Kain Muller : From Apprentice to Business Owner in the Whitsundays What Worked Well in Your Business This Year?
From the Editor
Hey Everyone,
Welcome to the 143rd issue of the Aussie Painting Contractor Magazine.
With just a month to go before we wrap up what has been an extraordinary year, it’s a great moment to reflect on the past 12 months. It’s been a year filled with challenges, milestones, and progress, both personally and professionally.
First, I want to share a personal moment of gratitude. After experiencing a heart attack in July, I’m thankful to be here, continuing to share this journey with you.
This year has been one of resilience and growth for Aussie Painters Network (APN), and I’m proud to highlight some of our key achievements:
• Training Success: Over 200 apprentices trained through our Salisbury facility this year, setting them up for success in the painting industry.
• Programs Delivered: We have completed three successful Skilling Queenslanders for Work Programs, providing vital skills and opportunities to participants.
• Apprenticeship Opportunities: More than 100 individuals were placed in trials for apprenticeships, paving the way for their professional development.
• “Painting Your Career” Program: Through the School to Work Transition initiative, students from the first three participating schools have already secured school-based apprenticeship trials, with many more to follow.
In addition, our “Women in Painting” initiative, soft-launched in July, has gained momentum.
The official launch is set for 21st February, and we’re excited to share more details about this program in this issue of the magazine.
This year, our team has been the backbone of our success. A heartfelt thank-you to Caroline, Rinny, Matt, Cheree, Steve, Mikayla, Meigan, Anne, Sean, and Renz . Your dedication and hard work make all of this possible. As we plan for 2025, I’m thrilled about what lies ahead.
Another highlight has been witnessing several completed apprentices start their own painting businesses. Mentoring them has been incredibly rewarding as we help them navigate the challenges of running a business. If you’re considering starting your own, remember we’re here to help! Don’t miss this issue’s cover story on Kain and his team, which is sure to inspire.
Personally, judging four State WorldSkills Competitions this year has been an honor, and I’m excited to serve as a National Judge for the 2025 WorldSkills event in Brisbane. Additionally, my work with NAWIC’s “Women on Tools” and “Male Allies” initiatives has been deeply fulfilling, helping drive industry change and understanding.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy, safe holiday season. Let’s finish this year strong and look forward to a bright 2025!
'Til next year, Happy Painting!!
'KISS' in your Business
Join Us for a Momentous Occasion: The Launch of Women in Painting
The Joy of Taking Care of My Life
Managing Debt and Creating a Debt Repayment System
Kain Muller : From Apprentice to Business Owner in the Whitsundays
Would a mandatory five-day working week solve construction’s work-life balance woes?
What Worked Well in Your Business This Year?
Is My Business Name TRADEMARKABLE?
Painting Your Career: Empowering School-to-Work Transitions
10 Productivity Tools to Help You Do More at Work Thoughts on Healthy Eating Don’t DIY Your Business Insurance
Productivity is often mistaken for wages. What does it really mean? How does it work? Industry Idiots
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 October 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.
‘K ISS
in your Business
By this, I don’t mean that you go around ‘smooching’ with your staff.
‘KISS’ is short for ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’. The principle was developed in the 1960s by the U.S. Navy as a design philosophy, emphasizing that systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated. ‘KISS’ was first brought to my attention in 2008 when a ‘Business Coach’ friend of mine, convinced me that I should write a book. He told me that to, “Keep It Simple”, was the key to its success. He was right. 2,500 copies of, ‘How To Become A Really Successful Painter’ alone, were purchased by Dulux Australia and Dulux New Zealand within the first two years of publication. The reason behind the huge interest was that it was easy to understand.
In business, the ‘KISS’ principle is important to use when it comes to marketing and communication. Businesses need to analyse how easy it is for a
prospective customer to fully understand what your product or service offers. Optimizing both your business’s primary channel for presenting itself (usually a website) and your marketing communications, is the best way to get customers’ attention and business.
When things are simple, they are easier to understand. Whether in communication or design, clarity minimizes the risk of misunderstandings and mistakes. A straightforward message is less likely to be misinterpreted than one full of jargon and complexity.
I remember when I created my first website (sooooo many years ago), I crammed in as much information as I could, (including half my life story). Although I feel the site worked for me back then, customers of today want you to get straight to the point of what you are offering. Time is very precious now-a-days and people just don’t have the time to read a ‘short story’ about your business, or your life.
Website:
1. Put important information front and centre: Consider what users see when they land on your business’s homepage. The information should be simple to understand. Add a clear statement about what your business does.
2. Make it easy to navigate: To attract and engage customers, companies need to have a vision for creating a simple and easy-to-use website. The average website bounce rate or the percentage of visitors who leave the website right after landing on it, is around 45 percent to 55 percent. The reason most visitors leave is that they cannot find what they are looking for easily. It is up to you to convey why your product or service is valuable immediately and then make it accessible.
3. Make it attractive: Customers prefer graphics and visuals to blocks of text. Neutral and basic colours are not always bad. Sometimes, they’re better than a complex colour palette that may be rough on customers’ eyes.
Marketing Communications:
1. Make it clear: Many businesses make the mistake of sending mailers, emails and/or advertisements that consumers need to spend time reading before they understand what the offer or benefit is. Those are wasted marketing dollars because people will not spend time deciphering what the mysterious offer is or what the company is trying to convey.
2. Avoid information overload: Some businesses think more information is better. The problem is that consumers do not appreciate information overload. Keeping marketing communications
simple across all channels and formats is the way to get consumers’ attention and business.
3. When presenting ideas or projects: Go for straightforward language. Avoid rambling and stick to key points that resonate with your intended customers. This habit not only conveys confidence but also enhances engagement.
Business Strategy:
1. Complexity often leads to inefficiencies: In processes or systems that incorporate too many steps or convoluted procedures, the chances of error increase, and time is wasted. Simplicity enables quicker decision-making and can streamline workflows, ultimately saving time and resources.
