Where we build, test and improve the elements.
Everything we sell gets built, tested and improved here first, on our own businesses. The Lab is where we write up what we learn: what AI can genuinely do in a small business, what it costs, what worked for us and what did not. Real numbers, no hype.
A new article lands here most days.
Whether ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini train on what you type depends on the account, not the tool. How to switch it off, what the Privacy Act means for a small business, and what to ask anyone who builds AI into yours.
Read the article Service · 1 October 2026What an AI receptionist on your own Twilio number does, what it costs in Australian dollars, and how callers keying in their own details keeps every name and number right.
Read the article Web design · 29 September 2026We ran Google's speed test on 148 Sunshine Coast business websites. The typical one scored 56 on a phone and only 6 reached 90. Why, what you can fix, and why ours score in the 90s.
Read the article Case study · 23 September 2026A free directory of 12,685 Sunshine Coast businesses that a system checks every morning, where owners claim and update their own pages. What it shows about systems that run themselves.
Read the article AI search · 20 September 2026A full calendar tells you about work already won, not work coming. Why growth can hide a falling market share, and the leading indicators to check instead.
Read the article Newsletters · 17 September 2026Free to paid, churn and net paid growth on a real subscription publishing business, set against the Beehiiv benchmarks, and where the current trajectory leads.
Read the article Newsletters · 16 September 2026Substack is free until you charge, then takes 10% of every payment. Beehiiv charges a set US-dollar fee from 2,500 subscribers and takes nothing. Where the crossover sits in Australian dollars, and the option we use.
Read the article Reports · 14 September 2026Square's free reports list your items A to Z and hide your profit behind a paid plan, so most owners only see a daily total. The 3 reports worth opening, what they bury, and how we build reports that land every morning.
Read the article Accounts · 12 September 2026MYOB's cheapest plan caps bank accounts. Xero's cheapest plan caps invoices. Between $11 a month on your phone and $78 a month with no cap, the Australian arithmetic for sole traders.
Read the article Cafes · 10 September 2026The Sunshine Coast gained about 7,700 people in the year to June 2025, and new arrivals choose a cafe on their phone, often after you have closed. We checked 20 local cafe front pages: 7 showed hours, 6 a priced menu, none anything dated this year. What we set up so the new arrivals find you and every enquiry is answered after hours.
Read the article Salons, clinics and mobile services · 10 September 2026Fresha now charges $44.95 a month, or $29.95 per staff member, plus a marketplace fee on new clients. Timely is $42 to $79 per staff member with no new client fees. The Australian arithmetic for any booking business.
Read the article Lawn and garden · 8 September 2026One wet Tuesday and the whole week moves, because the app that books your round cannot rebook it. What a mowing round looks like when the schedule, the pricing, the plans and the agency outreach run on a system you own.
Read the article Accounts · 8 September 2026Small businesses are paid in 22.9 days, about 6 days past the due date. What the payment times regulator publishes beyond the average, why the 48% everyone quotes counts 2021 invoices, and the one number that is actually yours.
Read the article Cafes and counters · 4 September 2026Zeller charges 1.4% with GST included and pays nightly. Square charges 1.6% and pays next business day. The month-by-month arithmetic, Tyro as the third chair, and what the 1 October 2026 surcharge ban does to your margin.
Read the article Pubs and venues · 3 September 2026About 7,700 more people in the year to June 2025, and they pick the pub whose website answers their search. The stale gig guide, the list you do not own, and the Thursday email and morning report we set up.
Read the article AI search · 28 August 2026Search now gives you an AI answer before any links, and it only names businesses it can read clearly. The three-search check that shows you where you stand, and what to fix first.
Read the article Clinics · 26 August 2026One is free and charges in Australian dollars as you go. The other is a flat subscription billed in US dollars. The five questions that decide it, with the prices worked out for a solo practice.
Read the article Reports · 24 August 2026Your bank balance is one number with no memory. What a daily business report actually is, why the balance misleads you, and the four things an automated one caught that a busy owner would have missed.
Read the article Trades · 21 August 2026Five questions decide it, and most comparison pages skip the ones that matter. Real prices worked out for a solo tradie, a 4-person crew and a 2-person outfit chasing volume.
Read the article Clinics · 19 August 2026The solo practice owner is also the receptionist, booking system and intake desk. What the missed new patients and skipped rebookings cost, and the system that takes the front desk off your hands.
Read the article Trades · 18 August 2026Included on every plan, texts aside. Which to turn on today, which to cap or tune first, and the one thing none of them can see across your whole job book.
Read the article Accounts · 14 August 2026The six places Xero's reminders quietly stop working, straight from Xero's own forums, and the wording research that gets invoices paid. Free fixes first.
Read the article Getting started · 12 August 2026Invoices first, marketing last. The order that pays for itself, by return on effort, written for owners who do the quotes at night.
Read the article Case study · 11 August 2026 CaiThe website you are reading runs on the same systems we sell: the chat, the free audit, the enquiries and the morning report. A tour of what is working while you read, and how it was built in a week.
Read the case study The Lab · 9 August 2026Why The Lab exists, how every article here is produced by the same systems we sell, and why we publish the failures too.
Read the article Pricing · 9 August 2026Almost nobody in this trade publishes prices. Here is our complete price list, what each price buys, and how to compare quotes from anyone, including us.
Read the article Trades · 9 August 2026Where quotes actually die, what the missed-call numbers say, and how a trades business gets every quote out the same day the job is measured.
Read the articleIn the works: whether ChatGPT alone is enough for a small business, choosing an AI consultant on the Sunshine Coast, and an honest answer on whether your business data is safe with AI.
Publishing over the coming weeks
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