“Influencer” Marty Answers Your Questions

Marty · 00:00Welcome to episode 184 of The Numbers Game. Uh, we've got a special treat today. Jason Robinson is out. I actually don't know where he is. I, his social calendar is so busy that I just can't keep a track of him. But he's out, but we've got something special for you. Uh, Tommy Jackett is joining us. Now, Tommy Jackett is our producer.

Marty · 00:22He makes us sound good, uh, look good, even though, you know, that's, that's probably Come on, come on, back us up. But, uh, he does all the right things for us. And, uh, we're great to have him on the show today. Tommy, welcome, welcome.

Tommy · 00:36Thank you, mate. I just, um, as I do control the buttons, I thought I'd just bring in a bit of a drum roll for myself.

Tommy · 00:42I don't usually roll that one out, but, uh, Since I've had to fill in for Jase. Um, he's gone M. I. A. Uh, thanks for having me mate. Nick, do you know where Jase is?

Nick · 00:53Uh, no. He'd be, oh, he'd be on a stage somewhere. Um, drunk. Sober.

Nick · 01:00Um. Coachella. His last known

Tommy · 01:02whereabouts was actually hosting something last week in Lawn.

Tommy · 01:05Yeah, it's, it's hard to

Nick · 01:07keep up. It's hard to keep up. Uh, good to have Tommy though, but I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna put to bed a question that I know the whole audience will have. Is your surname Jacket or is that a nickname? No, it is. As in a coat, jacket? Two Ts. Two Ts. Yeah. Perfect. Because I'm not going to lie, when I first met you, I wasn't sure.

Nick · 01:30I thought maybe because you're a producer, you know, you'd been in the, you know, the podcast game. I thought, oh, maybe that's like his, you know, like his cool name, like Tommy Jacket, the producer. Yeah, like Marty Vids,

Marty · 01:40that I cop a lot. You know, like an authentic stage name that I have, you know, Tommy Jacket is the real deal.

Marty · 01:47Yeah. You know? Well, the only one

Tommy · 01:48who should sort of be changing his name to something famous, like Marty, just it's gone from Marty Vitikovic is Marty, because he's gone absolutely viral on the Instagram.

Tommy · 02:00Uh, the numbers game podcast, if you haven't already followed, but Marty, you have absolutely blown up mate.

Tommy · 02:06The video that we posted last week is edging towards 150, 000 plays.

Marty · 02:12Really?

Tommy · 02:13Yeah. Yeah. Have you lost? The first question is, have you lost time out of your life because you've been checking the post or?

Marty · 02:21Yeah. Well, my rejuvenation on the weekend was totally sapped cause I thought I better reply cause I'm not, you know, uh, uh, Influencer as such.

Marty · 02:30I thought I'd do the right thing and get back to people, get back to people. Like, you know, how when people are famous, they don't get back to people. It's very, I think they should. So I was doing that this weekend and, uh, geez, I burned a lot of time, but there was lots of different varying, uh, comments, some scathing, uh, some scathing at me, some scathing at the government.

Marty · 02:51It was like, but it was good. Hey, welcome to the party. I'm happy for all of it.

Tommy · 02:57Well, it's, um, what I want to bring forward today.

Tommy · 03:00I know you guys like to sort of check in on your weekends. I guess we've just, we've just heard how Marty's weekend was checking comments on Instagram. How was your weekend, Nick?

Tommy · 03:08Uh, my mom

Nick · 03:08was good. Actually, I went back to the hometown where I grew up and we, we did the annual salami weekend. So it was, uh, yeah, weekend full of, uh, blood and guts. And at the end of that you get, um, yeah, you get some nice sausages and some nice salami.

Tommy · 03:27So I would just say I, I edit every episode and I listen to every episode almost twice because I edit and I listen.