2. Facing complex problems: Individuals and teams can become bogged down in details. A focus on simplicity encourages creative thinking, allowing people to view problems from new angles and develop innovative solutions without being stifled by complexity.
3. Streamline processes: Regularly assess them for unnecessary complexities and eliminate redundant steps by leveraging tools that simplify workflows. This can lead to higher productivity and improved employee morale.
Conclusion:
In a complex world, simplicity is a powerful tool for success. The ‘KISS’ principle encourages us to strip away the unnecessary and focus on what truly matters, leading to better communication, enhanced efficiency, and greater satisfaction.
Jim Baker www.mytools4business.com
Women make up barely 3% of tradespeople. Aussie Painters Network is proud of the fact that 30% of the apprentices that come though our training facility are female.
Join Us for a Momentous Occasion: The Launch of Women in Painting
Aussie Painters Network is thrilled to announce the official launch event for Women in Painting, a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to empowering women in the painting and decorating industry. Save the date: Friday, 21st February 2025.
We’re calling on all female apprentices, tradies, support organisations, and industry suppliers to come together for this special occasion. Whether you’re just starting your journey in the trades or a seasoned professional, your voice matters in shaping the future of our industry.
Join us for a relaxed and inspiring afternoon. Enjoy a drink, connect with like-minded individuals, and celebrate the incredible contributions of women in painting and decorating. This event is not just about celebration—it’s a platform to share ideas and tell us what’s needed to better support women in their careers.
Why Attend? Women are making waves in the painting and decorating industry, but there’s more work to be done. This launch event is your chance to:
Celebrate the achievements of women in our field. Network with peers, mentors, and industry leaders.
Share your thoughts on what the industry can do to foster inclusion, opportunity, and success for women.
Event Details:
Date: Friday, 21st February 2025
Time: from 2pm to 6pm – Please feel free to drop in at any time throughout the event.
Location: Aussie Painters Network, Unit 2/16 Perrin Place, Salisbury Qld
Let’s make this event a memorable one, paving the way for a brighter, more inclusive future in painting and decorating. Mark your calendars, spread the word, and stay tuned for more details.
We can’t wait to see you there
Caroline Miall
info@WomenInPainting.com.au
www.WomenInPainting.com.au 0413 345 595
The Joy of Taking Care of My Life
When I was younger, I had a hard time doing some basic things like:
• Paying bills
• Keeping the house clean
• Running errands
• Doing yard work
• Doing car and house maintenance
• Taking care of my health
• Stay on top of work tasks
I always knew that I “should” do these things, but they felt like too much back then. Avoiding taking care of things always left me feeling like my life was a mess.
These days … I’m not at all perfect at any of the above … but I’m so much better at it. And it leaves me feeling like my life is taken care of.
Which leaves me feeling like I’m worth taking care of.
So how did I transform this? I’ll share that journey in this article.
The Start of the Transformation
In the beginning, I just knew that I wanted my life to not be such a big mess. But it felt too overwhelming to take on everything, and I kept failing at my efforts.
The transformation really started when I decided that I was going to take really small steps. One at a time. In one or two areas at a time:
• Clean my sink (and slowly expand to the whole kitchen)
• Pick up my clothes and put them away immediately
• Pick up one bill from my pile and take care of it (or make a plan to do so)
• Put on my running shoes and get outside, even for just 5-10 minutes
• Floss one tooth
That last one really gets people. But I spent years struggling to get the flossing habit going, and feeling really bad that I couldn’t do it. Then I saw a talk where someone said this is how they formed the flossing habit, and it sounded so easy I couldn’t say no. So I started. Now I floss almost every night.
These tiny steps make a huge difference over time. They won’t change everything all at once, but they do change everything.
The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything
The real shifts were internal. I had a bunch of mindset shifts:
• It’s easier to do it now than to tackle a huge pile later
• It feels so good when things are getting taken care of
• A cleared surface is so much more beautiful than a piled up surface
• Things that are neglected fall to ruin
But there was a small mindset shift that actually was the biggest shift for me: it can be really lovely to take care of things.
I found that I can enjoy the simple act of cleaning up. I learned to love clearing clutter, or emptying out an inbox.
For me, clearing things out and making things orderly is deeply satisfying.
Once I realized that, it became easy. Joyful even!
The
Joyful
Way It Looks These Days
So how do I take care of my life these days? In so many ways. But with a sense of glee!
I start each week by clearing out my inboxes, and putting my tasks in order, and setting my intentions for the week. It makes me feel clear and happy.
I start and finish my day by making sure the kitchen is in order and things are put away. And by flossing and brushing my teeth. This helps me feel that there’s a bit of order to my life.
If I see an area that can use some tidying, I do it during my breaks, so I get a little movement in. I go back to work after the break feeling more satisfied.
If yard or house maintenance is too much to do during my breaks, I save it for the weekend. And then I enjoy the feeling of taking care of my family.
I do a workout almost every day, and feel like I’m honouring my wonderful body.
I make sure my bills are paid and my budget is up-todate every morning. It makes me feel like my money is happy.
In each area, I’m taking care of my life, my family, my body, my business. I’m bringing a little bit of order to the chaos of the world. And I’m giving myself a lovely, satisfying experience.
May you find this joy as well.
Leo Babauta ZEN HABITS
Managing Debt and Creating a Debt Repayment System
Debt can be a significant burden on one’s financial life. It can cause stress, anxiety, and make it difficult to achieve financial goals. However, with a little planning and dedication, anyone can create a debt repayment system and get on the path to financial freedom.
Here are some tips for managing debt and creating a debt repayment system:
Take Stock of Your Debt
The first step in managing debt is to understand the extent of the problem. Make a list of all the debts you have, including the balance owed, interest rate, and monthly payment. This will help you determine which debts to tackle first and give you a clear picture of your overall debt situation.
