Almost 100 years ago Bill Cloros\u2019 father and grandfather founded a footwear company after immigrating from Greece to Sydney in search of a better life.<\/p>\n
Through the years the company, now known as Mongrel Boots, has employed five generations of the Cloros family as it evolved from making footwear for soldiers during World War II to becoming a staple of worksites.<\/p>\n
Mr Cloros, 88, is still the managing director and \u201cincredibly proud that we\u2019ve remained an Australian family-owned business\u201d, watching his sons and grandkids carrying on the tradition.<\/p>\n
He says the hurdles faced by business have changed \u201cenormously\u201d over the decades \u2013 going from building a brand to being \u201cfaced with rising wages, increasing operating expenses, government regulations and competition from overseas manufacturers who don\u2019t necessarily operate under the same conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the next generation of Australian business owners is facing a very difficult environment,\u201d Mr Cloros told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of purchasing property, establishing a business and simply making a living has<\/p>\n
increased enormously. <\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people today face financial pressures that are very different from those we experienced when we were starting out.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments come as a peak body says Australia faces missing out on a generation of entrepreneurs as business owners are hit by hurdle after hurdle, which make it seem to young people like \u201ca really hard slog\u201d.<\/p>\n
The pressures weighing on Aussie proprietors was recently revealed in a Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) study, finding 80 per cent were experiencing anxiety and stress.<\/p>\n
COSBOA chief Sky Cappuccio said perhaps even more worrying was that 40 per cent of them reported fears they were depressed, as events of the past six months caused hell for operators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently have 2.7 million small businesses in Australia. We know that around a third of the small business owners are expecting to hit that retirement age in about five years\u2019 time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we don\u2019t have is a pipeline of younger entrepreneurs, younger business owners coming through who are interested in buying into those businesses or in establishing a new business.\u201d<\/p>\n
News.com.au is highlighting the struggles faced by local business, and how industry leaders think they can be overcome, as part of the Back Australia campaign.<\/p>\n
Research by News Corp\u2019s Growth Intelligence Centre (GIC) in September found 71 per cent agree Australian small businesses should receive larger tax breaks. <\/p>\n
But costs have only been increasing this year due to global economic factors like fuel price increases and government tweaks to super payments, card surcharges and trust tax settings.<\/p>\n
In NSW alone a record 1907 companies went bust in the September quarter. <\/p>\n
Small business \u2018punished\u2019<\/p>\n
The peak body representing businesses across manufacturing, construction, technology and other fields, The Australian Industry Group, pointed to six major tax reforms that had impacted business in 2026.<\/p>\n
It argues three of them were positive for business, and three negative.<\/p>\n
The negatives: a switch to GCT indexation which would eat into business profits when sold, an onerous GCT indexation exemption for innovative start ups and the minimum 30 per cent tax on discretionary trusts.<\/p>\n
The positives included a GCT concession for businesses turning over less than $10 million, a $20,000 instant write-off for small business and two-year loss carry back provisions for firms with a turnover under $1 billion.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Innes Willox said the May budget \u201cwas clearly not a business friendly budget\u201d with its positives far outweighed by the negatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has clearly decided to try to redistribute wealth through the budget by changing the tax regime to punish small business owners and entrepreneurs,\u201d Mr Willox said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe far better approach would have been to implement more measures help grow the economy to create jobs and opportunities for innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Willox said Australia\u2019s tax competitiveness had been worsened rather than improved this year.<\/p>\n
The result, he said, would be to \u201cover time drive investment away from Australia and disincentivise foreign investors looking at Australia meaning that businesses will continue to close at record rates for some time yet and unemployment will continue to creep up\u201d. <\/p>\n
The GIC research, which surveyed 2000 people, also found 27 per cent of Australians reported changes to capital gains tax (CGT) had affected their ability to do business.<\/p>\n
Changing times<\/p>\n
ASIC figures show corporate insolvencies rose 46.1 per cent compared with the same period last year, reaching the highest quarterly total since records began in 1999.<\/p>\n
Ms Cappuccio said there had been a gradual decline in people under 30 deciding to start their own business in the past decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a number of reasons behind that, but it\u2019s very clear that a lot of younger people looking at small businesses see it as a really hard slog,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they\u2019re not recognising that there\u2019s sufficient reward there financially.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, she said, there was no \u201csilver bullet\u201d available to change things overnight. What it would take is a wholistic approach that allowed businesses to thrive and chase growth.<\/p>\n
That includes reforms to payroll tax, company tax rates and a rethink on the changes to discretionary trust taxes Ms Cappuccio said would cause \u201cdirect harm on hundreds of thousands of small businesses\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear from speaking to small businesses that business confidence is particularly low,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd many small business owners at this point in time don\u2019t see the light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Missing employees<\/p>\n
Business NSW chief Daniel Hunter Daniel said its research had found NSW was missing about 135,000 potential job-creating businesses. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe share of people running businesses with employees has fallen from about 8 per cent 25 years ago to less than 5 per cent today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a shortage of people willing to have a go. We have a shortage of<\/p>\n
people willing to take on that first employee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf governments want more jobs, the answer is simple: make it easier and cheaper to<\/p>\n
employ people. That means tackling payroll tax, cutting red tape and rewarding<\/p>\n
businesses that choose to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Restaurants and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert said a \u201ctax sandwich\u201d had been served on operators and customers this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there are there is a myriad of government decisions that are dampening consumer demand as well as business confidence,\u201d Mr Lambert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s hard to ring fence off CGT as one particular thing, because it isn\u2019t just the one thing, it\u2019s all the things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tax crap sandwich, and diners just aren\u2019t eating it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Lambert called for the government to \u201cabandon\u201d its trust tax legislation, which he said would cost small businesses around the country billions of dollars in advisory bills alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then they may have to restructure, and there will be restructuring costs and stamp duty into the billions of dollars,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
He also said the government should reverse its changes to migration settings, a political flashpoint that has seen backlash from industries relying on migrant workers.<\/p>\n
Mr Cloros said his fondest memories of his business career were firstly working with his dad and grandfather, before the next generation of Cloroses brought their own ideas and abilities.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would do it all again today, despite the new pressures, he said he wouldn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certainly more challenges now, particularly with the cost of establishing a<\/p>\n
business, overseas competition and the increasing demands placed on employers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I still believe that hard work, determination and making a good product are the<\/p>\n
foundations of a successful business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read related topics:Back Australia<\/a>Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 100 years ago Bill Cloros\u2019 father and grandfather founded a footwear company after immigrating from Greece 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