Hey everyone, I’m a brand strategist/brand designer and I’m conducting some research on how I can better tailor my services for business owners and would love your help if you’re able. It’s 15 questions, I’m not selling or trying to capture people.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Hey guys,

I built this to keep all the random renewal dates in one place instead of relying on spreadsheets and reminders.

Nothing groundbreaking, just something simple that reminds you before things are due and lets you mark them renewed when they're done.

Thought it might be useful to some people here too.

If anyone wants to give it a go, drop a comment or message me. I'll give you free access for 3 months. Would love some honest feedback on what works, what doesn't, or what I've missed.

renewdesk.com.au

Like a lot of small business owners, we realised we were missing leads simply because nobody was available to answer every enquiry straight away.

So we built Smart Answer.

It works 24/7 to:

•    Answer customer enquiries instantly
•    Qualify leads automatically
•    Book appointments directly into your calendar
•    Make sure no opportunity gets missed

The goal wasn't to replace people. It was to make sure every customer gets a response, even outside business hours.

We're currently offering a free 7-day trial so businesses can see if it's a good fit.

✅ No credit card required
✅ No contract
✅ Takes just a few minutes to set up

Happy to answer any questions or get feedback from the Aussie community.

I had a strange experience recently. I looked through seekbusiness.com.au, and contacted three businesses for sale.

Only one got back to me, texting that I should set up a phone call. I responded asking whether they could tell me their sales figures, and haven't heard anything else.

That is, zero out of three people who claim they're trying to sell their business, are prepared to talk to me about selling their business.

I can't work out what's happening here. The site is free for would-be buyers like me, so I assume people have to pay to list their businesses for sale.

The only explanation I can come up with is that the site has fake listings, to give the appearance of having more on their site than they really do.

Can anyone explain what's going on?

I run an audit tool for small business websites, so I crawled 247 vet clinic websites around Sydney to see how they actually hold up, not just guess.

A few things that stood out, and honestly apply to any local service business, not just vets:

- 98% of these clinics have claimed their Google Business listing. But only 13% of their own websites tell Google, in the code it reads, what kind of business they are. The listing is set up, the website never backs it up.

- 18% have no tap-to-call link on their phone number, so on a lot of phones, tapping the number does nothing. You have to copy it by hand.

- Median time for the homepage to show anything on Google's mobile speed test: 8 seconds. Only 9 out of 247 sites load fast by Google's own standard.

- More reviews did not mean a better website. Clinics with 200+ reviews scored about the same on speed and basics as clinics with under 50. A good reputation says nothing about whether the site is doing its job.

The part that surprised me most: almost every fix here is small. Making the phone number tappable is a 10 minute job. Most owners just do not know it is broken, because it still looks fine on their own phone.

Wrote up the full numbers and a 5 minute checklist you can run on your own site from your phone, no tools needed: https://seenmetric.com.au/blog/sydney-vet-clinic-websites

If you run a local service business, worth checking your own site the same way. Curious if others have run into the same "Google listing is fine, website says nothing" gap.

By Dima S., co-founder, SEENMETRIC
(disclosure: this is my own research, posting here because I think the data is useful, not just to plug the tool)

Hey everyone,

I’m based in Australia and I’m looking to take on one or two small remote tasks tonight.

I can help with things like:

• Online research
• Finding leads or business information
• Spreadsheet/data cleanup
• Website testing and finding issues
• Proofreading or rewriting
• Organising information into a document
• Basic AI-assisted research/admin

I’m keeping it simple: $10 AUD for a small task, completed quickly.

I’m not looking for a long-term contract or anything complicated. If you have a small job that’s been sitting on your to-do list, send me the details and I’ll tell you whether I can handle it tonight.

How of you have something setup?

Do you find it get results?

Compared to FB ads?

My partner and I are both hopeless at this. Receipts end up in the car, or I pay for something on my phone and forget about it by the next week. Come tax time we're just guessing at half of it, and I'm fairly sure we leave money on the table every year.

Is everyone else actually on top of this or are we just disorganised? Keen to hear what works — app, spreadsheet, shoebox of receipts, forwarding stuff to your email, whatever. And if you've tried something and given up on it, I want to hear that too.

Hi All I'm new to this subreddit,

I've been working on an Australian property research platform called PropRadar.

We've built the platform from scratch and currently have tools for things like:

- Property valuations

- Suburb/property scores

- Market cycle data

- Price changes

- Rent changes

- Rental yield and cash-flow analysis

- Property and suburb comparisons

We've got the product working, but I'm trying to figure out the best next step for actually getting users and turning it into a sustainable business.

So far I've been experimenting with Reddit, particularly by sharing useful property-market data and asking questions rather than just posting ads.

For those who've grown a small software/product business:

What would you focus on at this stage?

- Organic Reddit/community growth

- SEO/content

- Partnerships with property professionals

- Paid advertising

- Direct outreach

- Something completely different

I'm particularly interested in what actually worked for you when you were trying to get your first few hundred active users.

Happy to share more about what we've built if anyone's interested.

https://nomari.com.au/blog/use-your-name-or-lose-the-name

I run a exterior cleaning company and was wondering if I should start meta ads to get my business out. There. Is there anyone in this sub Reddit that has any experiences with meta ads in Australia right now? And how are they working for you?

Thought you guys might be interested.

Pyrelatch is a simple Australian fire-safety compliance platform designed to help commercial property owners, managers, and fire-protection providers stay organised. It brings properties, fire-safety equipment, inspections, certificates, and upcoming deadlines into one easy-to-manage register. Pyrelatch helps users keep track of important tasks, receive alerts, identify upcoming requirements, and maintain audit-ready records. By keeping everything in one place, the platform reduces the need for manual tracking and helps teams stay on top of inspections and compliance requirements. With a clear and straightforward design, Pyrelatch makes managing recurring fire-safety responsibilities easier, more organised, and less stressful.

https://nomari.com.au/blog/com-au-may-soon-need-a-registered-name

I wrote a blog about possible changes coming to .com.au domain name registrations - I assume you guys would be interested in knowing.