Tommy · 03:35You are a licorice, all sorts mate. you, you go for, you grew up in regional New South Wales. You go for Adelaide Football Club. Mm-Hmm. And then I hear you go for some Norton New South Wales or is it Queensland Rugby team? No, no, new South Wales. Okay. So that, that's close. Born and BR

Nick · 03:52New South Wales. So that's, you know, makes sense.

Marty · 03:54Try sitting next to him day in day. Talk about. A world of rich experiences that a

Marty · 04:00little boy from the Yarra Valley just hasn't seen before. It's always very entertaining. Missed 150, 000. Come on.

Tommy · 04:07All right. Well, I actually have the audio from the clip that was posted just to give people some context.

Tommy · 04:13Before I bring forward some of the, uh, well, let's just say it was a, um, a very active comment. Uh, people are fired up in every which direction, but I'll bring that forward. I want to throw some of these at you, Marty, some of these comments, and I reckon there's some good talking points, um, to lead out of it.

Tommy · 04:31But here is the clip that was posted.

Marty · 04:34The cost of living in Australia is now ranked more expensive than 87 percent of countries around the world, which is. Absolutely incredible. And if we look at the average right wage on that smaller growth cycle, let's say average wage now is about 80, 000, which is 5, 633 net coming in per month.

Marty · 04:55So let's say we get a loan of 800, 000. You're

Marty · 05:00paying five grand a month on mortgage repayments. And then you've got cost of living for a couple with two kids at around about 6, 400 per month. So all up now to get into an average price home, you're spending 11, 400 a month and you're bringing in a net income to people on an average wage of 11, 266 per month.

Marty · 05:27You can't afford it. It's literally you can't afford the average. You've got families that are having disputes about having enough money. You can't have a one parent. Breadwinner, because you're just decimating your ability to live. And these are some of the concerns that are coming up. But when you look at that from 10 years ago to what it is now, we definitely need a rate reduction in regards to allowing people back into the market and being able to live.

Tommy · 05:59I mean, just hearing that

Tommy · 06:00again. I think we should send that to Parliament House. Oh, I've got goosebumps. A bit of Hans Zimmer absolutely makes that sing. No wonder it went viral, Marty.

Marty · 06:10Do you think it was the music? Because the rest of it's just facts. But, uh, what's amazing with that, even, you know, I've been following the thread, obviously.

Marty · 06:19Is when we talk about the average, there's two, two sides to that fence. And it's like, uh, depending on which side of the fence says to, you know, how people perceive the comments, which is always really interesting, but even the hearing it back, I'm going. Uh, gee, I had a conversation this morning with someone that had lost a business last year and they were actually earning half decent money, but just felt decimated that their business wasn't working and, you know, they had their kids and their family still together, which is a great thing, but they don't know where to start.

Marty · 06:54And they just feel like, you know, this is sort of some of the things you don't see in the everyday mass media

Marty · 07:00that goes on. And they were so, so upset, but they just felt. ashamed. And I just said to them, you've got your family. And I said, that's the greatest asset you could ever have. And you've been able to get through this together to the other side to start again.

Marty · 07:14And it's just taking that one step forward. Now, maybe putting something aside a little bit a month and just starting to You know, build themselves back up, but talk about just a, a hit on the psyche of the people. And it's tough, you know, it's tough when that happens and that's the extreme, but you go, for me, that's almost supporting them at a human level beyond anything else, because they just feel terrible.

Marty · 07:39So it's obviously, yeah, having a bit of a definite pinch out there.

Tommy · 07:43Yeah. I think it's, yeah, it's definitely hit a nerve and there is, uh, I guess the word is A bit of a blame game happening in, um, which I think is probably just a defense mechanism, you know, it comes up when you are doing it tough, cause

Tommy · 08:00it's quite easy to look outside and say, God, here are all the problems.

Tommy · 08:03It's so clear to us. And so, um, yeah, there's a bit of a blame game broken this up into, these are some of the comments, Marty and Nick. Um, the first one is the blaming of the government. And policy. And so one of the comments is the fiscal management by the federal government should be held at a, to account as was done under the time of Whitman.

