor Magazine is intended to inform and illustrate and should not be taken as financial, legal or accounting advice. You should seek professional advice before making business related decisions. We are not liable for any losses you may incur directly or indirectly as a result of reading Aussie Painting Contractor Magazine. Reproduction of any material or contents of the magazine without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.

Five Myths About

ON-LINE LEARNING

Most of the objections to using e-learning and I.T. for education are not based on evidence, but on pre-concieved ideas and prejudices.

Let’s consider a few of them.

1. MYTH: APPRENTICES LEARN BETTER IN A TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM. There is no evidence that this is the case. Several studies have shown no difference between the learning outcomes of students in a traditional classroom environment and students who are learning on-line.(1) In 2010, the United States Department of Education released an expansive study comparing online learning to in-person learning (classroom time); compared to a mixture of the two. What did the Department of Education find?

“Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction. . .The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types.”(2) This study had a huge impact on government policy. After it’s results, the Department of Education spent

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more than $600 million on online tools, so more students could learn online.

The number one factor that determines learning outcomes is how much students are engaged by the information. A poor trainer will train poorly, and even a good trainer has bad days. Poor instructional design creates poor on-line learning experiences. But the advantage of using e-learning is that it gives the college the ability to control the quality of instruction for every single student, every single time. Engaging lessons create ideal learning conditions that enable students to learn at their own pace.

Myth busted!

2. MYTH: IT’S EASIER TO CHEAT ON-LINE Video response technology allows trainers to authenticate responses given by students on-line. In a classroom where answers are all written down, its easy for students to simply copy from other students. Its much harder to do that if you have to answer verbally while being filmed.

Classroom training often involves group activities, but group activities mean that often by simply participating the student is being assessed on

the outcome created by the group, instead of their individual work.

E-learning can use question banks for assessment. This means that students are given randomised questions; no two students will get exactly the same set of assessment questions. So they really have to learn the required knowledge.

Myth busted!

3. MYTH: APPRENTICES PREFER CLASSROOM TRAINING In 2019 every school in Australia uses some form of on-line learning. Kids go to school armed with laptops and tablets instead of textbooks. So it makes sense to offer them the same rich learning experience when they start their apprenticeships. This is what students are saying about the Painters Institute’s on-line training: ‘Really enjoyed the course and enjoyed the instructional videos’ ‘I enjoyed this course it was informative and made easy to understand especially with video’ “I’m learning heaps, its better than TAFE’

On-line training does not replace the need for interaction with a trainer. When apprentices complain about about on-line learning, it is usually because the trainer has not given them the support they need. On-line training is supposed to give the trainer more time to provide support for student’s with learning disabilities or difficulties.

If we say that a student prefers classroom training, we are saying they prefer using books and pens.

I think we would be very hard pressed to find a tradie who likes paperwork. Let’s get real.

Myth busted!

4. MYTH: YOU CAN’T LEARN A TRADE ON-LINE This question stems from a lack of understanding of what e-learning is. E-learning does not replace all the practical training. It primarily replaces the theory component.

Learning a trade by reading about it is not an effective method. Elearning allows students to learn practical skills by watching video lessons, instead of having to read a description. By watching and then doing, the on-line student has a more realistic way of learning a practical skill.

Almost all of us have learned a new skill by simply watching a ‘how-to’ Youtube or Facebook video, from fixing a motor to baking a cake. The principle of learning by watching and doing is the same for laying a brick, or rolling paint on a wall. It’s just a new way of learning, that, if we are really honest, we are doing every day.

example, reading plans, estimating, communicating with clients, researching products, reading manufacturer data sheets, interpreting Standard Operating Procedures, creating Safe Work Method Statements, checking Codes of Practice, using spreadsheets, banking, and checking financial reports; are all done on-line using smart-phones, tablets or laptops. It is essential that apprentices learn how to perform these skills on-line.

Myth busted!

5. MYTH: ON-LINE TRAINING IS DUMBING DOWN THE TRADE The required practical skills for a trade are exactly the same no matter whether someone sits in a classroom listening to a teacher, or they watch a video demonstrating how to do it. The on-line student must learn and demonstrate exactly the same practical skills as the student sitting in a classroom. Therefore it cannot be claimed that on-line learning allows students to pass the course without having the same practical skills as someone who attended classroom instruction.

One of the reasons why a trades person has poor technical skills is often because of a lack of underpinning knowledge. If we don’t understand the underlying principles behind our trade and the materials we use, how can we diagnose and solve problems? Learning to think, learn and research is more

important to deep learning and understanding of a trade, than simply spending more time on the tools.

There are many trades people who have 30 years or more of experience on the tools, but still make the same bad choices and mistakes because they never understood the basics in the first place.

Good quality e-learning ensures that students experience deep learning and thinking skills that will help them into the future, and transferable skills that cross over into other jobs. Imagine putting the best teachers in front of every student, giving every apprentice access to the best quality lessons, every time, no matter where they live. That’s the power of e-learning.

To find out more about how your staff can get better quality training using the latest technology check the National Painting and Decorating Institute’s web-site.

Author:

Daniel Wurm is a qualified tradesperson and holds a Diploma in Vocational Education and Training, specialising in e-learning.

He is an instructional designer for Master Painters Association Queensland, the National Painting and Decorating Institute; and has taught the painting trade using elearning to over 200 students since 2014. In 2015 he won Trainer of the Year at the NSW Training Awards in Southern Sydney.

In addition, many trade skills are now actually performed on-line. For

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Inducing consumer paralysis: How retailers bury customers in an avalanche of choice Do you think you are paying more than you should for energy, banking, insurance, internet and phone services? You are not alone, and you are probably right.

Companies offer a growing number of deals that supposedly enable you to choose what is best for you. Every basic economics textbook tells us greater choice should deliver cheaper prices. But in reality this isn’t necessarily the case.

ENERGY PRICING Let’s consider how this works in the context of Australia’s electricity market.

In most areas of the country, residential customers have at least half a dozen retailers to choose from.

highest in the world, and rising.

The consumer watchdog calculates that in the decade to 2018 the average residential electricity bill increased by 55% (or 35% in real terms) – and only a very small part of that had to do with alleged culprits such as renewable energy.

Market share by generation capacity by region, January 2018. ACCC, Retail Electricity Pricing Inquiry Final Report

Read more: Energy prices are high because consumers are paying for useless, profit-boosting infrastructure

Nonetheless, according to the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, electricity prices and profit margins are among the

Australia’s biggest electricity company, AGL, made a net profit of A$1.6 billion in 2018 – 194% more than the year before.

