Unfinished Business: a new monthly podcast for Australian SMBs

Running your own business has never been easy. Managing growth, sourcing supply chains, and building working relationships takes time and effort. It’s why you’ll rarely hear a business owner say that they feel their business is finished. At best it’s a work in progress, even when it’s a multi-national success.

So how do you connect the dots from stumble to success? One way forward is hearing from other business owners who have been there, made the mistakes, and found ways to grow their businesses despite these setbacks. It makes their successes accessible, achievable, and human.

In this podcast

Welcome to Unfinished Business, a new Australian small business podcast by business owners, for business owners, presented by Vodafone Business. This monthly podcast focuses on the wins, stumbles, and ad-hoc corrections that are par for the course when running a small business in Australia.

Who is this podcast for?

Small business owners in Australia
Founders in growth or scale-up phase
Family-run businesses
Entrepreneurs navigating manufacturing, marketing, or operations

The podcast host is Anita Sarkar. Anita is the founder of Hero Packaging (a zero-waste packaging company) and author of Sell Anything Online. With hands‑on experience building a purpose-led Australian ecommerce brand, Anita has the background and insights needed to dig through the issues facing Australian small businesses today.

Each episode, Anita Sarkar interviews an Australian business owner about their experience founding and running a small business, how it started, how it’s going, and the speedbumps they encountered along the way.

On the agenda

How Adam Linforth transformed an inside joke into a profitable business
Why remarkable beats good in today’s small business economy
Pivoting a photoshoot fail into a PR opportunity
Difficult conversations when working with family
CopperCulture’s CEO – from fintech to Ayuverdic

In this first episode of this Australian small business podcast, Anita speaks with Adam Linforth, founder and CEO of Budgy Smuggler.

And yes, according to the business owner that is the correct spelling.

Adam walks Anita through his business’ journey from personal project to side hustle and then on to becoming an Aussie icon. Together, they explore the ideas that went into the founding of the now-multimillion dollar brand, the excitement of seeing your product out in the wild (even if it’s worn by family members) and the value of having a “remarkable” product in the busy modern marketplace.

Tackling real-world issues

In the Reality Check segment, Anita and Adam take calls from real Australian business owners facing issues with their business growth.

One spent a small fortune on a promotional opportunity, only to have the resulting materials come out a bit … whiffy.

Another caller relays their experience of dealing with a family member in the business – a frequent practice in small businesses across the country – and asks for help with their struggle to avoid familial fallout when business talk gets serious.

Both tough challenges, but Anita and Adam roll up their sleeves, unpack the issues, and offer whole-hearted appraisals of how best to turn these messy situations around.

Get growing

Unfinished Business also features a segment called Growth Hotline, where an Australian business owner brings a business growth challenge to the podcast. Anita and her guest then interview the business owner for more details before offering insights into potential ways to overcome their barriers to growth.

In this episode, the guest is Shawn Singh, founder of premium copper drinkware ⁠Copper Culture⁠. Shawn explains how a literal production bottleneck is hampering business growth. It’s a complex situation involving sourcing raw materials, offshore processing, and cultural sensitivities. Anita and Shawn both offer potential ways forward that could help any business work through the growth restraints that relate to international manufacturing and distribution.

The first of many

This first episode sets the scene for how this small business podcast works. It features real business owners, real problems, and honest advice from people who have been (or are currently going) through it.

Running your own business has never been easy. But this episode helps to show that mistakes are human, challenges are common, and business ownership can be rewarding.

In the end, we’re reminded that no small business is ever really “finished”. There’s always more to do – and treating it as a work in progress lets you enjoy the ride along the way.

Listen to this first episode of the Unfinished Business podcast on:

The next episode drops early in May 2026 – make sure to check it out!