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Torque Wrench Calibration Services is a mobile checking, calibration & repair service of Torque Wrenches, Torque Screwdrivers & Torque Multipliers. Tom & Michele’s experience is spread over a range of market segments including Automotive Industries, Motor Vehicle Dealerships, New & Used Cars, Bus & Truck, Road & Rail, Manufacturing & Assembly, Heavy Industry, Construction & Engineering, Power Generation, Oil & Gas, Aviation....... basically anything with nuts & bolts. No industry is too big or small for us.

We purchased this business in 2014. With Tom’s master technician background, along with our combined industry knowledge and skills, has seen our reputation throughout the industry grow into a very successful mobile business. We come to you; our customers love that there is no downtime on the job, they don’t have to organise to send their tools offsite!

What is your greatest business learning?

Having great suppliers with good quality products. Knowing your product inside and out and having the technical knowledge makes it easier to talk to customers.

Treat customers the way you would expect to be treated - happy customers are loyal customers, and if you make a promise – keep it!

What is your greatest business success?

Designing a fit for purpose mobile van! Our van is Tom’s office and it’s had a huge impact on providing a fully equipped professional service to meet all of our customers needs. As we continue to grow our customer base, we will be adding another technician and van to our fleet very soon. We are very excited!

Is there anything you would have done differently?

Having a backup plan and or backup person sooner. When you first start up, cashflow does not always provide the flexibility you need to do more, we learn as we go, and we gain as we learn.

How do you stay up-to-date with the latest business information and trends?

Our suppliers and our customers are our most important asset. Staying in regular contact with our suppliers we learn about new products and competitors in the market. Listening to and learning from our customers helps us make better recommendations for various torque tools used in different applications.

Where have you sought business advice?

Mostly my accountant, but it’s actually hard to know where else small business owners can actively seek assistance and support from. We have been fortunate to have enough experience to have ventured into this business without much assistance at all, but I do see benefits in having someone you can just bounce things off.

Since the AHC Small Business Program was started in late 2021, we are already seeing the advantages in creating this network and have already started building some mutually beneficial relationships. It’s a great way to learn from each other, share our own experiences, ask for help or just seek out some advice.

What financial factors should be considered when wanting to grow a business?

Every business will have different growth factors, but for us at this point we need to think about the additional costs to:

• Purchase and fit out another van
• Employing another person
• Purchase more testing equipment
• Look at upgrading our software and accounting structures.

What value do you place in business plans?

We have a fairly straight forward business plan which has over recent times highlighted it’s now the right time to spend some money and put on another technician and van. This will help strengthen our financial position and allow us to expand in more ways than we had ever imagined.

What three things should someone consider before starting a business?

1. Make sure you have the skills required. Determine your audience and do your research.
2. Who are your competitors and how will your advertising be unique to them?
3. Have a business plan to help map your finances and equipment needed.

Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard is a 5-star rated winery and chef-hatted restaurant located in Lenswood.

Owners Sharon Pearson and Garry Sweeney bought the vineyard in 2009 and relocated from Sydney to set about building a cellar door and restaurant that would offer quality tourism experiences. Since then Lenswood has grown from a little-known hamlet to an award-winning tourism destination.

What is your greatest business learning?

Employ the best you possibly can, surround yourself with good people, and look after your staff. Even though we came from different industries before buying the vineyard and had no prior hospitality experience, we have found the same basic principles can be applied to all businesses.

What is your greatest business success?

Maintaining a 5-star winery rating with James Halliday for the past 10 consecutive years and earning a chef hat for the restaurant for the past seven. Not compromising on quality or deviating from our business plan to create a premium product has come at a cost, however the vineyard has won several Wine Show Trophies over the past 12 years which has made all the hard work worth it!

Is there anything you would have done differently?

Sometimes passion for your business and wanting to create the very best is often at odds with cash flow and financial decisions!

How do you stay up-to-date with the latest business information and trends?

Research, research, research! We visit other wineries and restaurants in South Australia, interstate, and even overseas to see what our peers are doing and how we can do better. We also maintain memberships for associated industry bodies to stay on top of what is new. “Transform or die” is one of our business mottos.

What financial factors should be considered when wanting to grow a business?

Cash flow is king, and an effective business plan should be in place. Our business grew organically and went through a number of “growing pains”. We knew we had to expand for the business and brand to remain relevant and we needed a plan to be able to find the capital to make that happen.

What value do you place in business plans?

A comprehensive business plan is a key factor in working out your business strengths, opportunities and weakness. It highlights your unique selling points and how you might use these to your advantage. We put in place a strong business plan, which created an effective strategy for growth to determine our future needs, and strengthened our position for finance when we expanded our restaurant and cellar door.

What three things should someone consider before starting a business?

1. Do your research and understand your target market and competition;
2. Understand your own strengths and what you do well; and
3. Surround yourself with good people.

Data Effects is a South Australian technology company that is committed to providing positive social, economic and environmental outcomes for Australian communities. We work closely with government and private industry on a diverse range of technology-focussed agricultural and environmental research and development projects.

Data Effects specialises in project management, complex field data acquisition, development of real-time (IoT) sensing platforms, cloud data management, bespoke data communication/visualisation and automated systems. We passionately believe that data-driven decisions and integrated systems level management can help ensure sustainable social and economic prosperity.

What is your greatest business learning?

Firstly, having the best product is not enough. Two other key factors you need for success are:

• A clear path to find your market (and/or enough money to advertise to the prospective market)
• Making sure the people who are paying the bills are also the ones getting (at least some of) the benefit

Secondly, many products fail because they never make it to market. Getting a product in the market — even it is not your dream product - is important for cash flow and to garner feedback to help the product grow in ways that make it more valuable to the user.