Focus on High-Interest Debt
High-interest debt, such as credit cards or personal loans, should be your top priority. These debts often have interest rates of 15% or higher, making them the most expensive debts to carry. By paying off high-interest debt first, you can save money on interest charges and free up more money to pay off other debts.
Create a Budget
To pay off debt, you need to free up money in your budget. A budget can help you track your expenses, identify areas where you can cut back, and allocate more money towards debt repayment. Be sure to include debt payments as a fixed expense in your budget, so you don’t fall behind on payments.
Consider Consolidating Debt
If you have multiple high-interest debts, consolidating them into one loan can make it easier to manage and potentially lower your interest rate. You can consolidate debt by taking out a personal loan or using a balance transfer credit card. Just be sure to compare interest rates and fees to ensure you’re getting a good deal.
Make Extra Payments
Making extra payments towards your debt can help you pay it off faster and save money on interest charges. Even small extra payments can make a big difference over time. Consider using any extra money you receive, such as a tax refund or bonus, towards debt repayment.
Automate Payments
Setting up automatic payments for your debt can help you stay on track and avoid late fees. Many lenders and credit card companies offer automatic payments, so you don’t have to worry about remembering to make a payment each month.
Stay Motivated
Paying off debt can be a long and challenging process, but staying motivated can help you stick to your
debt repayment plan. Set small goals along the way, such as paying off a credit card or reaching a certain milestone, to help you stay on track.
In conclusion, managing debt and creating a debt repayment system requires discipline, dedication, and a plan. By taking stock of your debt, starting with high-interest debt, creating a budget, considering consolidating debt, making extra payments, automating payments, and staying motivated, you can pay off debt and achieve financial freedom. Remember, it’s never too late to start, and every small step towards debt repayment counts.
Need some help?
Book a strategy session HERE to see how we can improve your bottom line.
From Apprentice to Business Owner in the Whitsundays Kain Muller :
I sat down with Kain and had a discussion about how far he has come from the day he started his apprenticeship with Aussie Painters Network, to now running a successful team of 5.
Starting an apprenticeship in 2016 at just 18 years old, Kain Muller began a journey that would shape his career and establish him as a prominent painter in the Whitsundays. Completing his four-year apprenticeship at 22, Kain reflects on an experience that tested his limits but ultimately molded him into the skilled tradesman he is today. “All the hard yards made me the painter I am,” he shares.
Two years post-apprenticeship, an unexpected turn of events pushed Kain into entrepreneurship sooner than planned. “I got let go from my employer and had to jump straight into the deep end,” he recalls. The transition wasn’t easy. Managing finances, handling quotes, invoices, and working 40-50 hours a week as a one-man team for seven months was daunting. But Kain’s dedication to quality work and maintaining a strong reputation laid a solid foundation for his business.
“Nothing was easy about starting,” Kain admits. “Staying on top of everything and ensuring work is done properly the first time helped prevent call-backs and built my client base.” Now, Muller Painting Whitsundays is a growing business with a skilled team committed to continuous improvement, strong communication, and attention to detail.
Kain attributes his growth to valuable advice: “Don’t fear failure—it’s a stepping stone to improvement. Build your own empire, create systems, and always strive to double your efforts.” His advice for aspiring business owners is straightforward: “Don’t rush. Be persistent and ask for help from those around you.”
Reflecting on his achievements, Kain takes pride in building a skilled, positive team and growing a business from scratch. His biggest success lies in fostering a team culture that emphasizes learning, collaboration, and delivering high-quality results. Today, Muller Painting Whitsundays continues to thrive, demonstrating that persistence and quality craftsmanship are key to long-term success in the painting industry.
Kain’s team currently consists of five painters, all under the age of 30, including his leading hand, Larry, who did his apprenticeship alongside Kain, and three apprentices—all of whom were or are currently being trained by myself. It is something I really enjoy being involved with. Seeing an apprentice turn up to training for the first time, watching them grow through the years of learning, and then seeing them build a successful business is incredibly rewarding.
With the team all being young and sharing similar interests, they often go to the gym together and enjoy fishing when the weather is good. Kain has cultivated a balanced team culture where it’s not all work. “If you get the job done, we all get to play,” he says. This approach has created a motivated and cohesive team that reflects Kain’s commitment to both professionalism and camaraderie.
Nigel Gorman nigel@aussiepaintersnetwork.com.au
Would a mandatory five-day working week solve construction’s work-life balance woes?
Working practices in the construction industry have been labelled a relic of a bygone era – 64% of employees work more than 50 hours per week.
Long working hours can pose significant risks to people’s physical and mental health, relationships, workplace productivity and safety.
Construction is also struggling to attract and retain women. In New South Wales, about one-third of companies with fewer than 200 employees have no female employees at all.
These are serious problems for an industry under pressure to deliver 1.2 million new homes and A$230 billion of infrastructure over the next five years. Clearly, something needs to change.
Start your day with evidence-based news. One proposal is to mandate a five-day week across the sector. On face value, it may seem like common sense. Making the construction sector a more attractive place to work could attract more talent and, by doing so, alleviate other pressures.
Our research questions this assumption, highlighting that without careful design, such a proposal could have significant unintended negative consequences.
Read more: Australia's construction industry needs more hands on deck – so why is it ignoring skilled migrant women?
Work–life balance
To investigate the potential impacts of a shorter work week on work–life balance, we surveyed 1,475 people and conducted interviews with 111 people from across the NSW building and construction industry. We also examined leading international peer-reviewed studies.
We found that the relationship between a healthy work–life balance and a shorter working week is much more nuanced than the current debate suggests.
On average, respondents worked 50-55 hours per week.
sculpies/ Shutterstock
There certainly was evidence of unhealthy working hours in some parts of the industry. Of the people we surveyed, 39.8% consistently worked more than five days per week.
We also found 26.1% worked more than 55 hours per week, and 36.7% more than ten hours per day.