So what’s going on?

A big part of the answer is that businesses are taking advantage of the behavioural phenomenon of “consumer paralysis” to maximise profits.

They provide us with many plans and deals to make us feel like we are in control, but too many choices actually leads most of us to make a bad (or no) choice.

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More recently, in 2012, Iyengar’s Columbia University colleague Eric Johnson and others reported on an experiment with much greater consequences.

Depending on where you live, AGL offers up to 11 energy plans to residential customers. There’s the “Savers” plan, “Savers Online”, “Everyday”, “Freedom”, “Standing Offer”, “Essentials”, “Essentials Plus”, and so on.

Mark Lepper in a San Francisco supermarket in 1999. Customers visiting the store were given a chance to sample jams. Half the time they were allowed to taste up to six jams; the other half they could taste up to 24 jams.

Each plan, in turn, has four to eight tariff type options: “Flexible Price”, “Time of Use Interval”, “5 Day Time of Use”, “Single Rate”, “Two rate: single rate with controlled load”, “Single Rate Demand Opt-in”, and so on.

Traditional economics says a consumer is much more likely to find a jam they really like with a sample of 24 rather than six. So offering 24 jams should lead to more jam purchases.

That adds up to literally dozens of price plans from just one retailer.

Other companies are hardly better. For a customer in inner Sydney, there are more than 350 retail plans to choose from.

All this “choice” gives the appearance of a competitive market, but its effect is the opposite. It give retailers wriggle room to charge more, not less.

Experiments in choice behaviour Many experiments over the past three decades have demonstrated the ubiquity of too much choice leading to consumer paralysis.

One classic experiment was run by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and

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Yet exactly the opposite was found.

Of the consumers who chose to taste jams, only 3% of those who could sample 24 jams ended up buying jam, whereas 30% (or 10 times more) of those who could sample just six jams ended up buying.

They asked people to choose health insurance coverage from a set of four or eight options. The options varied on monthly premiums and deductibles. When given four options, 42% of subjects chose the best value option. On average their choices cost about $200 more than the best option on offer.

When given eight options, only 21% chose the best option – no better than simply making a random choice.

Read more: Confusopoly: Why companies are motivated to deliberately confuse

Reinforcing psychological biases Given the massive number of products and plans available in the energy, banking, insurance, internet and mobile phone sectors, the time and effort needed to choose the best deal leaves us feeling overwhelmed and overloaded.

In response, we rely on shortcuts (rules of thumb) to save both time (and our sanity).

But these shortcuts can also cause biases that result in further paralysis, including: Present bias – we put much greater weight on the present than the future. Since the cost of making decisions happens in the present (like the time and effort to compare options and switch services) while the benefits happen later (like saving money), we minimise the time we spend making decisions Status quo bias – we tend to stick with a chosen option or default, even when a much better option may be available Loss aversion – we place much greater weight on losses and often overestimate the chance of a bad outcome.

There is considerable evidence pointing to how these biases lead to consumer paralysis in the retail banking and energy sectors.

In 2017, Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, ran a randomised control trial involving more than 130,000 electricity customers. Participants received personalised letters either from Ofgem or their current provider offering substantially better electricity deals.

The result: compared with the control group in which only 1% switched tariffs within the next month, 3.4% of those who received an offer from their electricity provider switched to a better deal.

Even when presented with notable savings, more than 96% stuck with the status quo.

Other Ofgem research shows that among those who have not switched energy plans, 51% consider it a hassle they don’t have time for, and 48% worry that things would go wrong.

These operations are often being paid by retailers. Their motives are not necessarily to direct you to the best deal.

Yvette Hartfree and her colleagues at the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre have noted similar fears among bank customers: “The biggest concern for those considering switching is that something will go wrong at some point in the process of switching.”

One option is government action to ensure switching services are trustworthy. At a minimum, there should be guidelines that switching services not take payments from retailers, and only charge you when you actually save money.

Read more: Simpler account switching

would help keep our banks honest

Taking action We should not be surprised that energy companies and others use an avalanche of choice to confuse us. It is a brilliant business strategy: it seems more competitive from a traditional assessment, yet actually reduces competition.

So what can you do?

On your own, you will need to make a conscious effort to overcome paralysis. You need to devote the time to carefully compare offers.

Fortunately, you can find tools that can help, such as the Australian government’s energy comparison website. However, be wary of commercial “switching services” and websites that provide comparisons.

What can we do collectively?

Another option is to form “consumer unions”, which can bargain collectively to get members better deals. The potential of community groups to leverage bulk-buying arrangements has demonstrated in other contexts. In Victoria’s Gippsland region, for example local organisations have banded together to offer discounts on renewable energy technology.

There’s no reason something similar could not be done to overcome the choice problems induced by big energy retailers and the like.

----------------------------------------------

Robert Slonim

Professor of Economics, University of Sydney

Results of Ofgem’s Cheaper Market Offers Letter (CMOL) trial. Ofgem

2019 August Issue | 11

Practicing with the Fear & Pain of

Missing Out on OPPORTUNITIES I have a friend who is working on a meaningful project that he wants to focus on … and so he said no to some exciting opportunities.

These were projects where people he highly respects want him to work with them. How can you say no to that?!

Understandably, he felt difficulty after saying no to these amazing opportunities — the pain and fear of missing out. I think a lot of us can relate to that.

The fear and pain of missing out (actually, any fear or pain) can be an amazing opportunity to practice, to open our hearts, to deal with our deep feelings of inadequacy.

It’s a transformative practice.

constantly too busy, stressed about getting everything done, over worked and prone to burnout, missing deadlines and not doing as well as you could on projects because you’ve got too much going on.

Saying No is Saying Yes to Focus & Space

So saying no to these opportunities is a big shift. It means:

Let’s say you’re missing out on important opportunities by saying no. You don’t normally say no — you say yes to too much, and are constantly overloaded. You are

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* You are going to give priority to what’s on your plate. Finally! * You are going to create space

for sanity, for self-care, for not burning out.

* You are going to give full focus to the work that’s most meaningful to you, that you are most committed to doing.

These are amazing things. These are loving actions to yourself and the people you care about.

And yet, the fear and pain of missing incredible opportunities arises.

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Practicing with the Fear & Pain So you notice yourself struggling with this fear and pain. It’s an incredible doorway to practice and transformation.

Here’s how you might practice: • Stop and notice that you are feeling either fear or pain (or both) of missing something important. Pain of not being able to do what you’d like to do. Fear of missing what you should be doing.