Tommy · 08:27So. Anything there Marty for you? I think, uh, it was a Whitlam? Whitlam. But let's just say that is what was written.

Marty · 08:35No, I think, oh look, we've got to go back to even, you know, the reserve bank, you know, at 2 percent interest rates and load up, keep the economy flowing. You know, COVID's hitting and there's a lot of good people that got into property at those levels that could afford to get into those properties at that level.

Marty · 08:53But you know, 14 rate increases is a black swan event. You know, they would not be assuming if rates

Marty · 09:00went up, they'd go up 14 times. So the fact you've got three times the repayments, um, that you probably had back then is a considerable hit. And I think there's got to be. Some accountability somewhere that, um, people just didn't see that coming.

Marty · 09:16So it's, it's going to have an impact. Nick, what do you think?

Nick · 09:20Yeah, well, hindsight's a wonderful thing, as we know. And I think, um, I think we were dealing, I want to say we, I mean, um, the government, so not us, obviously, uh, and the RBA, but they were dealing with something that they hadn't They hadn't seen before.

Nick · 09:35So you look back and you think, geez, okay, well, they were doing everything in their power to make sure that we didn't fail and that people could still survive. But hindsight again, is a wonderful thing. And you look back now and you think, well, how, like, even, even if you look at historic trends. And what's happened when you provide stimulus, how did you not see this coming?

Nick · 09:57Record low interest rates,

Nick · 10:00almost free money to a degree. That's what, uh, that's what it felt like. Plus, um, the stimulus that went into business, you know, the PAYG, uh, relief, um, plus incentives for different types of trades. And I don't know, you're going to look back now, you think, well, that was always going to happen.

Nick · 10:18Like people were always going to spend all their money. Um, That they were provided and we're always going to have these inflation issues, but I don't know, I actually, it's so, it's so interesting to sit back and watch it all unfold now. And you can only hope that lessons have been learnt and that next time something happens that's similar, um, but there's some different, there's some different moves made, but who knows?

Tommy · 10:41Yeah, I mean, it leads on to. Uh, a flow and effect of that is blaming corporations, which is, there was a bunch of comments around that sort of thread. And one of them was, what about Woolworths, Coles, Bunnings, ripping everyone off, including the farmers, so they can make them 1 billion per year. How

Tommy · 11:00much? Is enough for living Woolworths and Coles drive up the cost of living, which in turn drives up interest rates.

Tommy · 11:07How much do you think big corporation impacts all this stuff?

Nick · 11:11Massively, massively. And, and what, what really annoys me is the. Uh, the microscope on big corporation at the moment in relation to, um, carbon credits and, you know, doing the right thing for the, for the, for the universe. I'm not saying this is a right, this is right or wrong, but this is, this is what annoys me.

Nick · 11:30The carbon credits, I think there's so much focus in particular areas and then other areas don't get the focus that they need. And I think there's been some high level focus on. You know, looking after consumers and the, you know, pricing, um, pricing that happens within supermarkets of late, but it's not enough.

Nick · 11:48If you look at what they're doing in other areas of what they're having to do in other areas, such as fair work, gender equality, carbon, carbon credits. Where's most important and for me, it's looking

Nick · 12:00after the mums and dads who are really struggling to make ends meet at the moment. There just hasn't been enough focus on it.

Nick · 12:05And it's blatantly obvious as to what's happening out there, not just with mums and dads, but with farmers and you know, the raw end of the stick that they're getting and there is some noise, but it's just not enough. So that's what, that's what really frustrates me, um, where the energy is going at the

Tommy · 12:18moment.

Tommy · 12:19And that's, I guess the energy is also flowing to. People looking at others in the community, you know, blaming exorbitant lifestyle. So one of them was, but the average family has two late model cars, laptop computers, all have mobile phones and the latest clothes in and an 800, 000 plus mortgage and want all the other stuff like holidays.