The industry needs to be made more appealing to both men and women. Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
But we should be careful not to generalise. Young people, those in relatively junior roles and workers on sites – especially salaried managers and supervisors – were found to be doing the heavy lifting in terms of hours and days worked.
This was especially true on large inner-city commercial, residential and infrastructure projects.
Across all respondents, people worked an average of 50–55 hours per week, and just over five days. More than 60% said they had satisfactory, good or very good work–life balance.
Different needs
We also found that not everyone’s work–life balance will benefit from simply reducing working hours.
For construction workers, this depends on a wide range of factors, such as:
• age
• caring and family responsibilities
• financial circumstances
• how easily a particular job can be done in five days
• personal attitudes towards work.
It’s also not clear whether a shorter working week would increase female participation.
Across men and women surveyed, high salaries were widely regarded as adequate compensation for the high hours worked. Some research has even shown women
might be less likely to leave the industry than men.
Our findings suggested women who take on the weight of family responsibilities could be especially disadvantaged, if they were forced to work even longer hours during the week to make up for the lost weekend.
However, most respondents saw the delineation between men and women as increasingly irrelevant and based on outdated assumptions. Most argued that the industry needs to be made more appealing to both men and women.
Strong support for a shorter week
Not surprisingly, we found strong support for a shorter working week. However, it’s a bit of a leading question.
We found that few people were willing or able to take a pay cut, work longer hours or lift their productivity during the week.
Many people were also worried about potential impacts on their projects, employers and colleagues. Few employers and clients said they were able or willing to absorb the costs of a shorter working week.
Impact on projects
Depending on a wide range of factors identified in our report, the consequences of moving the industry to a five-day week varied.
We found it could increase the time it takes to complete projects by 5–25%, and costs by 0.4–4%.
The current “hard five-day week” model being advocated for the industry – where sites are shut down on weekends – involved the greatest potential costs.
Importantly, we found subcontractors were currently underpricing five-day-week projects by as much as 20%, because they could spread the costs across other six-day projects.
A move to a hard five-day week could increase costs for subcontractors. Mikael Blomkvist/Pexels
If a five-day week were mandated across the entire industry, this cost increase could be added to the costs estimates above.
The jury is out
The jury is still out on the pros and cons of a mandatory five-day week in construction.
We found that a healthy work-life balance for everyone is most effectively achieved by providing people with greater flexibility and control over when, where, how and how long they work.
If flexibility can be improved for everyone in the industry, then there is no need to incur the potential risks of a mandatory five-day week to individuals, employers and clients of the industry.
If we insist on adopting a five-day week, then a soft five-day week where sites are flexibly kept open on weekends may be the better option.
Martin Loosemore Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney
Suhair Alkilani Senior Lecturer in Construction Management
• Get your invoices out on time
• Stop ch asing debtor s and get
• Better manage rece ipts and paperwork
• Lodge your BAS on time - don't cop a fine
• Stop mi ssing deductions
• Plan ahead and measure how you're going
What Worked Well in Your Business This Year?
The end of a the year is the perfect time to reflect on what’s working in your business, and to set some goals for the year ahead. As you kick back over the holidays, set aside some time to think about your recent achievements, and any current challenges. Think about your work style, too. If you’re like many small business owners, you may be guilty of bad habits that can hold your business back, such as:
• Taking on too many roles and responsibilities
• Not giving yourself enough time off
• Difficulty separating your work and personal life, and
• Micromanaging staff and responsibilities.
This article will help you commit to a few important tweaks to your business that will help you move forward in the year ahead.
Start brainstorming on paper Grab a pen and paper and give yourself enough time to answer the following questions. You might want to write through each question, or, if you’re a more visual thinker, sketch out a mind map. Either way, putting pen to paper will record your thoughts, and can lead to insights about your business that might surprise you.
Now ask yourself:
• What is your vision for your business? Has it changed?
• What areas need improvement? Don’t just think about sales and profits. Think about your team, clients, systems, and personal satisfaction.
• Which areas do you want to prioritize? How can you address any issues?
• What excites you about your business? How can you ignite that passion and maintain the motivation to seek out what challenges you, and brings you happiness?
• What parts of your business do you dread? How can you offload these tasks to someone else – a manager, staff member, or virtual employee?
Once you’ve brainstormed answers to these five questions, try to come up with five clear resolutions that will help take your business where you want it to go.
Of course, you may think of more than five changes you’d like to make. Stick to five as your guideposts for the new year, so you aren’t overwhelmed. Then take all those great ideas you generated, and include them in your next business plan update.
Final thoughts
If you’re one of the many entrepreneurs out there who wears too many hats, and doesn’t schedule enough time off, consider how you might improve productivity and save time. One possibility might be as simple as changing your bookkeeping practices.
For instance, if you’re still using an outdated accounting system, you may be habitually spending unnecessary hours tracking expenses, and constantly misplacing business receipts you’ll need at year end to claim deductions. An accountant can help you get
organized with an improved system to streamline your daily financial management, using technology— such as a cloud-based accounting solution—paired up with proven best practices.
Time management is a major concern for most business owners—and better bookkeeping is just one way to save time so you can focus on what really matters: business development, customers, and sales.
What changes are you looking forward to making for your business, to pave the way for a successful year ahead?
Interested to find out more about how to make your business fire on all cylinders next year? 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 FREE Business Health Check.
Please Note: Many of the comments in this article are general in nature and anyone intending to apply the information to practical circumstances should seek professional advice to independently verify their interpretation and the information’s applicability to their particular circumstances.
Copyright © 2024 Robert Bauman.
Is My Business Name TRADEMARKABLE?
Choosing a business name is a critical first step in building a strong brand identity. However, not every business name is eligible for trademark registration. In Australia, registering your business name as a trademark provides exclusive rights to use, license, and protect your brand against misuse within your industry. Let’s look deeper into the question: Is my business name trademarkable ?