• Pause and let yourself feel the pain and fear. We don’t let ourselves feel it, and run from it, avoid it, fear feeling. But we have the capacity to feel more than we let ourselves fear. We have the courage.

Pause and actually feel it — not the thoughts about what you’re missing, but the physical feeling of fear and pain.

• Ask yourself if there is anything on your plate right now that is less important than what you’ve said no to. Is there anything on your plate you’d remove to make room

for this opportunity? If not, you are clear on your priorities (even if there’s never going to be any real certainty that it’s the right choice).

Remind yourself that you’ve said yes to your priorities and to having focus and space. That this fear and pain come with this amazingly loving act of saying yes to focus, space and priorities. It’s a part of the experience, and you will feel it many more times. And that’s OK!

Can we see that they are enough, and we don’t need more?

• Remind yourself that you would have felt even greater pain if you had said yes. The pain of being overloaded, too busy, overcommitted, never having time. The pain of burnout, of missing deadlines, of doing worse than you can on each project. The pain you’re feeling now isn’t as bad.

• Feel the goodness in yourself for the acts you’ve taken. You are a beautiful, courageous person with a good heart. You can handle things if they don’t turn out as well as you like. You have made it through much worse.

• Feel the love in saying yes to your biggest priorities. Feel the love in saying yes to focus and space. Appreciate how amazing that is.

• Fearing missing out is also a kind of “greed” (in a nonjudgmental sense) — we always want more, and want to pile our plates high with everything. Instead, can we be grateful for what we’ve put on our plates? Can we see how amazing the things we’ve chosen are?

• At the heart of the fear of missing out is our deep feeling of inadequacy. We fear that if we miss out on something important, somehow we won’t be OK. Let yourself face the pain of your feelings of inadequacy, and make friends with this. Can you be friendly and kind to these feelings of inadequacy?

Learn to trust yourself by seeing the goodness in yourself. Learn to validate yourself. Learn to make friends with yourself. Learn to have the courage to feel everything, and be OK with what you feel.

Leo Babauta

a successful ‘simplicity’ blogger and author from California, the creator of top 25 Blog,

ZEN HABITS

2019 August Issue | 15

THE FACTS ABOUT

RPL for Painters

Recognition of Prior Learning is one of the most common ways that painters get qualified or licensed.

However, it has been blamed by many experienced painters for their perception that industry standards are dropping. Is RPL to blame for incompetent painters getting qualified or licensed?

LETS LOOK AT HOW RPL WORKS With best-practice RPL the candidate must usually show that they have a minimum of 4 years experience. That means that they have had the same amount of time in the industry as someone who has done a traditional apprenticeship.

The reality is that most painters who apply for RPL have a minimum of 6 years experience. That means that they have had 50% more time working in the industry on real jobs, than someone who only did an apprenticeship.

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To be signed off on subjects in the painting qualification the student must have their experience confirmed by another qualified tradesperson. This is the same as someone who has done an apprenticeship.

To prove competence in the practical requirements of the qualification, the student needs to demonstrate that they can do all the required tasks, or have done all the tasks recently. The tasks and practical skills are exactly the same for students getting qualified through RPL as for students completing an apprenticeship.

The assessor must check that the RPL candidate has exactly the same knowledge about the trade as someone who has done an apprenticeship. They do this by asking the RPL student to answer the same kind of questions as an apprentice.

If the assessor discovers that the RPL student does not have all the required knowledge or skills for the qualification they must provide gap-training to the student to bring them up to the required level. For example, if they have never learned how to strip lead paint safely, they need to be trained how to do it before they can get the certificate.

It is clear that the requirements to achieve a qualification through RPL are exactly the same as someone who has done an apprenticeship.

The only difference is how the person has learned the skills. Many tradespeople learn by doing an apprenticeship, but others learn the trade just by on-the-job training and experience. If you ask your colleagues or workmates you will be surprised by how many successful and competent painters have become qualified through RPL.

Many TAFE trainers have gone through the RPL process so that they can stay up-to-date with the latest techniques without having to redo their entire apprenticeship.

In view of these facts, why is there a perception amongst some painters that obtaining a qualification through RPL and gap-training is not as legitimate as doing an apprenticeship?

The reason is that some colleges do not follow the above process. Some colleges do not assess correctly. So the problem is not the process of RPL; it is the college, and how committed they are to the industry’s standards.

insufficient experience, contact the National Painting and Decorating Institute so that we can report it to the relevant regulators. Together, we can ensure that the RPL process for our trade is done correctly, and protect high standards for our industry.

Of course, doing an apprenticeship is always a great way to get qualified, because it’s government funded, and is usually completed at the beginning of your career in the industry. It also means an employer is committed to training their staff correctly.

Either way you get qualified, choose a

training provider who uses qualified and experienced tradespeople for training and assessment, and uses up-to-date methods for training and education.

Author: Daniel Wurm is a fully qualified painter and decorator, with over 10 years experience as a qualified trainer and assessor for the industry. He is currently on the Technical Advisory Group for the update to the painting industry qualification, helped over 150 painters become qualified through RPL and apprenticeship training.

If you are aware of a college that does not follow this process, and cuts corners by not offering gap-training, or by accepting RPL applicants with

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2019 August Issue | 17

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Subcontractor Insurance

Requirements In the construction industry it’s very common for workers to operate as subcontractors, and it’s important to know your insurance requirements.

This means you are largely responsible for your own actions, and if something goes wrong, you could be financially exposed.

In this guide we’ll be looking at a range of common questions relating to subcontractor insurance requirements within the Australian building industry:

For this reason there are a number of different insurance types required by subcontractors in Australia.

• Do I need insurance as a subcontractor?

• What insurance do you need as a subcontractor?

• Do subcontractor insurance requirements vary by state?

• Does it matter if I’m a sole trader or company?

• How much does subcontractor’s insurance cost?

• How much public liability do subcontractors require?

• Are subcontractors covered by my insurance?

Do I need insurance as a subcontractor?

As a subcontractor you are running your own business, even if it’s just you as a sole trader.

What insurance do you need as a subcontractor?

There are two main forms of insurance required by subcontractors.

These are public liability insurance and income protection insurance.

Depending on your business activities you may also require professional indemnity insurance, but this is less common for most typical building trades.

Public Liability Insurance The most commonly required form of subcontractor insurance is public liability.

Public liability insurance will respond in the event that you cause property damage or personal injury to a third party. A third party could be your client or a member of the general public.