Tommy · 12:41I do agree with this guy, but people need to live within their means.

Marty · 12:46Yeah, I mean, that's, that's a fantastic point. And I, look, I agree with that. You know, a lot of the times wealth is what you don't see, you know, and we're in a society where, you know, everyone's trying to keep up with the Joneses. Not only in real life, but

Marty · 13:00on social media as well.

Marty · 13:01So, um, you know, you need to be conservatively looking at things for a rainy day. It's just when there's free money, like Nick was talking about earlier, people take advantage of that and leverage up. Including, um, The major corporations as well, their expenses go up with inflation. They've got, they've got costs, but they'll generally leverage the price to where the market will pay until the market stops paying, you know, so they'll, they'll take advantage of that in, in times of inflation.

Marty · 13:32And that happens across the board, because again, even when you think about it as a business owner, you go, you also need to be able to. Pay wages to keep people employed as well. So you've got an argument both ways, but it's, it's sometimes it's just taken to the extreme in regards to what they will try and, and, you know, increase to, which is unfair.

Marty · 13:54Uh, but again, you know, people we talked about in previous episodes, you know, looking in regional areas or

Marty · 14:00buying townhouses that are, you know, that are more within people's means. And the one good thing about. interest rates going up and people being capped as to how much they can buy for, is they really have to put some thought into where they can buy for the money they can afford at a whole different level.

Marty · 14:18So we'll come out of this better in the end, but what's the damage In the interim until we get to that point. Um, every business is budgeting at high levels, you know, managing expense. We've been through it as well. A hundred percent, you have to do these things and you have to be in a position where you're okay today as the new foundation and it's most challenging to then create, you know, a better tomorrow.

Marty · 14:43But the problem being, what is the collateral damage in getting to this point? Um, for people, like I said, I had a person, a couple that lost their business last year just because things weren't going well. Feel terrible, it's going to take them psychologically years to recover. I hope

Marty · 15:00not. But, you know, that's the sort of damage you don't see.

Tommy · 15:04And then there's some other people blaming. Immigration. Um, one of the comments is, immigration, nothing has kept pace with it. More people equals more competition for products, houses, and services. Successive governments have been addicted to immigration to keep the economy going. And I mean, where do you think, That plays its role.

Nick · 15:25Well, at the end of the day, you need GDP to keep growing. And the way that you do that is with immigration. So it's all good and well for people to come out and say, well, well, you've got to cut the immigration back. But that has so many other ramifications. Um, the reality is immigration continues to grow the GDP, which is continue to grow.

Nick · 15:44economic stability and gives everyone jobs, not just, not just immigrants. So, you know, I don't, I don't think you can blame immigration for this. Um, you know, at the end of the day, immigration needs to continue to happen, um, to grow our GDP. And I can

Nick · 16:00see why the government is going down that path. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but there's no one fix, and there's no one blame, unfortunately.

Marty · 16:07Yeah, and definitely with the under supply of, Housing, it poses problems in regards to keeping property prices up and continuing to grow, but it's a part of the methodology that's been there, you know, forever and a day now. So it's not that the methodology has changed. It's just probably, you know, at this point when people are struggling, it's, it's easier to pinpoint stuff like that.

Tommy · 16:27There was a few people questioning some of the numbers, Marty, and I know you like to double check, cross every, you know, two or three numbers. Um, I think people are just blown away. There was one person saying 6k just for living for a month, you know, ridiculous. Yeah. And I'm, I've got two young kids. I tell you what, that's pretty close to what I'm spending a month for my family outside of my mortgage, outside of, you know, these other things.

Tommy · 16:56And yeah. Yeah, it stacks up pretty quickly.

Tommy · 17:00There was also someone saying that the average wage of 80, 000 you're having a laugh. I think there may be some confusion between minimum and average.

Marty · 17:08Yeah. Yeah, and actually that's gone up to 90. Can you believe on average as well?

