In this first episode on The Business Habitat, Sam chats with Joshua Lewis, business efficiency expert and Director of Dorks Delivered, a Brisbane-based IT company helping small businesses optimise their operations by building better processes and leveraging their systems.

Joshua talks to Sam about his experiences along the way to business freedom.

In this raw and authentic account, Sam shares the journey that led her to walk away from a successful leadership position in a multi-million dollar accounting practice, and regain control of her professional life in a way that resonated with her own personal goals.

Sam delves into the common theme of career dissatisfaction and the ways in which companies often fail their employees, often without meaning to. Sam draws a picture of a better way of working, with a framework that places the individual firmly at the centre, while simultaneously delivering economic performance.

Sam examines the confusion between Strategic Planning and Strategy, and why so many businesses struggle when it comes to differentiating the two activities.

Following on from recent podcasts and conversations around Purpose, Vision and Values, this podcast is a natural progression into Strategy and why it’s critical to separate this business stage from Planning.

In this episode, Sam follows up on her recent conversation with Ryan Lazanis around lifestyle businesses, bringing together the topics of disruption and agility. In this succinct episode, Sam deals with the question, how do we create businesses of the future that will be able to not only withstand changing dynamics, but grow and prosper for the benefit of everyone involved.

Sam talks to Ryan Lazanis, whose Canadian based business Future Firm is designed to help business owners fast track a modern scalable firm that they love working in.

Disillusioned with the traditional accounting firm model, Ryan put his entrepreneurial mind to work to create a technology forward mode of working. He now helps businesses all around the world through his coaching, podcasts and newsletters providing collaboration and assistance for people running modern firms.

Sam looks at how we might take what David Masefield taught us about using a knowledge based model (his blog) to educate his market and drive business to gaps in the market outside the sale of the traditional big ticket market and how we can parallel this to think a little differently about how we offer services.

This episode is all about startup innovation, the absolute importance of your team, and the benefits of incubators and accelerator programs for status and business owners. Sam and David also discuss the importance of transparent and future-focused conversations between cofounders early on before there’s vested interests at play and the qualities David identifies in people who will be successful entrepreneurs, either now or in the future.

David and Sam discuss the importance of connecting with other entrepreneurs and business people, of being in community. David then shares the definition of a startup and how it differentiates from doing business long term. Plus, the success rates (or lack thereof) of startups and why fast failure is the goal.

Greg shares why it’s important to understand the different skillsets of the practitioner and business owner, and how he helps business owners find the joy and reignite their passion while becoming redundant in their businesses. He also gives his advice about doing due diligence and getting the right advice in business, and why you shouldn’t spend too much on marketing.