Newsagents may need to consider making their own case to authorities which consider award wage increases. Given that the majority of what we sell is at a fixed price and on a slim margin, we have minimal capacity to respond to cost pressure such as wage rises.
Take newspapers. The Daily Telegraph has not increased in price in twelve or thirteen years. How much have wages risen in that time? Plus rent?
Given the amount of priced price slim margin product we carry I do think we should make our own case.
What do other newsagents think? Can you afford a wage rise?
I can’t afford my current wage costs let alone a rise. All this does is increase my hours for no extra income. I expect that other retailers are in the same boat but as you said Mark, we have less scope than other retailers to increase prices. We need to bring this to the attention of the right government bodies.
But while we keep working away and cant get our shit in a pile nothing will change. However, look what we can achieve (SMH TV Guide) when we want too. As the old slogan says “its time”..
I’m already working more hours because I can no longer emply kids after school for less than three hours. How many more hours can we work. Somewhere we need a life.
I was using core 5 hr shifts for my casuals eg 8am to 1pm, 12.30pm to 5.30 pm – I will be looking at shortening these to 4 and even 3 hr shifts when wages rise. I would prefer to do split shifts myself and save my business than give up. Luckily I can since I no longer have school age children.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Which came first, the employee or the employer………… When the employer shuts up shop, what happens to the employees?
Can’t afford a wage rise either, let alone what will happen with an increase to 12% superannuation.
The elephant in the room here is the gross inequity between what our people are paid and the obscene wages paid to the unionised elements of the supply chain.
If the workers at the publishers and the transport workers took a cut – because they are relatively overpaid anyway – and that saving was redirected to delivery fees then maybe the customer facing end of the newspaper supply chain could have a fairer share of the total supply chain revenue.
At present there are a lot of fat pigs with their snouts in the trough and we are the runts of the litter trying to survive on what’s left over.
Unions don’t care for small business OR their employees. Clearly we have a Gvt and Union sector that is out of touch with the strains on small business. I have been told by an operator that 78% of the meal he puts in front of a customer in the weekend is labor. Should wages go up many people will lose hours, some their jobs. Feedback I have had from the Small Business office is that they just don’t care..so long as they can last their term, maintain their perks and don’t take on anything hard. Paper delivery mostly is at a loss so that is the next thing to go. How that benefits the elderly and the disabled I do not know. Maybe this cabinet of incompetents will buy them all ipads.We are really angry at this lot, and so are our young staff. As the Australian reported recently, the last 7 of 8 appointees to Fair Work Aust are all ex union exec. What chance do we have ?? Someone needs to point out that not all small business is the same and therefore wage rises can be more damaging to some sectors than others.
IT NEEDS ALL AGENTS TO TELL THE 2 PUBLISHERS ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. SEND A LETTER OF YOUR INTENTION TO DISCONTINUE DELIVERIES THUS ELIMINATING YOUR CONTRACT AND THE HUGE STRANGLE HOLD THEY HAVE OVER OUR BUSINESS.IT NEEDS HARSH ACTION TO MAKE THE CLOWNS AT THE TOP REALISE THE BUBBLE IS ABOUT TO BURST AND AGENTS CAN NOT KEEP GOING WITHOUT SUBSTANTIAL INCREASES.SO ONE IN ALL IN WE CAN ONLY TRY FOR A BETTER INDUSTRY THAN THE SWEATSHOP IT HAS BECOME
Fair Dinkum people wages have always gone up,under both breeds of Govt nothing new there,unions and other lobby groups will state their case,business lobbyists will state their case and the outcome will be somewhere in the middle,as for fair work being union dominated,probably is but the accc is hardly being fronted by a left winger and look where that gets us,It is just a fact of life that this industry is at the moment stressed to breaking from pressures we cant control,ultimately it will mean stores leaving the channel and that in turn will hopefully make Agencies stronger into the future, before I get the whacking, I am in the percentage that will leave 18mths Im out of here, but I am not going to begrudge pay rises after all if you cant pay fair wages and keep with the times the sad facts are you are not viable long term, this is not a symptom of Labor you would be no better under the Liberals they would probably tuck you in a bit better and whisper sweet nothings into your ear,then they would get changed go out with their Mates from the Majors and steal your car
I love that we must all be better off because the average wage is $60,000 odd per yr, (yer right take out the mining sector and see that number tumble)
We work 70-80 hrs per week and take home less then my fulltime staff who only take home less the $30K.
I cannot see too many people in our entire region taking home over $1000 per week yet alone this being the average.
It goes to show that you can make numbers justify whatever you want them to.
I was thinking of buying a news agency but am having second thoughts after reading the above comments. Is there any one with positive comments?
Sue plenty of positive comments and posts on the blog. It’s like any business – buy carefully, engage and make your own success. There are people making good money from their businesses.
Of course, there will be things we can chase and seek improvement on, like wages.
Sue , i purchased a newagency purely for the life style , you make it how you want it . i spend way more time with my two kids now than we ever did before working for wages , i try and go fishing at least once a week and numerous other things . Of course there is a lot more money to be made by doing all the hours your self but you have to make that choice either make work your self to the point of hating it or be prepared to pay wages . for me i opt for the wages because .
yeah there are a hell of a lot of days where you want to bang your head against the wall but i am sure this would happen in any business .
Sue, don’t let the negativity persuade you that this industry is not a good one. I have brought up 6 children in our 33 years in this industry and it has been a good and profitable business for us. All of our children were gainfully employed while studying etc and they all comment to us now that the training they received in business was a great start to their working lives.
Most of them have graduated and gone on to other things now but the business enabled us to have a family life together “the family that works together stays together” sort of thing.
There are plenty of positives Sue !
I bought a combined Newsagency and Post Office a bit over a year ago and while I’ve had plenty of the “bang your head against the wall” days that Shaun mentioned I’ve also had plenty that have left me grinning ear to ear and feeling good to be alive. I didn’t buy for lifestyle as such but I do manage to take two days off a week most weeks now(only going in to close on those days- one day spent doing work related stuff from home often) and while I haven’t relied on taking anything out of the business as my first priority has been paying down the loans for the first year there is certainly a very good living to be made if you’re willing to put in the hours, and as Mark said engage with your customer base.
What I found while looking for a newsagency business was that there were plenty of solid businesses amongst a large number of so-so businesses and alot of businesses that could be built upon. I found this blog very informative in shaping a few decisions I made prior to buying (diversifying out of a pure newsagency format ). You just need to realise that the people who respond here can carry across the gamut of newsagency experiences good and bad so you do get a wide variety of responses.
Sue if you do buy a newsagency , have a look at this blog when ever possible it is one of the best tools out there positive negative it is all good yuou can learn a lot from it . i hop on here way to much i think it is a habbit
Sue – A newsagency is very demanding work in the first year, mainly because there is so much to learn.
I strongly, very strongly, recommend that you go and work in one for a few months before you buy. Not to see if you like it (because you will) but ramp up your knowledge for when you take over your own.
See if you can find an employer who is prepared to teach you the back end of the business – maybe in exchange for a few unpaid hours per week.
Make no mistake, when the costs rise for the “Australian Working Family” Fair Work will grant the ACTU a wage rise. We will finish up paying for the carbon Tax. Our penalty rates are some of the highest in the world and we are the only country that has a 17.5% loading on leave. No longer interesting times.