My introduction to the passive fire industry a bit over 5 years ago was a shock to say the least. Having come from a compliance background I was astounded to see not only the lack of evidence being kept for decisions around certification but also that the information to ensure certification was not always freely available.

For construction lawyers, getting an expert witness on any building defect type can be challenging, but when it involves a niche industry where education and quality levels over the years have been negligible or misunderstood, what happens then?

Brisbane based start-up Plus Systems (Plus Passive Fire), is the only exclusively passive fire protection company to make the Australian Financial Review’s Fast Starters list. Having grown 27% in the last financial year increasing revenue to $1.76m, that makes Plus one of the fastest growing new businesses in Australia.

In the relatively ‘new’ passive fire niche in the construction industry, we believe it’s like any profession, requiring learning derived from research, significant education in the field, training, and ongoing professional development. With changing technologies and methodologies in construction, and new products entering the market requiring testing and compliance with legal requirements, there’s a need for professionals with a deeper understanding of this industry.

When the construction industry comes to mind you might think strong or steadfast, but the word innovation rarely springs to mind. Whilst there are countless industries that are coming forward in leaps and bounds, for the most part the construction industry apparently doesn’t match the trend.

When it comes to fire safety in the construction of a building, there’s long been the Building Code etc, and more recently Australian Standards in all areas of fire safety, but unfortunately for the community, none, little or poor regulation around the trades and standards of workmanship when it comes to passive fire.

We've been carrying out a series of training sessions on basic passive fire awareness with builders who want their on site team to have a better understanding of what passive fire certifiers are looking for to certify the fire walls and ceilings, and penetrations.

If you owned a wholesale or retail business, you would more than likely have the systems to tell you what your most profitable stock items are, who your most profitable customers are and what your margins are on all your stock items.

Featured in the AWCI ‘On The Surface’ Magazine 29th Edition Autumn 2016 on page 30.

The history of business is rife with examples of companies that failed because they didn’t remain competitive, or failed to consider ways to decrease their weaknesses, overcome the threats or build on strengths. Consider these 7 factors to be in control of in your business, if you don’t want to become a statistic.

Entrepreneurs don’t have to go it alone, and mostly recognise that whilst they may be experts in their field, there are still things they don’t know about running their business.

There are a number of reasons why you may want to pay incentives to your teams – you may want to grow sales, take on extra people to help and pay incentives to ensure results; or you may want to reward the entire team for collectively achieving revenue targets or other strategic goals. But generally it’s to incentivise staff to achieve targets - financial or otherwise.

There are some great ways to go broke, as I have recently posted, but probably none quite so spectacular as fraud, and it’s much more common than most people think. It can occur over a long period but it’s not until it’s too late that a business owner suddenly finds out that one of their trusted team has taken advantage of them and their hard earned profits.

Regular pruning is critical to the growth of plants and the same is true for your business. The key is knowing where to prune and how deep, and during tough or turbulent times, it's often advisable to prune deeper. But you need the hard data to help direct the shears.

The history of business is rife with examples of companies that failed because they didn't remain competitive, or failed to consider ways to decrease their weaknesses, overcome the threats or build on strengths. Consider these 7 factors to be in control of in your business, if you don't want to become a statistic.

The new financial year is here and it’s time to ask yourself, do you want to make 2016 your best year in business so far? If the answer is yes, then now is the time to start considering how best to move forward and where to get started.

What price you get for your business on it’s eventual sale is generally a multiple of the net profits of the business – and if you're able to increase the multiple, that can make a significant difference to your wealth to move on.