Minor claims for public liability

generally relate to property damage. For example you might be working in a roof and put your foot through the ceiling. As a subbie you’d be responsible for the cost of repairing and repainting the ceiling.

Larger claims typically relate to personal injury, and climb into the hundreds of thousands (or even millions) if you cause serious injury or death to another person as a result of your negligence.

It’s important to remember that you won’t always be covered by the main contractor’s insurance. If you are the one found to have been negligent, you are the one who will be held financially responsible.

For this reason, many building companies and contractors will have strict requirements in place that all subcontractors hold their own suitable public liability cover.

Even if the company engaging your services does not require that you hold public liability insurance, it is still incredibly important for your own protection.

2019 August Issue | 19

Income Protection Insurance As a subcontractor you are not covered by sick leave, and in many cases worker’s compensation won’t protect a subbie either.

different, but if you operate as a company in NSW you can access workers compensation, even if you’re a one-person company.

For this reason, income protection is not only important, but also mandatory for subcontractors on many worksites.

This may mean that you can hold workers compensation instead of income protection and may still meet the requirements of the company you are subcontracting to.

Income protection will cover a large percentage of your income for a period of time whilst you are unable to work due to injury or illness. As you won’t be receiving any sick leave, this is vitally important.

But remember that workers compensation is very different to income protection. It will only cover you for incidents at work, so if you simply fall ill or suffer an injury on the weekend, there is no cover.

Other insurance types For a typical trade business there are no other insurance types that are a mandatory requirement for subcontractors, but there are certainly others worth considering.

A good income protection policy will cover you for both accident and illness regardless of whether it’s related to your work or not.

Tool insurance is a common one, especially if you’re providing your own tools and equipment like most subbies do.

If your business is a little larger and operates from its own premises you’ll need more of a business package, but you.

Do subcontractor insurance requirements vary by state?

There is really no difference in the subcontractor insurance requirements from one state to another.

Note that the above only relates to a Pty Ltd company in NSW. If you’re a sole trader you cannot access workers compensation. We’ll cover this more in the next section.

Does it matter if I’m a sole trader or company?

For public liability insurance there will be no difference regardless of whether you operate as a sole trader or a company.

Either way, you will require public liability and there is no difference in the cover itself or the cost of the cover.

For public liability there is certainly no difference. Whichever state you operate in, you will need to have your own public liability insurance in place.

Income protection is no different.

The insurer will class you as selfemployed regardless of whether you operate as a sole trader or company, so the insurance will be the same either way.

There is one slight difference on the income protection side in NSW. It’s not that the income protection is

As mentioned in the previous section, if you operate as a Pty Ltd company in NSW you may be able

20 | Aussie Painters Network

to use workers compensation instead of income protection, but it is a very different type of cover.

How much does subcontractor’s insurance cost?

The cost of subcontractors insurance can vary widely depending on a number of different factors.

For public liability insurance, the cost will vary depending on the size of the business in terms of revenue or staff numbers, as well as the business activities and whether or not those activities are undertaken in hazardous locations.

For example if you’re a one-person business undertaking standard residential carpentry, the cost for the minimum $5 million cover will start from around $400 a year.

But if you’re a larger business with multiple staff undertaking higherrisk activities at locations such as airports or mine sites, the cost will be well into the thousands or even tens of thousands per year.

Income protection is different again. The cost of income protection for a subcontractor will depend on your age, occupation, smoking status and the trade you’re undertaking.

How much public liability do subcontractors require?

The amount of public liability insurance required by a subcontractor will largely depend on the companies they are contracting to.

Some companies may have no minimum requirement, meaning that you’d simply need the lowest amount of cover available, which in Australia is $5 million.

Other companies will require more, especially if they have you working in public places such as schools or shopping centres. In this case you’ll often find the requirement is $10m or $20m.

Chart - How much public liability insurance do i need Not all of these figures will come from subcontractors, but a large percentage of them will be.

This shows that most do go with the minimum $5 million cover, but a large percentage still choose the higher levels of $10m and $20m.

Are subcontractors covered by my insurance?

This is a very common question asked by those who are engaging subcontractors. They want to know if their public liability will cover their subbies.

The answer is almost always no.

Whilst there are a few exceptions, the main contractor’s public liability insurance will generally not cover the subbie where it is found the subbie was negligent.

If you are subcontracting to a company and they claim you will be covered under their insurance, it’s best to get written confirmation of this rather than risk being uninsured in the event of a claim.

www.traderisk.com.au 1800 808 800 2019 January Issue | 21

22 | Aussie Painters Network

There is a problem with retirement incomes, but it isn’t the super guarantee There is a case for not proceeding with, or at least further deferring, the legislated increase in employers’ compulsory superannuation contributions from 9.5% to 12%.

But the Grattan Institute’s latest analysis, published in The Conversation and elsewhere, does not make this case.

Rather, it demonstrates extremely well a totally different problem with our retirement incomes system, and falsely ties it to our 9.5% so-called “super guarantee”.

That problem is the pension assets test, tightened in 2017.

The problem is the pension assets test For a significant group of middle income earners, Grattan finds that an increase in savings through the super guarantee would lead to a reduction in lifetime incomes.

But that is equally true of a voluntary increase in savings, in any form other than increased investment in the family home.

A better designed assets test, preferably through a merging of the income and assets tests, would ensure that increased savings boosted at least retirement incomes. It would ensure that we didn’t penalise thrift.

Whether we should attempt to compulsorily increase in savings through the super guarantee is an entirely separate issue.

Grattan is right to point out that any increase in the guarantee would come at the expense of increases in wages. It falsely accuses proponents of an increase of insisting this would not be the case.

Perhaps some proponents of an increase do believe employers would or should bear much of the cost, but that is not consistent with the history of the super guarantee, one of whose strengths has been the sustainability of its funding by not adding to the cost of labour or inflation.

Those super ‘tax breaks’ scarcely exist

presentation of superannuation tax arrangements as “tax breaks”.

It is true that a shift in payments from wages to superannuation savings does, at that point in time, reduce tax revenue because of the difference between the contributions tax (generally 15%) and wage earners’ marginal tax rates (for most, at least 30%).

But what is the appropriate tax on savings, particularly savings that cannot be accessed until age 60?

The convention internationally is to exempt from tax entirely contributions and the earnings they generate, but to tax in full the benefits as they are paid out. If we did this, we would be imposing a greater immediate cost on the budget which would presumably be an even greater “tax break”. In reality we would be providing an appropriate tax regime for those looking to spread their lifetime earnings, in the knowledge that tax would be paid at the time they took money out.

