Growth Newsletter

On the 24th of December, 1990, two lives changed forever. I’d been invited to Christmas Eve drinks at the home of a university friend and his wife. As the sun set on that pleasant evening, I found myself sitting next to a holidaying young English lady and we chatted the night away. That was the first time I laid eyes on Trish.

In my e-book “How to make your Bank love your Family Business”, I talk about the fact that most businesses have limited or no relationship with their bank. That is, until such time as you need money and, well, they have it.

We’re a month into the New Year. Most of us have been back at work for three weeks now. It’s enough time to have returned to the rhythm of what we do, every day in our family businesses. It’s also enough time to have commenced making the changes in our businesses in 2022 that we committed to whilst we were sitting by the beach over the Christmas break.

In mid December 2021, the Federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, announced the Federal Government’s Mid Year Economic Forecast Outlook (MYEFO). Essentially, it’s a status update on the nation’s accounts part way through the financial year. Most people either don’t know about it or take little notice of the story on that night’s news bulletins. Being a nerd about budgets, I’m always interested.

Well, it’s finally caught up with me…COVID that is. Right on the New Year, our eldest son Callum returned from holidays and went down with the beast. A week of the entire household self isolating worked brilliantly, until the Saturday afternoon prior to returning from annual leave when, what I felt was hay-fever from earlier in the day, just wouldn’t shift. A rapid antigen test declared a positive result and that was it for me for another week – imprisoned inside my bedroom.

Happy New Year! May 2022 be one of good health, much happiness and great success, no matter your endeavour or your calling.

And there you have it, another year done and dusted. As you’re reading this, Trish and I are already into the second week of a four week break. We’d decided that the disruption of the past two years, and our inability to take leave and travel as we would otherwise had done, had drained the tank early. It was time for a re-charge and last week we spent a fabulous week holidaying in our own great city of Sydney, enjoying life at the Taronga Zoo Wildlife Retreat.

When I started High School in 1980, around 75% of students bailed out at the end of Year 10. Most took up an apprenticeship or realised, as my good friend Danielle Robertson of DR Care Solutions recently referenced it, they were not Book Smart and were looking to become Life Smart.

It’s interesting being back in front of people these last couple of months after our extended lockdown. As we’ve re-engaged in a physical sense, I’ve found it eye-opening to observe not only some old patterns re-emerge, but notice behaviours inside of family businesses that, perhaps, the owners and managers are unaware of.