Your Local Business Network - With Mark Ullah

10/09/2026

It takes a lot to make me grumpy.

I think the older I get, the less time I have got for excuses in business - especially when it come to owners making profit - which ultimately brings them freedom, family holidays, expansion, scale and a business which becomes more of an asset, than an okay paid job.

Sometimes the truth in business, no matter how brutal, is the right advice.

07/09/2026

Most newsletters are too long. Mine included. So I’m fixing it.

From now on, facebook / Insta gets the short, punchy version - the bit you can read while waiting for your coffee.

The full edition lives on the website, where you can actually sit with the ideas instead of drowning in your inbox.

Expect sharper takes on growth, value and exit, shorter editorials and the occasional challenge to how you’re thinking about your business.

Don't be shy, have read and let me know what you think.

Link in the Newsletter below.

Thanks all,
Mark.

A new format for the newsletter Hey guys, a quick update. I’m changing the way I publish the newsletter.

21/08/2026

JUST A REMINDER......

From 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is officially banning checkout surcharges on eftpos, Visa, and Mastercard transactions, while capping domestic consumer credit interchange fees at 0.3%. This shifts card processing costs directly onto businesses rather than passing them to consumers as a separate fee.

What is Changing?

→ No Surcharges: Adding extra percentage or flat fees for card payments becomes illegal.

→ Lower Interchange Caps: Domestic consumer credit card interchange caps drop from 0.8% to 0.3%.

→ No Workarounds: The ACCC has warned that renaming surcharges to "service fees" or "processing fees" is unlawful.

What Stays the Same?

→ Processing Costs: Banks and payment providers still charge merchant fees for handling cards.

→ Exemptions: Alternative methods like bank transfers, PayID, or separate arrangements (like specific three-party schemes) operate outside standard card network caps.

Action Items for Businesses?

→ Reprice Base Goods: Adjust product sticker prices slightly to absorb underlying card expenses instead of relying on a receipt add-on.

→ Update Software: Ensure point-of-sale (POS) systems and customer-facing signage remove automatic surcharges before 1 October.

→ Review Payment Mix: Encourage zero-cost direct bank options like PayTo or PayID where applicable.

More details of these changes in the link attached. If you need support with the changes, feel free to reach out to your Accountant or DM me.

19/08/2026

I've sold businesses. I've also almost sold businesses at the wrong price, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.

Across seven businesses I've owned or operated, the ones that sold well had one thing in common - they were ready before the conversation started. Not ready in the "we will tidy things up once we find a buyer" sense. Ready in the way that a buyer's due diligence team finds nothing to argue with. Most owners I talk to who are thinking about selling in the next year haven't yet looked at their business through a buyer's lens - this is a mistake!

The seller knows what it's worth to them - the sweat, the years, the risk they carried. A buyer sees something different. They see concentration risk, owner dependency, undocumented processes, and margin that hasn't been optimised. The gap between what an owner expects and what a buyer will pay is almost never about the industry. It's almost always about preparation time that wasn't used.

If you've got 12 months before you'd want to sell, that's actually a reasonable runway - but only if you start now. What would change if you spent the next 90 days making the business look the way you want it to look on the day a buyer opens the books?

Want to find out what I would focus on first? Drop me a line.



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[email protected]
https://exit-ready-program.markullah.com/
Free Exit Readiness Assessment: https://exit-readiness.markullah.com/

18/08/2026

Excellent Masterclass session last week on Net Profit First Pricing.

Who is it for: Owners who are sick of working 60+ hrs for low / no profit.

What you missed:

1. What is Net Profit First Pricing
2. Why COGS + Margin is not the right way to price your products and services
3. Interactive working session (break out groups) - Using our Net Profit First Calculator to price your own products and services
4. Customer Case Studies
5. Q&A

If you are business owner who has control of your pricing and want more profit (BANKED) at the end of the year - reach out and I'll send you a link to the recording. Alternatively, comment "PROFIT".

Mark.

17/08/2026

~80% of privately held businesses that go to market never sell. Most owners find out too late.

That stat used to keep me up at night when I was on the buying side of a deal - because I'd seen exactly why it happens. It's rarely the business itself that's the problem. It's that the owner waited too long to get it ready.