Another annoying aspect of the Grattan piece is the continued

2019 January Issue | 23

Work done a few years ago for the Committee for Sustainable Retirement Incomes concluded that, after the Turnbull government’s superannuation tax reforms, our regime of a limited but progressive tax on contributions and earnings and no tax on benefits, produced very similar results to the conventional approach at all income levels, although it is implemented the other way around.

It means that by international standards there isn’t a tax break.

Moreover, as Grattan has demonstrated with its analysis of lifetime incomes, the impact of superannuation on age pensions disadvantages many people precisely because it saves the budget money in the long term.

The goal ought to be a comfortable retirement…

What would really help is if Grattan articulated what it considers to be the objective of the retirement incomes system, and focused its analysis on whether increasing the super guarantee would or would not help to achieve that objective, and at what cost.

The objective surely ought to be that Australians have secure and adequate incomes at and through retirement. “Adequacy” here has two components:

• sufficient to ensure no aged per-

son lives in poverty (the role of the age pension); and

• sufficient to maintain pre-retire-

ment living standards (which the role of superannuation and other savings, with the age pension contributing for people on less than average incomes)

24 | Aussie Painters Network

There are legitimate debates about how to determine “adequacy”, particularly the second component.

Read more: Frydenberg should call a no-

holds-barred inquiry into superannuation, now, because Labor won’t

Grattan claimed last year not only that the current 9.5% super guarantee would do the trick, but also that most current retirees (who have not accumulated anything like a lifetime of 9.5% of compulsory super savings) already receive adequate retirement incomes.

I remain convinced this is an extreme view, not consistent with international practice or analysis.

Perhaps the burden on some young families of increasing compulsory savings would be more than their circumstances allow (although there are other ways of assisting them).

A concern I have, however, is that Grattan seems to suggest not only that the super guarantee not be increased beyond 9.5% but that we would not then need to encourage most workers to voluntarily save more beyond that, including after their children grow older and become financially independent.

That seems to me short-sighted, and accepts a greater reliance on the age pension in the future than is desirable.

…which might mean contributions of more than 12% For those not eligible for an age pension (likely to be at least 40% of retirees into the future), maintaining pre-retirement living standards will require contributions of 15-20% (18% is the OECD average); for those eligible for some age pension, the contribution rate required will be lower but, even at typical earnings, would most likely be more than 12% according to Committee for Sustainable Retirement Incomes analysis.

Perhaps the current low rate of wages growth warrants a longer deferral of the next legislated increase (though it will be seven years since the last set of two 0.25% increases when the next increase of 0.5% is due to come into force in 2021, and real wages will have increased by much more than this in the meantime).

Source: Australian Tax Office

Whether such a contribution rate should be compulsory is a legitimate question.

Andrew Podger

Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University

2019 January Issue | 25

Creative ways to grow your business with a

GOVERNMENT GRANT 26 | Aussie Painters Network

There are many ways you can grow your business and plenty of business consultants will have a particular view on what the best way to do that is. Business advisors will get you involved in thinking about your business in a different way, present you with well thought out proposals that follow broadly accepted business planning frameworks.

If this is all double speak to you and your eyes start glazing over when someone starts talking business development strategy, let’s start at the beginning.

A business never grows in isolation.

Demand for particular services may change over time, as the market and consumer behaviour changes.

Your business needs employees with the right skills, and those may be hard to find sometimes, depending on the local labour market.

What’s ultimately important is that your business has the cashflow to support growth strategies. This is where an astute business owner can take advantage of the opportunities that many others may put into the too hard basket. The Australian and Queensland Governments have grant funding opportunities available to eligible businesses to help grow their business, improve employment opportunities and strengthen the economy.

Here’s a snapshot of grant opportunities available to businesses of all shapes and sizes.

BACK TO WORK PROGRAM Employers have a few quite a few things to consider when deciding how to build their business capac-

ity, especially when they want to take on another employee. One option is to apply for an Employer Support Payment.

Apprenticeship Network providers give advice and help with recruiting, training and retaining Australian Apprentices. Find out more here.

The Back to Work program makes support payments of up to $15,000 available to eligible employers who hire an eligible unemployed jobseeker in regional or South East Queensland.

SMALL BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR GRANTS PROGRAM

The decision to employ someone must be a business decision that is independent of the availability of the Back to Work support payment. However, if you are eligible your business could save a considerable amount of money in the financial year by participating in the program. That’s got to be good for your cashflow!

At the same time, your business is helping someone in your community to get back on track with their lives. There are some interesting case studies on the Back to Work website, which can give you practical ideas on how the program could work for you.

Youth Boost Payments of up to $20,000 are also available to eligible employers who hire an unemployed young jobseeker. Read more on the Back to Work program here.

This program is ideal if you want to ramp up your business and strategic planning to become a more effective business manager.

The Small Business Entrepreneur Grants Program can assist new small businesses to access professional advice and support in the critical early stages of establishing a business.

Matched funding of up to $5,000 (excluding GST) may be provided to eligible businesses to engage a consultant, advisor or business coach for up to 3 months to help establish or develop the business. The minimum grant funding amount is $1,000.

Payment will be made directly to the business on completion of the project and on presentation of proof of payment for the service.

Find out more here.

AUSTRALIAN APPRENTICESHIPS You can employ an apprentice on a part-time or full-time basis, even while they are still at school. When you hire an apprentice you may be eligible to receive incentives, however, they are subject to eligibility criteria, waiting periods and time limits.

Sandra Price

Mobile: 0468 944 130 VISIT US ON FACEBOOK

2019 January Issue | 27

Why a Grant Could Solve Your Business Growth Problems Resistance to the digital age can cost your business. Technology, software and App developments are coming at us a rapid rate. Watching this unfold in the painting and construction business from my vantage point as an accountant, I’m going to make a bold prediction: Business owners who are staying in the current orbit of their existing financial and job administration practices are missing out on incredible opportunities to grow their business.

If you don’t believe me, then you should consider this: Queensland Government has recognised this and are pushing millions of dollars through grant funding to help small business to develop growth strategies by moving into the digital age. Every year they are offering grants for this purpose and the next funding rounds will be open in a few weeks time.