Registering a Business Name with ASIC vs Registering a Trademark
It’s important to understand the difference between registering a business name with ASIC and registering it as a trademark.
• ASIC Registration: Registering your business name with ASIC is a legal requirement to operate a business in Australia. However, this only prevents others from registering the exact same or a similar name. It does not offer intellectual property protection or exclusive usage rights.
• Trademark Registration: Registering your business name as a trademark with IP Australia provides exclusive rights to use your name or logo within your registered class of goods or services. This legal protection allows you to take action against anyone using a name that’s identical or deceptively similar to yours within your industry.
Key Takeaway: While ASIC registration is an essential compliance step, trademark registration safeguards your brand identity and intellectual property, giving you legal recourse against infringement.
Benefits of Registering a Trademark in Australia
Trademark registration offers a range of benefits that strengthen your business and protect your brand:
1. Exclusive Rights: Gain exclusive rights to use your trademark for the goods or services listed in your registration. This helps establish brand identity and legal exclusivity.
2. Brand Protection: Protect your brand from misuse or infringement. Take action if someone uses a similar mark in your industry. If someone else uses a similar or identical mark within the same class of goods and services, you have the legal upper hand to take action.
3. Enhanced Asset Value: Trademarks grow in value as your brand expands, making them a valuable asset when selling your business.
4. Legal Simplicity: A registered trademark simplifies legal processes, proving ownership and protecting your rights.
Top Reasons Why Trademarks Are
Rejected
Understanding common reasons for trademark rejections can help you avoid costly mistakes:
• Descriptive Terms: Names that describe the product or service (e.g., “Fast Plumbing”) lack the distinctiveness required for trademark protection.
• Geographic Locations: Trademarks featuring geographic names (e.g., “Sydney Fencing”) are usually not allowed unless they have acquired distinctiveness.
• Common Surnames: Common surnames (e.g., “Smith Electrical”) are often rejected unless the name has developed a unique association with your services.
• Similarity to Existing Marks: If your name or logo is too similar to an already registered trademark, it may be rejected to prevent consumer confusion.
Why Legal Guidance is Essential
Trademark registration can be a complex process. Our experienced trademark lawyers can help you navigate every step, ensuring the best chance of success:
• Assessing ‘Trademarkability’: We evaluate your business name against legal criteria to determine if it can be trademarked.
• Comprehensive Searches: Our thorough trademark searches ensure your name won’t infringe on existing marks, reducing the risk of objections.
• Application Management: We handle the paper work, manage objections, and streamline the registration process.
Take Action to Protect Your Brand
Don’t risk losing your brand identity to competitors or infringers. Secure your business name as a registered trademark today.
Contact us: Our expert trademark lawyers are here to help you protect your business and build a strong, secure brand. Visit our website or call us to schedule a consultation and start the process.
Remember, while this information provides a general overview, legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances is invaluable. Don’t hesitate to contact Rise Legal for personalised guidance or book in a free Discovery Call.
Painting Your Career:
Empowering School-to-Work Transitions
The Painting Your Career, School to Work Transitions program, proudly powered by the Queensland Government’s Queensland Workforce Strategy 2022-2032, continues to gain traction as a vital pathway for high school students transitioning into trades. Since its inception, this initiative has opened doors for young individuals to explore rewarding careers in painting and decorating, providing them with hands-on experience and a clear path to employment.
As the word spreads about the program’s success, Employment Pathways Officers are reaching out to connect their schools with this transformative opportunity. We’re thrilled to announce that six high schools are ready to kick off their participation in early 2025. Among these are two local First Nations high schools, whose students have expressed a strong eagerness to dive into the program and take the first steps toward thriving careers in the trades.
Success Stories
The impact of Painting Your Career is already evident in the achievements of students who have completed the program. Several participants are now trialling school-based apprenticeships, combining their education with practical, on-the-job training. Not only are they gaining invaluable industry experience, but they’re also enjoying the benefit of earning a holiday income—a rewarding glimpse into the financial independence and satisfaction that come with skilled work.
Looking Ahead
As we prepare to welcome new schools and students in 2025, the excitement and momentum surrounding the program continue to grow. This collaboration highlights the power of partnerships between schools, industry, and government to address workforce needs and create lasting opportunities for young people.
The Painting Your Career program is more than a pathway—it’s a stepping stone for students to build their futures, contribute to their communities, and find pride in their work. We look forward to seeing more students thrive in their apprenticeships and careers, and we’re committed to expanding the program’s reach to ensure as many young people as possible can benefit from this unique initiative.
Get Involved
If you have links to a VET focussed high school in South East Queensland you think might interested in joining the Painting Your Career program, reach out to us to learn how we can work together to support the next generation of skilled workers. Together, we’re painting a brighter future for Queensland’s workforce!
Caroline Miall
www.aussiepaintersnetwork.com.au 0413 345 595
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10 Productivity Tools to Help You Do More at Work
In today's fast-paced world, everyone wants to be more productive. Fortunately, there is an everincreasing number of tools, many of them available online and across multiple devices, that promise to help us achieve our goals. The challenge then becomes how to know not just which tools will live up to their promise but which tools are right for our business.
Choosing the best productivity tools depends on a number of factors, from the business size, type, and location to understanding where and how we, as individuals and teams, can work more efficiently. That's why any list of the most useful tools for any business starts with time tracking tools to help you determine what kinds of tasks take up your time and where you might find opportunities to be more productive.
Individuals and businesses that charge or are paid by the hour are familiar with these tools, but anyone who juggles a variety of tasks or multiple projects can benefit from the insight they provide, particularly if
they are being asked to take on more responsibilities or additional projects.
Two of the best time tracker applications are:
• Rescue Time - Once installed, this application runs in the background analyzing your daily work pattern and how much time you spend on each activity.
There are two versions. The free one has limited capabilities, primarily tracking websites visited and applications used. The paid premium version tracks off-line time and provides more detailed reports, making it better suited to larger organizations.