Tommy · 17:14Nick, I know that you wanted to chat about Minimum wage, which is, I think a good time.

Tommy · 17:20I've heard this morning when we're recording this, that they'd had a bunch of, um, meetings and the people that everyone's blaming and putting their heads together, deciding on our future and all of this to give us the load out.

Nick · 17:33Yeah. Well, there was, uh, there was a decision by the fair work commission, uh, to increase the, uh, the minimum wage by 3.

Nick · 17:4175%. Um, and it just got me thinking. You know, we, we all need to earn more money 100 percent and you know, in today's society, more than ever, we need more money, you know, based on the conversations that we're, we're having here, but I just thought about, you know, and, and Marty mentioned this as a start, but

Nick · 18:00sitting on the other side of the fence, which is small business owners and, and the gap that we've got, that's growing between.

Nick · 18:07Small business and large business and the, the inability now for small business to make ends meet. So we had a 3. 75 percent increase, as I just mentioned. Um, last year, uh, we had a record increase. It was 5 point something percent, but they also increased the baseline. So it was actually about an 8 percent increase.

Nick · 18:27Um, in the, um, in the minimum wage last year, on top of that, you've got the super guarantee that continues to grow moving to a maximum of 12%. So a few years ago it was 9%. So Tommy, you work for someone, you're on a hundred grand a year. That is your employer has to pay you. 9, 000 in super that is currently 11.

Nick · 18:475 percent or 11, 500. And that is going to 12%, which would be 12, 000. So if we look at what the minimum wage cost was, and I've just gone on a

Nick · 19:0040 hour week here just to make it easy, but in 2022, I worked out someone with super. Would have been earning 48, 727 if they're on the minimum wage, working a full time week.

Nick · 19:15Fast forward to 2025, so this is next year, um, where the, the 12 percent has kicked in for super, currently 11. 5. That same individual would be earning, including super, 56, 145. Now that's a 7, 418. annual increase over the space of three years. Now, you know, you go to most small businesses, they're probably going to have three or four of those staff.

Nick · 19:42Hypothetically, they've got four staff. Their wage cost has now gone up 30 K per annum and that's then going to change or I guess, um, uh, influence their decision as to whether or not number one, they retain people, number two, they, um, or they, Bring more people on.

Nick · 20:00So, you know, you look at small business and the, uh, the increasing, um, demise, I guess, of small business that we're at record record numbers of small business failure at the moment.

Nick · 20:12Um, sectors such as hospitality and retail are paying up to 50 percent in their gross revenue in labor costs. Now that's just not sustainable. Now I know in our business, if we get to 50 percent of the labor costs, it's game over. You can't, it's, it's game over, it doesn't work. And then you look at the other things that they're paying more for now, utilities, such as electricity, gas, insurances through the roof, um, interest rates, if they've got some, some lending in their business through the roof.

Nick · 20:42So, you know, we're, I don't know what the solution is, but I thought it'd be a really good discussion because on one end of the scale, we're saying, you know, The average age, not the minimum wage, can't make ends meet, can't buy a property. The other end of the scale, we've had a big increase on the minimum wage, which means small business

Nick · 21:00is really struggling to compete with big business.

Nick · 21:02And then what happens is big business just continue to pay more, uh, for salaries because they can. And small businesses can't compete and the days of the small business owner are obsolete. And, you know, I put it to you, Marty, you're, you're in this space and I know you're passionate about this space, but I think for some industries, it just, it just doesn't work.

Nick · 21:22And you've really, if you had to question four or five years ago about whether or not you take the plunge into small business. Particularly if you've got to hire people, now that decision's even harder. And I think most people would look at it in the current environment and say, well, I might as well just go work for someone because I know that I can earn X amount at a big corporation and not have everything else that goes with being a small business owner.

Nick · 21:45And at the same time, not making any money.

