Grow A Small Business Podcast

In this episode, I interview Annette Kaitinis, the Co-founder and Director of Scoot Boots Pty Ltd, Australia's only manufacturer of equine hoof boots for barefoot horses. In 2015, she formed a business partnership with her ex-farrier, Dave MacDonald, who in invented a shoe for horses. After patenting and eventually selling that, he teamed up with Annette to launch the latest business, which has se...

In this episode, I interview Kate Cashman , the co-founder of Mana Movement Studio in Hobart, Tasmania. In early 2019, they took over the lease of one of the oldest yoga studios in Tasmania, increased prices, added Pilates, and pivoted to a membership model. They took it from 35 members to 300 in just over a year and another 100 online when Covid-19 hit, boosting recurring sales, and almost doubli...

In this episode, I interview Kate Goodman , the owner of Goodman Conveyancing and a licensed conveyancer . Her ex-husband and best friend started a legal firm in Hobart in 2001. After he became too unwell due to MS, Kate stepped in to run the conveyancing business, now the largest in Tasmania. Taking the helm in 2009, sales grew from $350,000 to now $2 Million a year, and a team made up of herself...

In this episode, I interview Damian Mackey, a master distiller of whisky and gin and the founder of New Town Distillery in Hobart, Tasmania. In 2005, he started building a small distillery (Mackey's Distillery) in his backyard in Hobart, and in 2007, filled their first cask with triple distilled Irish style single malt whisky, which was matured five years later.  In 2014, he partnered with Sheena...

In this episode, I interview Christina Bellis, the CEO of Thankyou Payroll. The company was founded in 2010 and to date they've processed over two billion pays or 3.5 million payslips to charities and small businesses in New Zealand. From NZD7,000 in year one to now NZD2.7 Million in annual sales, they are profitable and just paid their first dividend. They are one of the first social enterprises/...

In this episode, I interview Patrick Maguire, the Master Distiller for Sullivans Cove Distillery in Hobart, Tasmania, and the Chairman of the Tasmanian Whisky Producers Association in 2012. Sullivans Cove was one of the first craft distilleries of commercial scale in Australia founded in 1996, sold in 1999, and went into liquidation in 2003 when Patrick and a few investors salvaged it.  Closing th...

In this episode, I interview Craig Haltom, President of Oliphant Golf Management (OGM). He is an active golf course architect and builder, and has a growing portfolio of high profile golf renovation work in the Midwest. As the lead at OGM, he is very much hands-on and in the field, with a talented team of managers based in Central Wisconsin. He started out on a tractor in 2001 and then in 2013 bec...

In this episode, I interview Toni Kibbey, a subject matter expert on marketing. With over 25 years in marketing, especially in small business, Toni strongly believes if you don't have a customer, you don't have a business. And that's where your marketing should be built around. Marketing is more than a logo or advertising, it's a diverse range of elements, from pricing, people, copy, packaging, an...

In this episode, I interview Mat Weir, a tech entrepreneur and the founder of international table booking service, First Table, the only company in the world focused on helping restaurants get their first customer for the night. Mat got the idea to start the company after seeing a sign in a local French restaurant in Queenstown, New Zealand. First Table charges the customer $10 per booking and the...

In this episode, I interview Mark Fennell who in late 1999, from his bedroom in Sydney, started a developer code-sharing website and the now-defunct, Flash Animation Technology. Three months later, he approached Internet.com, a NASDAQ listed company asking if they would like to buy his one-person company.  From their positive response, he scrambled to partner with a tech company in Tasmania to not...

In this episode, I interview Kylee Scott, a director, and the studio manager at Cumulus Studio. After leaving a leading architectural firm to work for a large engineering company, Kylee saw how profitable a well run professional services company can be, so she convinced her partner in Hobart and a best friend to quit their architectural jobs and in late 2011 started Cumulus studios, a national and...

In this episode, I interview Jon Stagg, the Founder/Owner of Atlas Cafe, The Stagg, and Hobart Mountain Bike Tours, all based in beautiful Hobart, Tasmania. After years working in banking and IT, in a blanket in the Wimbledon Common in London, where the Wimbles live, Jon and his wife decided to move back to Tasmania for more space and a better lifestyle soon after their first child arrived.  In 20...