• Toggl - This robust time tracker is popular with freelancers because it plays well with others, be they mobile devices or other software tools. Toggl offers four levels of service, including a free version with limited reporting, team management, and project management capabilities, as well as three paid versions which allow it to be scaled to the needs of your organization.
Once you know where time is going, it's much easier to identify opportunities for working smarter, more efficiently and more productively. Which productivity tools will be most helpful will depend on what you discovered while tracking your time, but here are eight tools that can help solve or at least reduce common issues that distract and slow down the workflow.
Effective communications can be a stumbling block for many organizations. Whether you are dealing with a large business having multiple departments or a virtual company with a distributed team, connecting people and information is quickly and easily is paramount to being productive. Four of the best tools for achieving better communications are:
• Slack - This popular messaging platform not only helps collaborators and co-workers communicate over distances and even in the same office, it helps organize the conversations and keep them all inhouse.
Users can message each other or collaborate with an entire group across both mobile devices and desktop computers. Free and paid versions are available.
• Evernote - Everyone takes notes, at meetings, during presentations, when reading email or even surfing the web. This handy tool gives you a place to store your notes as well as a means of organizing them that allows you to access information when and where you need it, from your computer or mobile device. Best of all, it's free.
• Google Drive - Version control can be painful in many organizations, especially if more than one person is working on a document. That's why Google Drive is such a great asset. It makes tracking changes a breeze, supports a variety of file types from PDFs to photos and stores it all in the cloud, so everything is available from anywhere you have internet access. Initially free, you'll pay for more storage space if you need it.
• Tettra - This indispensable tool isn't widely known, making it your secret productivity weapon. Tettra is a centralized knowledge base and knowledge management system that puts vital information at the tips of your fingers. This tool also reduces the tendency of organizations to silo key information with a limited number of knowledge experts whose loss would deliver a serious blow to a company or project.
Most businesses organize what they do in terms of projects or products. Managing projects has even be-
come a career path for some. Fortunately, you don't need to hire project managers to manage your projects more efficiently. Two popular productivity tools especially useful in keeping projects on track are:
• Asana - Asana has been around since 2008, making it one of the most robust and stable tools for project management available. You can create unique tasks for each project or develop templates that can be used repeatedly across your business. Asana also allows you to create strategic calendars, set reminders and send requests between team members. Free and paid versions.
• Trello - This visual project management app helps individuals and teams see their workflow, which can make it easier to keep projects on track. Trello is versatile and plays well with others including Slack, Google Drive and Evernote, allowing everyone to know where a project stands at a glance. Free and paid versions.
Keeping projects on track is great, but sometimes you need something to keep you on track. Planners, to do lists, reminders and post-it notes work but can get cluttered. They also tend to encourage multitasking rather than helping you focus. These two productivity tools are task managers that will help you get more done by doing one thing at a time. They are:
• Hello Focus - More than just a to-do list, Hello Focus helps you prioritize tasks so you can work more efficiently. Multiple views so you can see what you or your team are working on today, this week or this month.
• TaskQue - is a free tool that uses algorithms to balance workloads. This is a fantastic tool for managers because it helps reduce employee burnout and overload. Simply group similar resources and assign a task to a group then track it to completion. Completely cloud-based.
Productivity is a difficult thing to master. Hopefully, these ten tools will help you along your journey and allow you to reclaim some of your valuable time.
Sandra Price
www.tradiebookkeepingsolutions.com.au
Thoughts on Healthy Eating
Eating healthy is something I’ve been a bit obsessed with for the last couple of decades, and I’ve transformed my eating in some really fundamental ways:
I eat way less junk food than before I have developed a real love for whole, nutritious foods
I’m vegan (for ethical reasons)
I don’t often eat to comfort myself (sometimes I do)
When I do eat comfort foods, I’m no longer harsh with myself
These are huge transformations for me, and they’ve changed my health and my mindset towards health.
At 51 years old, I feel incredibly healthy — and I’d like to share my thoughts on healthy eating, in case it might help. That doesn’t mean I think I’m perfect, or even better than anyone else — but I always appreciate learning from how others approach healthy eating, and I’m hoping you’ll appreciate my approach.
How I Think About Healthy Eating
I used to think about healthy eating as this sacrifice that I needed to make in order to be “good” — whatever that means. Like, if I was eating unhealthy foods, then it was something shameful I was doing to myself.
As you can imagine, that’s not very helpful. Society gives us messages that we should be ashamed if we eat junk food (it’s even in the name), when all we’re really trying to do is enjoy good food, or comfort
ourselves. These are not shameful things!
That said, I do think there are foods that are nourishing for my body, and help it to grow into something strong, alive, and prepared to handle life’s challenges.
And so I don’t shame myself anymore for eating sweets, fried foods, snacks … I enjoy them! But I also have found the eating approach that makes me feel amazing in my life, and that’s what I try to do most of the time.
What I Find Important
The most important thing to me are to eat whole, plant foods … most of the time.
Those include:
• Vegetables of all kinds (especially greens)
• Beans & lentils
• Whole grains (including brown rice, oats, etc.)
• Potatoes of various kinds
• Fruits of ALL kinds!
• Nuts and seeds
If my meal is almost all whole plant foods, then I feel incredible. These foods are so good for my body.
Now, I don’t think animal foods are necessarily bad for you — you don’t have to be vegan to be healthy. If I were to eat animal foods, I would probably eat mostly fish and some poultry, but I don’t see a need to do so for my health, and would prefer not to harm other beings if it’s not absolutely necessary.
I thrive on these foods, and my health is excellent (I do get everything tested every year or so).
My Favorite Meals & Foods
So what do meals look like when you eat mostly whole plant foods? Well, there’s a TON of incredible recipes out there, but I’m pretty boring. I eat mostly the same meals every day, because it’s just easier for me to prepare a big batch and not have to think about it.