Marty · 21:48And how hard are those people working? The stresses that they have, you know, given that the, uh, the money's not coming in and it's just, um, it's a travesty really. Because like

Marty · 22:00you said, it's like, this is why retail and hospitality is struggling so much. Put on, you know, inflated rents too that are hitting.

Marty · 22:06So it's, um, it's a race to the bottom really. And, and people have got to make that decision. When is that point where it's just not feasible to continue? And that's okay. Sometimes, you know, you can be, you can be climbing halfway up a mountain and know it's the wrong mountain and you're going to die at the top.

Marty · 22:26So there's, there's, there's a point in time where it's okay to come back down, set your foundations and restart again before the damage is done. And I, you know, I, I saw her. I read an article on the weekend with a lady opening up a tapas bar, which was a vegan tapas bar. I think it was in Carlton. And it was like a lifelong dream.

Marty · 22:46And um, she was in it for 18 months and basically, yeah, basically cooked it and just, you know, Had no way other than to let it go and sell it for next to Nick's. And she's still 120 in the hole at 30

Marty · 23:00years of age. She was glad she had the experience, but it's a big, it's a big hit. You know, that people now got to find a way to go back to work with debt on their shoulders, based on an experience like that.

Marty · 23:12And that's, um, And she doesn't want to go bankrupt either, because that sort of, it's half of it's tax debt, you know, family and friends have borrowed money, a lot of shame involved and, you know, sometimes it's circumstances, sometimes it's the poor operations of the business owner, you know, that, that happens as well, so it's not just total excuse on what's going on, but it's certainly something we need as a society Um, to wrap our arms around in some way and say, you know, helping people through these moments to come out the other side, because otherwise there's bigger issues, um, that we're facing that go outside of business and, uh, finances.

Tommy · 23:48Yeah. As a small business owner, I don't know if it's exacerbated this feeling I get, but when I'm walking down the street and I see a small restaurant like that or a small business

Tommy · 24:00and I can't help, but just do some numbers in my head, understanding where I'm at, what I'm doing, my cashflow, my debts, you know, all these things.

Tommy · 24:10And I just look at these, some businesses I've, I feel extremely bad. Like I, you know, seeing, walking past a vegan restaurant, you know, they put all their heart and soul into it and you're thinking. Did they not see that model was, you know, this, this is the problem it's hindsight or it's external to them, but you could walk down the street and predict which businesses probably will and won't work.

Tommy · 24:32And you probably will get some wrong, but majority, I don't think you will.

Nick · 24:36Yeah. Yeah. That's actually a really good point, Tommy, because I think you've got the luxury, you know, I don't want to cross. There's hundreds here that I shouldn't be, but you're service based, right? And a lot of what you do is based on your hours and your own expertise.

Nick · 24:49Um, so you've got the labor side and you get paid for the labor. Of course, you've got costs such as travel and, um, and whatnot. Um, but think about having to pay rent. Think about having

Nick · 25:00to pay staff, think about having to pay for, for food or goods that you have absolutely no control over what the price of those, uh, food or goods are, electricity to turn the lights on at a venue.

Nick · 25:11Um, you have to look at it now and you have to say, Well, you'd be mad, you'd be mad to go into hospitality. And that is why you're seeing too, in the hospitality game, the bigger groups keep growing. So you look at all the big, big restaurants, whether it's Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, wherever it is, most of them are owned by a group or a consortium that owns a dozen of those places.

Nick · 25:35And they just, they've got the model worked out and they just keep opening new ones. The mum and dad on the, you know, at the local restaurant, it's really, it's really tough. Difficult, you know, there would be times that they would go home and they wouldn't make a dollar, um, for the day of anything they went backwards.

Tommy · 25:49There is, um, this is one part, um, a little tip, other part, uh, telling of the times, but there's an app called Eat Club. Are you across this? No. Oh, it's.

Tommy · 26:00It's unbelievable. I actually used to use it about six or seven years ago. And then I bumped into an old school friend, uh, last week and he said, Oh, I'm working at a, you know, startup.