Under their strategy “Advancing Small Business Queensland”, the Department issuing grants will continue to assess grant applications in the next funding round with the following strategic goal outcomes: • driving innovation • stronger businesses • growth and employment

28 | Aussie Painters Network

There are hundreds of grant programs available in Australia. It’s quite a task to wade through all the information that’s available. Unfortunately, many business owners who have limited time resources give up at the first hurdle.

For some it’s the overwhelm of the info that’s available and they get confused what grant scheme could be appropriate for their business.

Others just can’t understand the government speak, as the bureaucratic language is quite sterile. For some people, eligibility criteria can seem like a book with seven seals

These fears vanish the moment someone can talk to you in plain English about this subject and explains how a grant could help your business in a practical sense. You just need to be willing to have a conversation with someone who knows their way around the grants area.

In this article I will give you three reasons why you should consider to apply for a business growth or development grant when plotting your own business growth strategies.

2019 January Issue | 29

Construction Industry Mentoring Flyer BUSY At Work and Construction Skills Queensland (CSQ) have teamed up to offer a new and exciting mentoring program for apprentices and trainees in the construction industry.

Industry Specialist Mentoring for Australian Apprentices (ISMAA) provides individual support to Australian Apprentices and Trainees in the first two years of their apprenticeship or traineeship.

The program is aimed at industries where automation, robotics and other new technology or influences are changing the future roles of apprentices and trainees, and tradespeople.

BUSY At Work are proud to be delivering the ISMAA program on behalf of the Australian Government.

We will work intensively with apprentices to help them stay engaged, complete their training and achieve great things in their careers and to become the great tradespeople of the future.

Our ISMMA mentors have a wide range of experience and understand the changing nature of your industry.

Our Industry Specialist mentors will engage with the mentee to create a specific and individual mentoring plan to be implemented over a 6 month period.

Visits will focus on workplace and industry changes, future career options and new skills that may be required.

BUSY At Work believes this program will benefit all involved and help improve the retention rate of apprentices and trainees in the construction industry.

Tim Gillespie ISMAA Mentor - BUSY At Work 0438 869 227 Tim.Gillespie@busyatwork.com.au Visit busyatwork.com.au/ismaa

Industry Specialist Mentoring for Australian Apprentices (ISMAA) is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training.

30 | Aussie Painters Network

1. Learn From and Leverage Expert Knowledge Depending on the growth plan you’ve devised, you can approach expert service providers to assist you in implementing the proposal for which you’ve developed the grant application. Business growth happens on many levels, but for it to happen successfully and in a planned way, you need to have financial systems that help you monitor and support this growth phase.

Growing a business is also about learning how to manage a business better by keeping the finger on the pulse. Let’s say you have been successful in getting a grant to move your business into the digital age.

During the implementation of the funded project you will be able to learn directly from experts in the field, and the government grant will pay for part of it. Sound interesting?

2. You Don’t Need to Re-Invent the Wheel Especially in Brisbane, there is already a hub of business consultants who can help with the development of grant applications. As Accounting Consultant to the Profitable Painters Program I see many opportunities that business owners have to move their business into the digital age. They are exactly the type of opportunities that the Government is prepared to fund.

You need the right tools to create and monitor your budget, develop a tax plan, understand the financial health of your business and know when and how to invest your positive cashflow to bring in more sales. These are all tools that are well known, but they become even more powerful when integrated in digital systems that can support your business growth, be that bookkeeping, accounting or job management systems.

Once you have the sales flowing, the next step is learning to re-invest the cashflow into the business intelligently. More sales means more work, more work someone needs to do, so you can offer another person a job. Growing employment is one of the biggest performance indicators for the government. Grant applications that can demonstrate how their project proposal will benefit the business and create more employment are those that get the tick from Government.

3. You Don’t Have to Pay a Grant Back The primary advantage of grants is that, unlike loans, they don’t have to be repaid. They also don’t require the owners to surrender any equity in the business. A grant is a means of financial assistance designed to help a business grow, add locations in a specific area or serve some other designated purpose.

The way some of these grants are structured will allow small business owners to match the grant payment with the equivalent of input, either from their own business or via a service provider. You can look at it simply like this:

• When you apply for a loan to

implement business growth strategies, you have to pay back the loan with interest.

• When you apply for a grant, you need to match the funding amount, deliver the objectives of the funded business development project, and send a financial acquittal report to the funding body. Sometimes there are other acquittal conditions, it depends entirely on the grant program’s criteria. This sounds to me like an attractive option, same result for less than half the price.

Interested to find out more about business development projects that could be suitable for grant applications? Then call my office on (07) 3399 8844, or just visit our website at www.straighttalkat.com.au and complete your details on our Home page to request an appointment.

---------------------------------------------Copyright © 2019 Robert Bauman.

For example, when it comes to business growth, you need a business plan that helps you chart the path.

Business plans are a standard business development tool, but when integrated in a specific development project, even more powerful.

2019 January Issue | 31

32 | Aussie Painters Network

Good Bloke’s Don’t Get Paid

You’ve done the right thing by your client. You’ve completed the work, you’ve met the deadlines asked of you, and you’ve even thrown in some extras at no charge. Your client has not paid the last three progress claims but you haven’t complained too much. You have demonstrated that you are the easiest going hardest working contractor that the client is likely to find. Surely this means that you’ll ultimately be paid without any hassles, right?

Wrong.

You have suffered an attack of good bloke-itis. Key symptoms are; WORKING FOR NO PAYMENT The less you are paid the harder you work Agreeing to include additional work at no additional charge Allowing your client to hold you to your contractual obligations while not holding him to his obligations Doing everything you can not to be ‘difficult’ Contracting and subcon-

tracting bring with it a very strong culture of good faith and mateship.

Many contractors will sacrifice almost anything to keep the relationship with their client on an even keel because you’re both ‘good blokes’.

Essentially you are being a good bloke because you think that this is what the client values. The key thing you’re missing is this; the client doesn’t care about the relationship. The client values your work. That’s all. And so long as you keep doing it without making a fuss or insisting on payment the better a bloke you will be, even if you’re actually a complete bastard.

Further, the nicer a bloke you are trying to be, the more work you will do for nothing. And that is what your client loves.

So what we have here is a misalignment of values. The contractor is trying to look after the working relationship, where the client is trying to get the most work done for

the least payment. Sadly the contractors’ approach plays right into the client’s hands.

So stop being a good bloke. Be a businessman. If you complete work you are entitled to get paid for it. If you do additional work, then charge additional fees. Forget about being ‘mates’. Your client already has mates, and so do you.

You are entitled to firmly but politely insist that the business relationship should function as agreed between the both of you.