The business is too dependent on them personally, the financials tell a messy story and a buyer's due diligence will surface every one of those gaps. Here's the part that stings most: a lot of those owners could have fixed it in 12 to 18 months if they'd started earlier.

The difference between a business that sells at a premium and one that sits on the market quietly dying isn't luck - it's preparation and specifically, preparation that started well before the "for sale" sign went up.

If you're planning to sell in the next year or two, I'd genuinely be curious - do you know what a buyer would find if they looked at your business today?

If you're thinking about selling in the next 1–3 years, grab the free Exit Readiness Assessment at exit-readiness.markullah.com - takes 4 minutes and tells you exactly where you stand.



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[email protected]
https://exit-ready-program.markullah.com/
Free Exit Readiness Assessment: https://exit-readiness.markullah.com/

14/08/2026

I ran 7 businesses. The one that nearly broke me was the one doing "fine."

Fine is the most dangerous word in business ownership. It means the revenue is holding, the team is ticking along, and you're still the person holding it all together - which is exactly the problem. Across every business I've owned, the plateau always had the same cause: the owner was still the bottleneck and nobody had ever stopped to ask what the business was actually worth without them in the room. That number tends to be sobering. The fix is never working harder - it's picking one lever and pulling it deliberately. Usually it's margin, or management depth, or a sales process that doesn't depend on you closing every deal personally.

If someone asked you right now what your business would sell for and what it would sell for if you stepped out for six months first - do you know the gap between those two numbers?

CTA: Take the free Exit Readiness Assessment and find out where you actually stand - link below.



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[email protected]
https://exit-ready-program.markullah.com/
Free Exit Readiness Assessment: https://exit-readiness.markullah.com/

12/08/2026

The No.1 indicator your businesses has stalled.....

Your revenue hasn't moved in 18 months and your business just got harder to run.

That's the plateau. Turnover looks fine on paper, but profit is flat, you're working just as hard as ever, and if you're being honest with yourself, the business still needs you in the room for everything that matters.

The problem isn't effort - you've got plenty of that. The problem is that a business built around one person hits a ceiling and then sits there, costing you time and quietly losing value every year you don't fix the structure underneath it. I see it constantly with owners who've been running for five-plus years - great operators, strong client relationships, decent revenue, but the enterprise value is nowhere near what it should be because the business can't prove it runs without them.

A $100k improvement in how your margins, your team, and your systems work together doesn't just add $100k to the bottom line - it can add $400k to $1 million in what a buyer would pay, and more importantly, in what you can actually keep.

Question for you: If someone offered to buy your business tomorrow, do you know what it would actually be worth and why?

Take the free Exit Readiness Assessment to see where your business sits right now - link below.


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https://exit-ready-program.markullah.com/
Free Exit Readiness Assessment: https://exit-readiness.markullah.com/

10/08/2026

I often speak to owners looking to sell who tell me they just need more leads to boost the value of their business.....

What if the issue isn’t marketing?

That can be an uncomfortable question.

But often a useful one.

Because sometimes the business does not need more leads first.

Sometimes it needs clearer positioning.
Cleaner delivery.
Stronger pricing.
Better team alignment.
Less wasted motion.

I’ve found that many owners already sense this but they try and solve symptoms, not the underlying issues.

Often, it just because they haven’t had the time to step out of the weeds and look at the business with fresh eyes.

That outside perspective can be incredibly valuable.

Not because the owner lacks answers.

Because they’ve been too busy carrying the business to stop and hear them properly.

Food for thought...

07/08/2026

What if the real goal isn’t just more income but more options?

That’s the conversation I think more owners deserve to have.

Because often what people really want is not endless growth for the sake of growth.

→ It’s flexibility.
→ Breathing room.
→ Choice.
→ Leverage.

A business that supports life, instead of consuming it.

That doesn’t come from guessing.

It comes from deliberately building value into the business.

Sometimes the role of an advisor is simply to help bring that goal back into focus when the day-to-day has buried it.

Because when you regain clarity, better decisions tend to follow.

If you would like to chat about simple strategies to drive focus, clarity and ex*****on - reach out when you're ready.

https://exit-ready-program.markullah.com/