56 BUSINESS OWNER TUESDAY NOVEMBER 24 2015 ADVERTISER.COM.AU

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MULTIPLE hospital admis-sions, including one five-month stay during a high-riskpregnancy, were the catalystfor Adelaide’s Lidia Macri tostart her own business.

“I was feeling like crap and alady came in from a salon topaint my nails,” she said.

“She was uncomfortableand to be honest I couldn’twait for it to be over because Ifelt sorry for her.”

This experience led MsMacri to launch Bedside Beau-ty & Wellness, a mobile busi-ness which offers treatmentsfor people who are too sick, orunable, to attend a salon or spa.

Trained therapists visit cli-ents in their homes, hospitalsand aged care facilities to pro-vide services including mani-cures, massage, facials,hairdressing and reflexology.

Ms Macri said services weretailored to suit the needs of theclient to ensure maximumcomfort and benefit.

“I now employ five ther-apists and one hairdresser whowere carefully selected and allhave a background in eitherhealth care, such as formernurses, and those who have

worked in aged care,” she said.“They are people who have

real empathy and appreciationfor people in all sorts of situa-tions and each of our treat-ments is really tailored to suitthe specific needs of the client.”

A mother-of-three, MsMacri said the business alsoprovides services to womenstruggling with reproductiveand fertility issues.

“We have had a number ofclients booking regular massa-

ges, reflexology and Reiki toassist in their reproductiveendeavours as they undergofertility treatments,” she said.

Ms Macri has secured a dealwith an SA hospital group tooffer services at their facilities

and her ultimate goal is to ex-pand the business nationally.

Among the business’s cli-ents is Susie Athanasiou, whohas multiple sclerosis and re-ceives treatments in an agedcare/retirement facility.

Takingbeauty to theirclientsALEXANDRA ECONOMOU

MarketingSA SMEs in ChinaFOUR Chinese migrants havelaunched an Adelaide-basedmarketing and advertisingbusiness to help South Austra-lian companies promote them-selves in China.

Chopsticks Media – found-ed by Zac Yu, Eddie Liang,Cheng Chen and Jun Huai –also focused on marketing andadvertising to the SA Chinesemarket.

Mr Huai said the businessspecialised in video pro-duction, indoor and outdooradvertising and social mediastrategy.

Among its offerings to cli-ents was promotion of prod-ucts via digital imaging andvideo on LED superscreens,one of which was located in theAdelaide Central Market.

Mr Huai said ChopsticksMedia’s main target marketwas small-and-medium enter-prises. “What we want to makesure is we help SMEs to thriveand our goal is to promote Ad-elaide and SA,” he said.

The directors said theywanted to position the busi-ness as a gateway betweenChina and SA.

Chopsticks Media had al-ready worked with local busi-nesses, in industries such asreal estate and wine, to pro-mote themselves in China.

“We are trying to providemarketing services for all dif-ferent kinds of businesses,”added Mr Chen.

EMPATHY: Bedside Beauty & Wellness client Susie Athanasiou with business owner Lidia Marci. Picture: ROY VANDER VEGT

SMALL business ownersstruggling with cash flow arebeing warned against using ris-ing property values to solvemoney issues.

Nick Cooper, Adelaidepartner of national firm Wor-rells Solvency & Forensic Acc-ountants, said that businessesshould be wary of any “quick-fix” solutions.

He said the Australian Tax-ation Office had recently in-

Property is no cash flow fix creased collection activity,leading to more Federal Courtaction to wind up companies.

Statistics from InsolvencyNotices reveal that the ATOlodged 568 wind up applica-tions in September, far exceed-ing its long-term average of 92per month.

“We are aware that an in-creasing number of financebrokers are targeting thesecompanies offering to assist,”said Mr Cooper.

“Usually this assistancetakes the form of refinancing

directors’ homes or other as-sets to allow the ATO andother creditors to be paid outbefore the winding up hearingcommences.

“It is relatively easy to refi-nance bricks and mortar assetswhile property values are ris-ing, but if the business is notprofitable it just delays the dayof reckoning.

“Refinancing in these cir-cumstances will only tide acompany over for a short peri-od before it is back in the sameposition it was before refinanc-

ing, but with owners havingconsiderably less equity intheir homes.”

Mr Cooper said one of themain reasons companies facedwinding up proceedings wasbecause they weren’t profit-able. He urged strugglingsmall businesses to seek expertadvice. “If they don’t addressthe fundamental problems,they could find themselves inworse trouble down the track,”he said.

“Simply putting money intoa business without getting ex-

pert advice and taking a criticalview of the business’ structureand fundamentals could be acase of pouring money downthe drain.

“Owners need to make surethat the business is profitable,or can be made profitable inthe short-term, before evenconsidering refinancing.”

He said many businessowners struggled to be impar-tial when considering their en-terprise’s potential.

“They really need outsideexperts to critically examine

the business and then be pre-pared to act on the advice theyare given, even if it is to enteran insolvency administration,”he said.

“An alternative is to appointvoluntary administrators tothe company, which can facili-tate a restructure of the com-pany’s business.

“If successful, winding upactions and liquidation can beavoided, as well as the need forthe directors to borrow againsttheir houses to pay a com-pany’s debts in full.”

ALEXANDRA ECONOMOUSMALL BUSINESS

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