Some of my favorites:
• Lentils & steamed kale — I eat a big plate of cooked green/brown lentils and kale, and season it all with soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, cayenne powder, and nutritional yeast (a recipe from my friend Jesse)
• Lentil soup — I sautee onions, mushrooms, carrots and broccoli in my Instant Pot, then throw in lentils, kale, cubed tofu and veggie broth with spices (rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaves, black pepper). High pressure for 10 minutes, put some lemon juice or balsamic vinegar on top to season
• Oats with berries or bananas and seeds, with cinnamon
• Tofu scramble with lots of veggies
• Baked sweet potato with hummus and avocado!
• Bananas with peanut butter is my treat
• Protein shake with pea protein and soy milk if I do a weight workout
I also love vegan chili, veggie burgers, pasta, lasagna, Thai curry, and more. But the meals above are my faves.
How I Learned to Love These Foods
I’ll admit, I didn’t always love vegetables, or things like lentils or quinoa or tofu. I was a meat eater, and loved fast food and snacks.
The way I learned to love the foods I mentioned above is … slowly.
First, I adapted my favorite dishes to be slightly more healthy. I diced up carrots and greens and put it in spaghetti sauce and chili. I would eat a small side salad with my dishes, and season it with crunchy things.
Then I would eat veggies with things that made them taste better — hummus, salad dressing. I’d eat sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon.
Eventually I really embraced veggies, and would eat a HUGE salad for lunch, and would make steamed or raw veggies the biggest part of my meals.
Finally, I slowly started to cut out sugar from many of my meals, fried less of my foods, and cut out greasy things for the most part. And explored more and more delicious healthy foods.
Staying
on the Path
I’ll admit, I go on stretches where I don’t eat the healthiest … maybe a couple of weeks where we have a lot of visitors and I’ll just eat whatever we’re making for them, or eat out a lot more. I tend to eat less healthily during the holidays, or when I travel.
I’m OK with all of that!
I’ve learned to not beat myself up, and just enjoy the food. Why not enjoy life?
But then I’ve learned to just get back on track. Each day is a fresh start, where I can decide what will nourish my body the most. And more and more, I make choices that are delicious and nutritious, and are a part of the life that I love.
Leo Babauta ZEN HABITS
Don’t DIY Your Business Insurance
In the building industry we love to laugh at DIY warriors.
They can do it all themselves, but it ends up costing them twice as much when you have to come in and fix it!
But many tradies do the exact same with their business insurance…
You might save a few dollars with cheap online insurance, but are you really protecting your business?
Maybe, maybe not… Just because you can read a PDS doesn’t make you an insurance expert.
Our advice:
Don’t DIY your business insurance®
We’re all for making the insurance process better, but not at the expense of proper protection.
DIY online insurance is often sold with the following benefits:
• Quick
• Cheap
• Easy
That actually sounds pretty good! But imagine if a client came to you asking you to build them a new deck, and their main requirements were that it was quick, cheap and easy.
Does that sounds like a great project to take on? Probably not. It sounds like one of those clients who will choose the cheapest quote from Airtasker or Hipages or similar…
They might get lucky and end up with a perfectly great deck, or they might find themselves on the Tradie Mayhem Facebook page with all the tradies commenting “you get what you pay for”.
Business insurance is different to your home and car
Many of us use DIY online insurance for our homes and our cars, so why not for our business?
Fair question, but they are so very different…
Most home and car insurance policies are pretty similar. You also don’t need to consider different types of cover.
When you comprehensively insure your car, that’s all you need to worry about. You don’t need to consider if you’ve insured the doors properly, or the liability, or how the different types of roads you drive on might affect your cover.
Car insurance is car insurance – more or less.
And your home insurance is somewhat similar. There are still plenty of variables to consider, but if you’ve insured your buildings and your contents for the appropriate amounts, and selected all the right options, you can feel pretty confident.
But business is so completely different. There are so many different variables to consider, and so many different types of cover depending on your particular business.
There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to business insurance.
So by all means DIY your home and car insurance, but don’t DIY your business insurance!
What makes Trade Risk different?
We’re also predominantly online, and we also allow you to DIY certain parts of the process to make it more convenient.
But the big difference is that a qualified and experienced insurance broker looks at every new quote and every renewal before it is issued to you.
Not only that, but we have a legal responsibility to act in your best interests.
When you purchase insurance direct from an insurance company or from a comparison website, they are not required to act in your best interests. You are taking the DIY option and you’re responsible for your own choices.
But as insurance brokers, we have a legal responsibility to act in your best interests.
This duty carries through to every renewal and every claim that we help you with.
Should you ever DIY your insurance?
If the choice is between having no insurance or taking DIY business insurance, then we’d always agree that it’s better to have something than nothing.
We know that thousands of tradies will continue to DIY their business insurance, and they’ll feel good knowing they might have saved a few dollars and a few extra minutes.
Chances are, they’ll never need to make a complex claim (or any claim) and they’ll never have an issue with their insurance.
And that’s awesome for those tradies!
But if you really care about your trades business, and you want to know that the industry’s most awarded trade insurance brokers will have your back at claim time, then you’ll want to be with Trade Risk.
And you know what? Often our premiums are no more expensive than the DIY option anyway!
And our process is so slick after a decade of refinement, that you’ll probably find our process just as quick and easy!
So why risk taking DIY business insurance when you could have Trade Risk on your side?
Don’t DIY your business insurance!
Productivity is often mistaken for wages. What does it really mean? How does it work?
Australia’s productivity growth has reverted to the same stagnant pattern as before the pandemic, according to the Productivity Commission’s latest quarterly report.
Productivity is complex and often misunderstood in media and policy debates. So before we read too much into this latest data, here are six key things to understand about productivity.
1. It’s about quantities, not costs
Productivity “measures the rate at which output of goods and services are produced per unit of input”. So it’s about how many workers does it take to make how many widgets?
