Business is absolutely booming for a small, family-run sandwich stand that was established in 1954 in downtown Philadelphia. It’s roast pork, provolone and broccoli rabe sanga was recently awarded The Best Sandwich In America by the Travel Channel’s Man vs Food show. In this episode, I have a fireside chat with fourth generation owner Tommy Nicolic who runs Tommy DiNics with his son Joey (make that five generations!).

This was such a great interview on so many levels – Tommy is a guy who’s been running his business the same way for decades. His marketing mantra is quality, quality, quality. He does very little promotion. Has limited distribution. And only raises his prices every 18-months or so, whilst expenses go up anyway. Tommy is a business owner passionate about delivering a quality product every time – and as a result everything else takes care of itself. He may not make millions doing it, but he has the loyalist of customer bases, loves what he does, is full of pride … and recently sold a sandwich to The Fonz. It doesn’t get any better than that!

In 2008 Rebecca Scott left her long-standing job as a Scientist at the CSIRO and co-founded Streat – a Melbourne-based social enterprise that sells delicious food and coffee whilst providing homeless young people with hope, self-belief and the opportunity to get qualified in hospitality. As Streat’s tagline suggests – Streat stops homelessness the delicious way.

Whether you’re looking to start a social enterprise yourself, wondering how you can integrate some social responsibility in your small business or just love an inspiring story then you’re going to love hearing what Rebecca has to share.

This is a wonderful story of how you can start a business, make some money and do the world of good along the way. Listen up!

In this episode Andrew Griffiths and I launch in to our second Funny Business segment in which we:

– Share a Modern Family moment we both had in an upmarket pet shop recently.
– Cogitate over a first world marketing problem Timbo had in a 5-star hotel.
– Discuss the importance of backing yourself.
– Pose the question Is it enough to meet your customers’ expectations?
– And share some of our biggest business mistakes.

PLUS I respond to a listener who, up until now, has felt intimidated by the idea of marketing his business. Listen in as I share some advice on how to squash the intimidation … and discover how my Online Marketing Communications Masterclass also helped him overcome it.

Eugene Tan started Aquabumps in 1999, when as a frustrated Creative Director he combined his three passions: photography, surfing and the web. In the nineties blogs hadn’t evolved yet, but Eugene, better known as ::uge (yooj), thought he’d provide a nice daily break for his mates to see a bit of surf at work.

The daily updates started flowing more consistently and the first handful of friends became thousands of people logging on from all over the globe. Even Aquabumps’s Facebook page is a hive of activity with 58,000 followers (as at Sept 2012).

This is a great story about one guy’s decision to follow his passion. And it’s paid off big time.

PLUS I go off on another content creation rant PLUS I share my top 5 ways of creating awareness on a shoestring budget.

James Tuckerman is best known for launching Anthill Magazine, in 2003, from the spare bedroom of his parent’s home. He was 26 years old. In 2004 and 2005, he was named Best Small Publisher in Australia by Publishers Australia. Not a bad achievement!

Then, in early 2009, he reinvented the Anthill business model, abandoning its print origins in favour of a 100% digital product. (A couple of years ahead of Fairfax and News!). Within six-months Anthill Online was listed by Neilson Online Ratings among the Top 50 Business & Finance websites in Australia. Things are going well!

What few people know is that James made this digital transition on a budget of just $900.

Listen up and discover how he did it …

Since starting the Messages On Hold business in 1988 from his bedroom in Perth, Kym Illman has generated tens of millions of dollars worth of free TV and press exposure at some of Australia’s (and the world’s) largest sporting events.

His marketing tool of choice is the little understood strategy of Guerrilla marketing (AKA ambush marketing).

Sacked from a cushy TV station job in 1988, Kym has achieved unpaid coverage at major sporting events including Cathy Freeman’s run at the 2000 Olympic Games, AFL grand finals and Melbourne Cups!

Whilst they’ve got him in to some hot water, they have also contributed to the success of the Messages On Hold business which is now turning over sixteen million dollars annually.

Listen in as Kym explains how he has (and you can) use guerrilla marketing to successfully increase the awareness of your business. Enjoy!

In this special episode (it’s spesh ’cause it’s the first of many), I hook up with Andrew Griffiths (Australia’s #1 small business author) to have a good old fashioned yarn about business and marketing issues, developments and current affairs that are on our collective mind. In this inaugural chat:

– Andrew suggests that someone has to be the most expensive, so why not make it you?
– Timbo is inspired by a bed store in New York that lets customers take a nap for free!
– Andrew identifies a new consumer trend called Newism (and Timbo questions it!).
– We both tackle a listener question about publicity from Sonya at Born Country Baby.
– Timbo talk about his experiences with Bullshit Bingo!

PLUS we seek your help to gives these episodes a name. So whack on your thinking cap and come on in …

Imagine, if in the space of 3 years, you had a thriving business with a major retail presence, a major online presence, the #1 selling book in your industry, were about to launch a second book, had a major joint venture with your city’s biggest public space and were absolutely in love with what you did. Life would be pretty good, huh?

Well, that’s the story of this episode’s guest, Fabian Capamolla, one of the founders (Matt Pember is the other) of the Little Veggie Patch Co.

In this interview Fab shares exactly how they went about achieving so much, so fast. Enjoy!

Geoff Harris is one of the original founders (and still current owners) of Flight Centre … one of the world’s largest travel agents. Certainly Australia’s largest by a long shot. I shared a small part of this interview about 6-months ago. It was part of another series of interviews I intended doing with creators of iconic Australian brands. Alas, time wont allow me to indulge in that idea, so I’m releasing these interviews on the Small Business Big Marketing show. Others (already released include chats with Rip Curl founder, Bryan Singer and Beechworth Bakery Founder, Tom O’Toole.