Tommy · 26:10Oh, whereabouts? E Club. I was like, Oh mate, I used to use that. Now he's a part of the business. But you download this app. It, it basically tells you restaurants in your area, um, where the discounts are. And so right now I can jump on, I'm in, you know, uh, Bayside and there's a True South, a great venue. On the beach, 30 percent off, you can get across your entire bill.

Tommy · 26:32So you could go and rack up a hundred bucks and save 30 bucks alcohol as well. But it's, it's interesting looking at that, just seeing some of these businesses, you know, and you could be positive, you know, looking at it and saying, Well, they may be paying for a lead. Maybe they're breaking even to have someone in their venue.

Tommy · 26:50Maybe on a Saturday, there was a venue on Saturday night in Chapel street, 50 percent off the whole bill. So you could, we could go there and drink. Not with, not with Jason.

Tommy · 27:00He'd bloody run that bill way up, but he's a good guy, but 50 percent off. And I'm just thinking about the numbers there. You really, there really has to be, it's just to get people in the venue.

Tommy · 27:12And, um, I mean, from a consumer point of view, it's an, it's amazing savings. My family and I just go out, easily drop 80 to a hundred dollars for, and we're not, you know, everyone's not getting a meal. It might be sharing a bunch of stuff, but if you can go out and get something for 45 bucks as a family.

Tommy · 27:31Like that's, those things are amazing.

Nick · 27:33Yeah. Well, you can't cook it for

Tommy · 27:34that.

Nick · 27:35Like

Tommy · 27:35that's, yeah,

Nick · 27:36that's reality. It's, um, yeah, I guess it's to get eyes on the venue. It's probably also to give their staff a job, you know, like they've got to, they've got to retain these people and make sure that there's somewhere, or they've got a job to actually come to day, you know, day in, day out.

Nick · 27:51So if you can't. Guarantee work, then how difficult does it then get to get staff back, you know? Yeah, I guess the

Tommy · 27:57luxury I had, you know, service based

Tommy · 28:00business as opposed to something like a cafe where you're you're trading to pay For the operating costs like these people aren't looking whereas I know I can Leverage, you know my time to make more money, but I feel that pain on that on that type of a business model

Nick · 28:17Yeah, yeah And as I said the the bigger guys get Just continue to get bigger.

Nick · 28:22And there was some stats here that I had, um, just comparing, I guess, big business to small business, but spending in supermarkets up 5 percent over the last 12 months, um, whereas spending at butchers down 1%, so there's a 6 percent variance there. Spending at your local green grocer on average down 2. 5%. So 7.

Nick · 28:435 percent variance there, uh, spending with department stores. So your Myers and your David Jones has been stable. Hasn't really moved. Spending in retail clothes down 8%. So an 8 percent variance there in the last 12 months. Um, so big

Nick · 29:00businesses, those would turn over above a hundred, 250 million going bust has actually fallen 20%.

Nick · 29:06Um, so. The chances of a big business going bust has fallen 20%. Um, a major credit agency says 20 percent more, 20 percent more small business are at risk of collapse than this time more a year ago. Uh, food service businesses are now paying invoices on average 18 days late. Construction and retail businesses are paying invoices on average 14 days late, um, and growing.

Nick · 29:32Uh, the rate of retail businesses entering insolvency has more than doubled in two years. Um, and just this year portion of businesses that were rated as severe risk of failure. So this is stats that come from a credit reporting agency. So the portion of businesses that were rated as a severe risk of failure in the coming year has jumped 80 percent or in the past year, sorry, has jumped 80%.

Nick · 29:53So chalk and cheese basically says that all small business are on, are on the verge of going

Nick · 30:00broke, uh, while big businesses continue to grow. And I guess take up that market share because every time there's a small business that shuts, you know, that doesn't mean there's one around the corner, you know, you might have one green grocer or one butcher in your local area.

