Natallia: John, you have a lot of business owners and you work with them, help them get to the next level to succeed in their businesses. And I know some of them don't sleep at night. They have issues and what is that one particular pain point that you see with them every day?

John: Look, I suppose with small business, a lot of the issues are around financial management and being able to deal with change in economic conditions. I suppose at the moment there's a lot of factors out there that are outside the small business owners' control but are a worry for them. For instance, currently, there's a huge credit squeeze and the banks have really tightened their lending for business. This, a lot of the time, will interfere with the businesses plans for growth and for their profitability. At times, that will also devalue the business.

So if you're looking at succession which a lot of business owners are looking at at the moment because of the age of the business or because of the ability to the business to expand and lack of finance. If you're looking at that, you really do need finance to be able to expand and grow the business.

Natallia: So what do they do? How do they actually get to the next level?

John: Yeah, to get to the next level, I suppose financial management, financial hygiene's very important. In terms of accessing finance, the banks are really looking for robust businesses that are well managed. To do that, you really need to have a business plan and have proper financial forecasts that help you look ahead and work out when you may need finance for that new project or when you may have a new customer which is soaking up a lot of working capital which requires finance. By being prepared, you can go to the bank early with strong financial results that provides a good compelling case to the bank to provide the finance.

You're doing that well before you need the money. Gives you time to develop your case, gives the bank time to correctly assess it and to make a decision. By doing that ahead, if you don't get the finance, you've got the ability to change your strategy and tact 'cause you don't want to go down one route then find that it's not viable because you can't get the funding. So that-

Natallia: Fantastic. So we plan, prepare, and execute.