I have seen many earnest and sincere contractors get into severe cash flow problems because they have carried out so much work without payment, that their businesses cannot carry the cost any longer. Why did this happen? In the course of our discussions it became clear that this behaviour was caused by the contractor’s strong belief that, as long as he behaved like a ‘good bloke’, he would eventually get paid.

2019 January Issue | 33

This is a misplaced belief, and clients will take advantage of it.

tended periods for no money. Their client was a thief.

I was called by a contractor who had carried out multiple projects for the same client over 3 years. They had completed the works perfectly, and the client kept re-engaging them on new projects.

There was a pause in the conversation. It was like the lights going on.

These contractors finally saw how they had been used, and how they had been blinded to the true nature of the relationship: they were trying to be good blokes with a businessman. What they should have been is businessmen themselves.

But the contractor was now owed nearly a million dollars! Yet not once did this contractor issue a default notice, make a Payment Claim under the Security of Payment Act, suspend work, or make any other payment demand. The urge to remain ‘good blokes’ was so strong that it compelled these contractors to extend a million dollars in credit to their client! In addition they still thought of the client as a ‘good bloke’! After all, he kept handing them huge contracts and all the work they could handle.

I suggested that the client was only taking advantage of them, and only kept offering them more work because they had consistently demonstrated a willingness to work for ex-

34 | Aussie Painters Network

My view was only confirmed when we commenced strategies to get payment, which included suspending works under the contract. The client responded with a series of venomous letters and

unsubstantiated allegations, accusing the contractor of poor workmanship, causing damage, and mistreating other tradesman on site.

So much for being a good bloke. It was a savage lesson to learn, but a good one. In this instance the client was clearly aware that he had gotten away with non-payment for a very long time, and the moment the contractors put the pressure on, he lashed out.

It didn’t take long for my contractors to adopt a businessman mind-set, and we got busy running payment claims, suspending works, and sending letters of demand.

Anthony Igra

For more great articles and video information about dealing with payment problems go to www.contractorsdebtrecovery.com.au

or call us on 1300 669 075

2019 January Issue | 35

Marketing checklist for PAINTING BUSINESSES Marketing is the process of getting people interested in your painting business’s services. If your marketing messages are a bit of a mishmash, this 4-point checklist will help you paint a more consistent picture.

How do you immediately connect with our customers? With no clear brand identity or message, you’ll lose money through marketing instead of increasing sales. Let us turn the corner with this 4-point checklist:

Here are two real-life examples of business owners whose customer communication could use some polishing:

1. Create a professional logo

• Our local butcher recently won an award and took out an ad in the local paper to announce this achievement. The following day, I went to the butcher’s. There was no mention of the award win across the front window, and the trophy was out of sight!

• Our family ate a meal at Chinese restaurant advertised as ‘authentic Chinese’. In the background, ABC talkback was playing on the radio.

There is nothing authentic about that!

You are one of many painting businesses in your local area.

36 | Aussie Painters Network

The purpose of a logo is to create brand consistency. The idea is to apply your professionally designed logo across all your business communication and collateral in the same format, every time.

2. Establish a colour palette As a painter, you’ll understand the importance of choosing the right colours. Your business identity will also benefit from having the right colour palette to best communicate with your target customers.

3. Develop key messages Your key messages are the main points you want your customers to hear and remember, consistently.

These could include your business opening hours, contact information, and what distinguishes your business.

4. Set up a style guide A style guide is a set of standards for design or writing of documents to be followed by your team. A style guide provides boundaries on your company logo, and captures company colours and key messages.

This style guide should be applied consistently across all marketing tools: • • • • • • • • • • •

website business cards letterhead email signature advertising vehicles invoice books thank you cards invoices uniforms building signage.

When you market your painting business consistently, you’re telling your customers and prospects you’re a professional. It will provide an excellent first impression and help you stand out from your competitors.

Get started by thinking about why you’re different from other painters.

Steer away from the same words as everyone else, for example, excellence, reliable, professional. Instead, dig a little deeper.

Click here to book your FREE seat TODAY!

Ask yourself, “Why should customers care about my business?” Marketing is not really about you. You will find they want to know what’s in it for them.

For more ‘ah-ha’ moments that will fast track profits in your painting business, register for our Next Level Tradie free, live events.

Angela Smith

Co-founder – Lifestyle Tradie

“Helping Trade Business Owners Fast-Track Financial & Lifestyle Success”

2019 January Issue | 37

BUSINESS SUCCESS

What does it mean to you?

People define success differently, so what actually does it mean to you?

Is it how much money you earn?

How many staff you have? The size of the company? The lifestyle? The freedom? The challenge?

Defining success is important, but taking a clear-eyed look at the impact of your definition matters even more. As in most things your intent is important but the results provide the real answers.

About 25 years ago, to me success was always about how many employees I had and how large the contracts were. It was always the case that, ‘bigger is better’. The only trouble was, ‘bigger’ didn’t seem to be ‘better’ as I hoped for.

There were the continual problems of slow payers, staff issues, jobs not being ready (not good when you have multiple employees to find work for), long hours and of course, ‘the stress’. This is the case with a lot of business people. They have the tendency of working 10

38 | Aussie Painters Network

or more hours a day and also on weekends as they are focusing their attention exclusively on building their career.

Over the years I ‘woke up’ to myself and realised having a large team was not what I really wanted in my business and that a smaller number was more manageable and less stressful. I even found my business was more profitable doing it this way. Working directly with a client and not a builder, was also more pleasurable for me as there was that personal interaction with them. When it came to invoicing there was never the problem of payment as I made sure they were always happy when the job was completed. This gave me a constant cash-flow into my bank account and therefore the ability to pay my bills and wages on time. This in turn, relieved the stress that most business operators encountered.

I am far from being rich but I am very happy in what I am doing and

to me, this is how I interpret ‘business success’.

So determining whether you are successful should be based on one question: ‘How happy are you?’

Your level of success is based solely on your answer to this question.

If you’re making serious money but are unhappy on a personal level, then you haven’t embraced the fact that incredible business success often takes a heavy toll on a relationship. Other things should be clearly important to you besides just making money.

So think about what motivates you.

What do you want to achieve for yourself and your family? What do you value most, spiritually, emotionally, and materially? Those are the things that will make you happy, and if you aren’t doing them, you won’t be happy.