Nick · 30:13If that shuts down, you're not going to the butcher in the next suburb. Your only choice is to go to a Coles or a Woolies. And that's the problem that we're seeing at the moment. I don't know what the answer is. I just sort of bring it up because I know Marty will

Marty · 30:23have it. Oh, no, they're pretty damning stats.

Marty · 30:26When you look at that and you go, I guess they just can't compete price wise, small business, whereas, you know, The big businesses have pricing power and, uh, you know, I mean, they'd be happy to, to make less money in order to get more of the market. You know, they could, they could turn that on a switch if they want to, whereas the small business owner can't.

Marty · 30:45And it's, um, and again, I mean, I'm, I'm pretty, um, shocked at those stats as to. You know, for small business owners and, and you really have to do the right thing by, you've got families attached

Marty · 31:00in small business, you've got families attached in big business too. But I mean, small business, you know, some people never come back to run another business.

Marty · 31:08You know, when they go through a really, really difficult circumstances because they think, why would I go through the stress? But I think you just come back to it logically and go, do the numbers work and be careful that your passion doesn't take you into a place where you don't want to be. I just continue along that thread.

Marty · 31:26Come back to numbers and metrics and, you know, your own wellbeing around it. Because some of the, some of the dilemmas it can cause, you know, personally into family can be quite, uh, quite considerable. So I just say, or you've got to go into absolute hyperdrive and, and, and think about it. More effort at bad money.

Marty · 31:50So forever, whatever reason your model's not working, it's not making money. Borrowing more money is not going to get you out of it. You know, it's like, you've got to think of

Marty · 32:00ways or be innovative to create more ways of revenue. Diversify. And that's the last thing you're thinking about when you're stressed, right?

Marty · 32:08But you, you've almost got to pull the needle out of the haystack, or you've got to find one component of your business that is working well and go all in on that and just grow that wherever that is, you know, try and really be specific on it and go all in and try and, you know, try and get yourself through.

Marty · 32:27So, but not easy, not a, not an easy predicament.

Tommy · 32:30All I'll say, Nick, is that, um, we put a bit of Hans Zimmer to that. And yours, geez, there's another episode coming on a viral video from the numbers game.

Nick · 32:38Can't wait for my numbers to get questioned. There goes my sad day

Marty · 32:43night. But, but it also, also in regards to.

Marty · 32:46If you're thinking about getting into business, this, this goes on the other side of the fence, right? You go, there's opportunities now to be able to buy in businesses, you know, potentially at cheaper prices,

Marty · 33:00but you want to make a considerate approach as to what you're buying into and what industry you're buying into.

Marty · 33:06So source and, and research what industries are actually doing okay and doing well because you might get something at a lower value than what, you know, and add your own specialized skill into it to grow that business. But you just don't want to be in those high risk industries. Um, so again, wherever there's pain.

Marty · 33:28You know, there is opportunity and it's terrible to say, but, but actually you might be helping a business owner get out of a really tricky situation as well.

Tommy · 33:37Well said, Marty. Well said. Well, this is where Jase usually wraps it up, so I'll throw back to you, Marty. I reckon you, you've got to take on both the beautiful ending and also the goodbye.

Tommy · 33:49Ha ha!

Marty · 33:50I'll do my best, Jase. I'll do my best. Thank you for listening. Please like, share, uh, any of our social posts. Make them go viral. Make them go viral because, uh, Just makes

Marty · 34:00us want to do more of this stuff. We're egomaniacs, obviously, but, uh, no, we appreciate all the comments and it's been great to see people's different perspectives.

Marty · 34:08So keep engaging with us. We're here to help. We're here to be tested and questioned, uh, until next episode. Thank you for jumping in Tommy. Uh, great to have you on board. Uh, game over.

Jason · 34:20This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The conversations are of a general nature and do not qualify as financial or tax advice.

Jason · 34:28We recommend before you make any financial decisions, you consult a licensed professional. Individuals on the podcast may hold positions in the companies discussed. ---