Most Australian workplace managers don’t know how to measure productivity correctly.
If someone says “higher wages mean lower productivity”, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Wages aren’t part of the productivity equation. People often cite “productivity” as a reason for a policy they like because they can’t say “we like higher profits”.
In fact, high wages can encourage firms to introduce new technology that improves productivity. If labour
becomes more expensive, it may be more profitable for firms to invest in labour-saving technology.
But lower productivity isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes higher selling prices can lower productivity. It seems odd, but works like this: if prices for commodities such as iron ore or coal are high, it becomes profitable for mining companies to dig through more rock to get to it.
This takes more time. But it’s now worth extracting these small quantities, because they’re so valuable. For this reason, with high commodity prices, mining labour productivity fell by 13% between 2019-20 and 2022-23. Mining productivity had the largest negative impact on national productivity growth in 2022-23.
2. Productivity is directed by management, not workers
The biggest single factor that shapes productivity is technology. Who’s responsible for what technology a business introduces? Management. Workers often don’t have much of a say.
OECD research suggests new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) meets lower resistance from employees when they are consulted over its introduction. That’s because new technology makes their firms more competitive and they want to keep their jobs.
Not surprisingly, there’s lots of research showing management that engages and consults workers gets greater output.
Output will also be better with an educated and skilled workforce. If people can do more things with their brains, they’ll be more productive.
3. Measuring productivity is dodgier the more complex it gets
Measuring labour productivity – output per unit of labour input – is fairly straightforward if you’ve got a single output that is sold in a free market, and you’re looking at a single input (labour). It’s not hard to measure, or describe, the number of cars produced per worker in a week.
It gets very tricky when you’re looking at multi-factor productivity (output per unit of, say, labour-andcapital input). Economists can’t even describe the denominator. (What even is a unit of “labour-andcapital”?) So they express what they measure as an index (giving it a value of 100 in some base year). All sorts of bold assumptions get made.
Estimates are highly creative. In its report, the Productivity Commission looked at revisions to quarterly growth figures and found productivity estimates are
“constantly being revised”.
On almost a third of occasions, initial estimates are out by 0.5 percentage points or more. When your estimate is that productivity increased by 0.5% – the number for the year to this June quarter – the potential for error is huge.
Even more creative assumptions are made when you try to measure productivity in the public sector, when the market is not the aim.
Productivity is higher in classrooms when there are fewer teachers per student. At least, the bean-counters will tell you that, but the students will tell you the opposite.
So you should be very wary when someone says the “productivity challenge is […] greater and more pressing in the non-market sector”, when the meaning is so contested.
4. It is best measured over long periods
Productivity growth is so erratic, that you can tell very little from one quarter’s figures. “Revise, revise, revise again”, as the PC report said.
Often the best thing to do, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics recognised long ago is to average it over the whole of a “growth cycle”, that is, between one peak of growth and the next.
Trouble is, growth cycles vary in length, and the end point is not easy to pick when it happens, only later.
Employees who are consulted by their managers are likely to be more productive. fizkes/Shutterstock
Growth averaged over a long period is a lot more meaningful than growth measured over a short period. At least the Productivity Commission showed five-year averages alongside it’s latest quarterly estimates. But chances are your start date will be at a different stage in the growth cycle to your end date, so it’s not that good a measure.
5. Productivity is falling here and overseas
In Australia, productivity growth has been on a long-term decline since the 1960s, with a brief, unsustained upturn in the mid 1990s.
That pattern gives pause for thought: if big reforms to competition policy, industrial relations and wage fixing were aimed at improving productivity growth, why was that unsustainable, and why did it then continue to decline? It pays to remember that a lot of reforms people advocate in the name of productivity growth have quite different aims and effects anyway.
Internationally, the picture is not much different.
Productivity growth across industrialised countries has unevenly but gradually declined since the 1950s and 1960s. The world-wide adoption of what were often called neoliberal reforms from the 1980s failed to improve productivity growth.
6. Productivity growth once drove living standards. Not any more
In theory, higher labour productivity enables higher living standards. In practice, that is driven by the ability of workers to negotiate for higher wages.
It depends on how you measure it and what years you focus on, but from at least the early 2010s, productivity growth was much faster than hourly compensation per employee.
Again, it’s not just Australia. The OECD calls this the “decoupling” of wages and productivity.
Just because something can increase potential earnings growth, it does not follow that it will.
David Peetz
Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow at the Centre for Future Work, and Professor Emeritus, Griffith Business School, Griffith University
IMPORTANT Contacts
Aussie Painters Network aussiepaintersnetwork.com.au
National Institute for Painting and Decorating painters.edu.au
Australian Tax Office ato.gov.au Award Rates fairwork.gov.au
Australian Building & Construction Commission www.abcc.gov.au
Mates In Construction www.mates.org.au
Workplace Health and Safety Contacts
Comcare
WorkSafe ACT
Workplace Health and Safety QLD
WorkSafe Victoria
SafeWork NSW
SafeWork SA
WorkSafe WA NT WorkSafe
WorkSafe Tasmania
Cancer Council Australia
Ph. 0430 399 800
Ph. 1300 319 790
Ph. 13 72 26 / Ph. 13 28 65 Ph. 13 13 94 Ph. 1800 003 338 Ph. 1300 642 111
comcare.gov.au worksafe.act.gov.au worksafe.qld.gov.au www.worksafe.vic.gov.au www.safework.nsw.gov.au www.safework.sa.gov.au commerce.wa.gov.au/WorkSafe/ worksafe.nt.gov.au worksafe.tas.gov.au
actcancer.org cancercouncil.com.au cancercouncilnt.com.au cancerqld.org.au cancersa.org.au cancervic.org.au
cancerwa.asn.au
(02) 6257 9999 (02) 9334 1900 (08) 8927 4888 (07) 3634 5100 (08) 8291 4111 (03) 9635 5000 (08) 9212 4333