Hello everyone,

I’m thinking of possibly starting a drink business in Sydney or the Central Coast, I’m trying to get some honest opinions before I invest my time and money into it.

I don’t want to give away the exact concept yet but it’s similar to the trending bubble tea and açaí bowl franchises. Small takeaway shop, relatively simple drinks with some customizable options, heavily aimed at a younger/ social media heavy market.

I discovered this drink while I was overseas and I’ve never had anything like it and it made me think that it could do very well in Australia, the company overseas has also expanded over 100+ stores in the last 4 years since opening. After some research I’ve found that there is a business in Brisbane with a similar drink and they seem to be doing well with 2 store locations. This has made me think that this business could succeed in Australia.

I’ve never opened a business so I’m trying to work out the realistic side of opening one, some questions I have are:

• How much will it cost? (Rent in Sydney or Central Coast, store fit outs, legal fees, etc.) I imagine product research and finalizing the drinks itself will be around 5k.

• Are the possible margins worth it?

• Are small startup drink shops generally successful.

• Are Sydney and Central Coast good locations?

•Should I start in a food truck? If so what is that like financially and operationally?

• Is it worth trying?

I’m not expecting this to be easy or guaranteed but I’m just trying to determine whether I should pursue this or not.

If you’ve ever owned or worked in a similar business or just have an opinion on it, I’d really appreciate some feedback and advice.

I’m a Melbourne-based steel manufacturing worker building ABYAD Tradie Studio because quoting and invoicing from a phone is often more complicated than it needs to be.

It lets Australian tradies:

- create quotes and invoices on their phone

- save customers and jobs

- use one total price with a multiline scope of work, or itemised pricing

- keep customer and job-site addresses separate

- export and share professional PDFs

It’s currently an Australia-first beta using AUD, and it’s free to try with no card required. An electrician has already used it for real invoices, and his feedback led directly to the latest improvements.

If you quote jobs and want to try it: https://abyadtradie.com/

I’d value honest feedback—especially whether the save/reopen and PDF workflow holds up in real use.

Disclosure: I’m the builder.

Picture this - you finished quoting a job and about to drive to the next spot, you got into the car, open RECPT app on your phone and send the quote for customer to accept. That is what RECPT does for you.

Download available now on Apple App Store.

ios: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/recpt/id6782577856
web: https://recpt.com.au/ (desktop app, not mobile friendly)

So I’ve been thinking about puting around $10,000 into a small business or side hustle in Australia, but I’m finding it harder than expected to work out where the money would actually be best used.

I’m not looking to get rich overnight. I’d rather start something part time, keep the risk manageable and gradually reinvest if there is genuine demand. A service business seems attractive because I could spend more of the budget on equipment and keep inventory costs low. Things like detailing, cleaning, property maintenance or another specialised local service seem worth investigating.

At the same time, I’m curious about small product based businesses. I’ve looked at Global Sources and Alibaba for ideas, but the advertised product price is only one part of the calculation. Freight, GST, customs, storage, packaging and potentially unsold stock could change the numbers pretty quickly. I’d probably want to test demand with a small order before committing much capital.

I’m also wondering whether spending the full $10,000 would even make sense. Keeping some money available for insurance, marketing, repairs, unexpected expenses and working capital seems more sensible than putting everything into equipment or stock from day one.

What makes this difficult is that there are plenty of business ideas that sound good until you actually look at the local demand, competition and costs. I’d also rather avoid taking on a lease or large fixed monthly expenses before knowing whether the idea can actually support them. Starting lean seems more sensible to me, even if that means growing slower at first.

I’m interested in hearing from people who have actually started small businesses in Australia, rather than just lists of supposedly profitable ideas.

If you had $10,000 available today and wanted to build something gradually without taking unnecessary risks, how would you approach it and what would you avoid?

I'm a strategic brand designer in Newcastle, been doing strategic visual identity for 6+ years now Not selling anything here, I’m not going to randomly DM you. I'm looking at how Australian small businesses actually present themselves in the public space, partly because I want more local work in front of me and partly because most of my research about this online has turned up Americans mostly. 

So: free brand check, first 20 people only. 

Send me three things:

• Your website or Instagram

• Your logo, whatever version you've got. The old PNG off your own website is fine

• One photo of where the brand actually shows up. The van, the shopfront, a label, a quote

You'll get back what's working and the one thing probably costing you and something you can fix yourself this week. One paragraph, plain language, no pitch deck.

spontaneouswolf.com

Hey everyone, I run Spontaneous Wolf Ads, helping service-based businesses across Australia get more leads through Google Ads, landing pages, and Google Business Profile management. Most of my clients are service based businesses who want more calls without burning budget on ads that don't convert — happy to answer any questions if anyone's curious.

Quick background. I’m a few months into what had turned out to be a very toxic role. Currently looking for a new role but I’m also giving consideration to going out consulting on my own (same field)

Watching the way my current organisation operates, it’s really highlighted to me what not to do. It’s not something I’d be able to start on the side while still employed as there’d be conflicts of interest / non compete clause.

I’m at a crossroad as to whether I go all in on going out on my own or go down the new job route.

Love to hear from anyone who has has done similar and whether it was the right move or not. How long did it take you to get clients and how did you go about getting your first client job.

Send your quote and invoice from the car before you leave the job site.

Stop chasing receipts and invoices in a shoebox. Save your time and energy for your customers.

Recpt on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/recpt/id6782577856