What is your greatest business success?

Our greatest business success has been to build a reputation as a trusted adviser, and delivery partner to a range of State and Federal Government agencies. People want to work with us because they know we strive to bring success to every initiative that we undertake. It is our hard-earned reputation that has enabled us to bring together an impressive group of collaborators to help realise our most significant undertaking to date, the "Smart Catchment Project" (SCP) based in the Adelaide Hills (Cox Creek).

The SCP was born out of a vision to create a world-class outdoor laboratory for the development of new technologies, solutions and practices for the holistic and integrated management of catchments in Australia and globally.

The cornerstone of the project will be catchment-wide sensor, communication and data management infrastructure. These technologies will enable the deployment of cost-effective environmental, agricultural and water usage sensors to provide event-based, real-time management data. This will form a testbed for developing, demonstrating and adopting solutions for:

• climate adaption
• landscape restoration (weed and feral insect/animal eradication)
• improved farm profitability
• biosecurity
• waterway health
• disaster management (bushfires/flood)
• peri-urban planning (in collaboration with local councils)
• real-world learning

What we learn through this initiative will help us better understand the social and technical barriers that stand in the way of us sustainably managing catchments from Cox Creek to the Murray-Darling Basin.

Is there anything you would have done differently?

In the end you learn as much from your mistakes as much as you do from your successes. Hence, whilst it would be nice to avoid the pitfalls the reality is the hard times are an important part of the path to success.

How do you stay up-to-date with the latest business information and trends?

We involve ourselves in a collection of industry groups that discuss key technology areas that are of interest to us. Our model is to talk to as many people as possible!

Where have you sought business advice?

Everywhere we can find it:

1. Other businesses people; from retired business people to young and keen entrepreneurs.
2. Some books are famous for a reason so everyone should check out classics like "Scaling Up" & "Traction"

What financial factors should be considered when wanting to grow a business?

As the saying goes: Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity but Cash is Reality. When you are looking to grow a business, keeping on top of your cash flow is crucial. In the tech industry, where we work, time to market is also important, so balancing investment against funding is the key challenge.

What value do you place in business plans?

When starting a new business you often see opportunities everywhere. Hence, it is easy to chase a lot of dreams all at once and there is the risk that you fail to deliver on all of them. The best way to make sure you keep focus on your objectives is to have a business plan. A Business Plan is also a key to managing your cash flow and foreseeing cash issues. Hence, a business plan is invaluable.

What three things should someone consider before starting a business?

1. What is your point of difference (and is it sustainable)?
2. Why would people give you money (and how much is your offering worth to them)?
3. How are you going to engage with your market (i.e. how will your customers know you exist)?

Shop Local SA is located in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills, and our purpose is to support South Australian businesses to sell online in a supported way.

Businesses need to be selling online to meet consumer expectations, but there is the marketing challenge of getting consumers to find you. That's where Shop Local SA can help.

We have developed an online sales platform with a South Australian focus. Equipped with easy-to-use systems and built in marketing support, Shop Local SA provides a road map for businesses to embrace eCommerce, stay visible online, and connect with customers.

Shop Local SA offers local businesses their own full-featured online shop, with expert support to get setup and selling quickly. For businesses already selling online we offer a new distribution channel to reach more customers and drive sales.

Shop Local SA is South Australia's leading online marketplace designed to help local businesses embrace the "new normal" of digital business, all supported by a local team.

What is your greatest business learning?

Not all see your vision at first. It's important to take your clients on a journey to catch your vision and to do this collaboration is key. Seek out partners to help you on your business journey. It might be businesses along your street you can cross promote with, your local business group, or a networking group. The benefits of coming together to share ideas, market together and learn can be exponential. This is the philosophy we have built Shop Local SA on – not only do we all benefit from marketing collectively together, our vendor community are connected and can share ideas, come up with solutions and work together to promote our great state.

What is your greatest business success?

We have been involved in a number of businesses over many years. Our greatest business success is turning an idea into a commercial reality as we have done with Shop Local SA. It was a great day when we were able to turn our platform on live and feature our vendors who caught our vision early.

Is there anything you would have done differently?

Being involved in business is a life long journey of learning and continuous improvement. If we could start at the beginning knowing what we do now I am sure our path would have been more direct, but then we wouldn't have learned as much along the way. You need to keep your focus forward whilst utilising the knowledge you have gained.

How do you stay up-to-date with the latest business information and trends?

We use a few different avenues to keep up to date with the latest information and trends — some examples include subscribing to industry newsletters, attending networking events and seminars, listening to the ABC, and using social media groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. The digital space moves very quickly so this is really important to our business.

Where have you sought business advice?

We have a number of trusted advisors we work with directly in our business. We also actively pursue professional development opportunities to keep learning.

What financial factors should be considered when wanting to grow a business?

It is important to have flexibility in your financial model so that you can execute your growth strategy and take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

What value do you place in business plans?

We place a great deal of value in business plans but they need to be working documents that are regularly used — there's not much point in creating a document that sits on a shelf. In smaller teams this can be a challenge but it is important to find a workable option.

What three things should someone consider before starting a business?

Starting a business is exciting and daunting at the same time. As mentioned previously the planning is critical — spend time up front getting your business plan together.

The next element is finance — ensure you have a flexible financial model as this is important as you grow.

Finally, surround yourself with a team of support — this includes advisors, peers, and staff. Seek out networking groups to be a part of, they are a great to meet like minded business owners and often provide connections to professional development opportunities.

For more information or to discuss how Shop Local SA might help you, visit the Shop Local SA website or call 0422 907 467.