In this episode, I interview Christopher Stenhouse, the Co-Founder and former CEO of Switch Media, one of the world leaders in OTT (internet) content streaming. Switch Media designs, develops and delivers tailored IP video solutions for a diverse range of industries Christopher started the company back in 2006 when he was 43 with two other founders, just after quitting a mid-level management role...

In this episode, I interview David Wise, a Co-founder, and Director at SFM Environmental Solutions Pty Ltd, a professional forestry business that provides forest management and consultancy services to a range of clients in Australia and New Zealand. David and his 2 partners started SFM back in 2001 when he was only 25. They were having a beer at the Uni bar and they decided to start a business ins...

In this episode, I interview Darren Lange, the founder and managing director of the Tasmanian Cask Co., one of the leading suppliers of casks to the Australian whisky industry. His entrepreneurial journey started in 2010 after 20 years in the wine industry and aged 41. He decided to go out on his own and form a company called Master Cask, which was on-selling casks coopered overseas solely to the...

In this episode, I interview Cameron Sorsby, the CEO at Discover Praxis, an online career boot camp business that offers content, weekly meetups, mentoring, and project-based learning to entrepreneurial young professionals that Cameron started in 2014. Starting off with 14 participants, the boot camp has always focused on soft skills and mindset (not education for any specific role or industry) th...

In this episode, I interview David Vitale, the founder, and director of sales and marketing at New World Whiskey Distillery Pty Ltd (previously Starward Distillery), the makers of Starward whiskey. David left a distilling career in Tasmania and started the business in Melbourne around 2007 amidst the global financial crisis. Breaking many traditions in the nascent 15-year-old craft distilling indu...

In this episode, I interview Phaedon Stough, the Co-Founder of Innovation Bay, the longest-running networking group for tech founders, startups, and investors in Australia. He's also the founder and non-executive director of MitchelLake Global Executive Search and Talent Acquisition, an executive recruitment firm he started back in 2001 with a fellow university friend, focusing on the tech startup...

In this episode, I interview John Groom, the founder and previous CEO of Acrodata. In 2006, aged 39 and a year after getting married, John jumped from senior corporate life and started his first business which specializes in document security and management in the small market of Tasmania, Australia. A year later, their first of three children arrived, and a year after that, the global financial c...

In this episode, I interview Stephen Chetcuti, the CEO and Managing Director of Protegic, an Australian-owned independent project management delivery and management consulting company. He has more than 20 years of experience in small and medium enterprises, and his work has involved strategy formulation, commercial negotiations, corporate advisory, business development, and project management. His...

In this episode, I interview Bill Welter, the owner/operator at Journeyman Distillery, a business that he was propelled to start by his passion for golf, not to mention the country of Scotland and a young entrepreneur from Australia. His business owner journey began after high school graduation when he and his father took a trip to Scotland. They traveled the country and played its famous golf cou...

In this episode, I'll have a conversation with Ed Davis, a trusted advisor on SAP security matters and a director at Turnkey Consulting, the Australian branch of a specialist SAP consultant business with sister offices in the UK, Singapore, Germany, USA, and Malaysia. After 10 years in London, Ed moved back to Australia in 2009, left his consulting career and opened Turnkey.  He started with himse...

In this episode, I'll have a conversation with Dan Kozaris, the owner of KPD4⨉4, a successful Australian four-wheel drive (4WD) accessories company. At age 26 in 2008 as the global financial crisis hit, Dan decided to pivot from the safe job of school teacher to become a marketer of four-wheel drive (4WD) accessories online for someone else. In 18 months, he helped grow that business from $3 Milli...

In this episode, I'll have a conversation with Kris Miles, the co-owner of the Winston Ale House and The Winston Brewery, both in North Hobart, Tasmania. When Kris and his wife Caroline's local pub went up for sale, they couldn't pass on the opportunity to snap it up. After working in hospitality for many years, the desire to open their own venue could no longer be ignored. Combining Caroline's ye...

In this episode, I'll have a conversation with James Cuda, CEO, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Savage Interactive, the company behind the hugely successful iPad app, Procreate. The multi-award-winning art app is designed to free creatives from their desks and encompasses a powerful suite of tools for illustrators and designers at any skill level, and contains everything one needs to create in...