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圀伀刀䬀䤀一䜀 䄀吀 䠀䔀䤀䜀䠀吀匀

圀伀刀䬀䤀一䜀 䄀吀 䠀䔀䤀䜀䠀吀匀 䔀圀倀 匀䄀䘀䔀吀夀 匀䔀吀 唀倀 匀䔀儀唀䔀一䌀䔀 䘀伀刀 吀刀䔀匀吀䰀䔀匀 䄀一䐀 匀䔀吀 唀倀 匀 倀䰀䄀一䬀匀

䠀䄀娀䄀刀䐀伀唀匀 䴀䄀吀䔀刀䤀䄀䰀匀

夀伀唀刀 䐀唀吀夀 䤀䐀䔀一吀䤀䘀夀䤀一䜀 䄀匀䈀䔀匀吀伀匀 䤀䐀䔀一吀䤀䘀夀 圀䠀䔀刀䔀 䄀匀䈀䔀匀吀伀匀 䌀䄀一 䈀䔀 䘀伀唀一䐀 䔀一䌀䄀倀匀唀䰀䄀吀䤀一䜀 䄀匀䈀䔀匀吀伀匀 䰀䔀䄀䐀 倀䄀䤀一吀 䠀䄀娀䄀刀䐀匀 䰀䔀䄀䐀 倀䄀䤀一吀 刀䤀匀䬀 䌀伀一䐀唀䌀吀䤀一䜀 䄀 䘀䤀䔀䰀䐀 吀䔀匀吀 䘀伀刀 䰀䔀䄀䐀 䔀堀吀䔀刀䤀伀刀 倀刀䔀䌀䄀唀吀䤀伀一 倀刀䔀倀䄀刀䄀吀䤀伀一匀 倀刀伀吀䔀䌀吀䤀伀一 䄀䜀䄀䤀一匀吀 䰀䔀䄀䐀 䔀堀倀伀匀唀刀䔀 䌀伀一吀䄀䤀一䴀䔀一吀 䰀䔀䄀䐀 䄀䈀䄀吀䔀䴀䔀一吀 䐀刀夀 匀䄀一䐀䤀一䜀 䰀䔀䄀䐀 䄀䈀䄀吀䔀䴀䔀一吀 䌀䠀䔀䴀䤀䌀䄀䰀 匀吀刀䤀倀倀䤀一䜀 圀䔀吀 匀䄀一䐀䤀一䜀 圀䔀吀 䔀一䌀䄀倀匀唀䰀䄀吀䤀伀一 伀䘀 䰀䔀䄀䐀 䌀䰀䔀䄀一 唀倀 倀刀伀䌀䔀䐀唀刀䔀匀 伀䘀 䠀䄀娀䄀刀䐀伀唀匀 匀唀䈀匀吀䄀一䌀䔀匀 䠀䔀䄀䰀吀䠀 匀唀刀嘀䔀䤀䰀䰀䄀一䌀䔀

䴀礀 䠀漀甀爀氀礀 刀愀琀攀 䌀愀氀挀甀氀愀琀漀爀 䴀礀 倀愀椀渀琀 䌀漀猀琀椀渀最 䜀甀椀搀攀 40 | Aussie Painters Network

If operating a small business and making a decent living from it is your definition of success, embrace the fact that you may not get rich but you will have more time to enjoy yourself.

If building a large company is your definition of success, embrace the fact that you may not have a rich, engaged family life.

You can be fortunate enough though to have both of the above ‘if’ you are a smart business manager, and to these people I take my hat off to as it is not as easy as it seems. To be amongst this group you must be prepared to ‘let go’ and delegate a lot of your business responsibilities to other employees. This will free up precious time to enjoy life.

So forget traditional definitions of success. Forget what other people think. Ask yourself if you feel happy — not just at work, not just at home, not just in those fleeting

moments when you do something just for yourself, but overall.

If you can do this, then you’re successful. The happier you are the more successful you are.

If you aren’t happy it’s time to rethink how you define success, and start making changes to your professional and personal life that align with that definition, because what you’re doing now isn’t working for you.

I put the question on Social Media recently to see how others thought about business success and the answers were very similar. Besides the ‘Freedom’, ‘Family Life Balance’, ‘Financial Security’ and ‘Making a Difference’, there was the aspect of the clients and keeping them happy.

To them, this was success.

Kyle Passeri I’d like to think that I measure success by the success of my clients. If

my clients are able to enjoy a happier life after working with me, then I see myself as being successful.

Warwick King Happy clients, mean the word of mouth referrals continue. I can maintain pricing to reflect quality of work so work perpetuates, money comes in; the result; ‘happy wife, happy life’.

So ask yourself, ‘Are You Happy?’ If not; then think what you can do to rectify the situation.

Life is too short. Don’t waste it on being unhappy. Think about what you really want.

---------------------------------------------Jim Baker www.mytools4business.com

2019 January Issue | 41

The Industry

Idiots

42 | Aussie Painters Network

Important Contacts Aussie Painters Network www.aussiepaintersnetwork.com.au

Ph. 0430 399 800

National Institute for Painting and Decorating www.painters.edu.au

Ph. 1300 319 790

Australian Tax Office www.ato.gov.au

Ph. 13 72 26 / Ph. 13 28 65

Award Rates www.fairwork.gov.au

Ph. 13 13 94

Fair Work Building & Construction www.fwbc.gov.au

Ph. 1800 003 338

Mates In Construction www.matesinconstruction.com.au

Ph. 1300 642 111

Workplace Health and Safety Contacts Comcare WorkSafe ACT Workplace Health and Safety QLD Victorian WorkCover Authority WorkCover NSW SafeWork SA WorkSafe WA NT WorkSafe WorkSafe Tasmania

www.comcare.gov.au www.worksafe.act.gov.au www.worksafe.qld.gov.au www.vwa.vic.gov.au www.workcover.nsw.gov.au www.safework.sa.gov.au www.commerce.wa.gov.au/WorkSafe/ www.worksafe.nt.gov.au www.worksafe.tas.gov.au

1300 366 979 02 6207 3000 1300 362 128 1800 136 089 13 10 50 1300 365 255 1300 307 877 1800 019 115 1300 366 322

www.actcancer.org www.cancercouncil.com.au www.cancercouncilnt.com.au www.cancerqld.org.au www.cancersa.org.au www.cancervic.org.au www.cancerwa.asn.au

(02) 6257 9999 (02) 9334 1900 (08) 8927 4888 (07) 3634 5100 (08) 8291 4111 (03) 9635 5000 (08) 9212 4333

Cancer Council Australia ACT NSW NT QLD SA VIC WA

2019 January Issue | 43