Inflation is on the increase in the country. In fact, the country is facing the highest underlying inflation rate since the introduction of the GST.
While Writing for Smart Company, Avi Efrat, founder of Fantastic Framing, says he sees it as an opportunity for small businesses to embrace innovations and opportunities.
Fantastic framing is a leading picture and art framing company in the country. They have taken the innovative approach of making framing mobile. In their own words, “they bring the framing to you.” Avi Efrat founded the business in 2007, and since then, he has built a team of 40 working with 15 vans and has 9 shops.
According to Avi, he has seen the highs and lows and the impact the global financial crisis and the pandemic had. However, he believes that this, too, shall pass.
He believes that even though the times are tough, staff should not have to suffer. He urges small business owners to match their employees’ salaries with the inflation every quarter. If the businesses can’t do this, he urges them to find other means of compensation such as bonuses and incentives to help employees tackle the increase in petrol price and rent.
He went ahead to talk about his attempt to ease inflation’s effects on his employees. He has given them access to work cars for their commute between work and home, and the business covers the maintenance cost.
He believes owners can reduce overheads by making long-term plans. He has made plans to tackle the rise in business costs so that they do not transfer these costs to their customers. He gave an example of sourcing timber from Indonesia instead of locally, where the price has increased by 6%.
Even though he has made all these cuts, he still suffers effects from the price increase. According to him, their delivery vans run on expensive diesel, which had their petrol bill go up by as much as $3000 a month before the federal budget’s petrol levy discount.
Because of this, he understands that there might be a need to pass on costs to customers. If this is the case, the reason should be clearly communicated to the customers. Of course, not all customers will understand, but your loyal customers will.
Avi Efrat believes that amid the hard times that inflation has caused for small business owners, supporting staff is an investment that will yield tenfold dividends.
Read the full article on Smart Company
