Thanks for giving us a million reasons to smile

Today we announced something very special and incredibly humbling: Xero now supports more than one million subscribers across Australia and New Zealand.

That’s one million customers who experience countless moments of small business success. The ripple effect they create across the country, and far beyond, is staggering.

Giving a platform to the moments that make a business

I often say that small business owners are some of the most hard-working and creative people I’ve ever come across, which is why helping them to create defining moments matters so much. If progress is about enabling people and communities to create the future they want to see, small business owners are out there cracking and creating the DNA of tomorrow every day.  

Take Brooke Rudzis, the creative force behind Sunday Minx, a proud Australian company that uses Turkish cotton to produce bath towels in big, bold colours. Brooke says the decision to start and run a small business was personal.  

“There were times in the corporate world where I felt the give-and-take relationship was out of balance; you often gave and gave without feeling you were having any impact,” she said. “Now even the smallest success in my business makes me realise I’ve really contributed. The time and energy I invest is growing into something real, and I’m more than a number in a crowd.”

For Dale Hardiman of Australian design brand Dowel Jones, the pinch-me moment came from seeing their digital presence spring to life one summer morning. “There was one particular moment last November when we realised the brand was more than something that lived online,” he said.

“It was at our sample sale, the largest we’d ever hosted. We opened at 10 o’clock in the morning, and there was already a line out the front of the building. We really didn’t expect that. To see so many people line up to try and own one of our products was incredible.

“It’s not until the moment you have that face-to-face experience that you really get a true sense of people connecting with what you’re creating.”

A steadfast support net of advisors

Most small businesses can’t do it alone. Their trips, stumbles, leaps and bounds are supported by a skilled community of advisors, some of whom are small business owners themselves. It’s energising to see accountants and bookkeepers across Australia shape the accounting industry globally on behalf of small businesses. There’s not a day goes by that our team at Xero doesn’t learn something new.  

The journeys of our partner community are just as dynamic and just as personal as the businesses they support. Jonathan Elliot, the managing director of Hobart-based accounting and financial advisory firm, Collins SBA, shares why he used platform technology to spearhead a five-hour working day.

“My wife and I had a five-month-old daughter, and it was then that my wife was diagnosed with a stage 3 cancer,” he explains. “In an instant, my priorities changed. I wanted to make sure I was being a husband and father first and second, and managing director of Collins SBA third.

“Something shifted for me. I didn’t want to come home at 6pm to my recovering wife and baby daughter – I wanted to be there. Time was a more precious commodity than ever before.”

There are so many words you could pick to describe moments of being in business – challenge, reward, grit, beauty. These moments provide just the smallest snapshot of the diverse and passionate community of customers we are lucky enough to support, and the reasons they do what they do.

And for that we want to say a million thank you’s. We’re committed to supporting you so you can continue to make business more beautiful.

As we Aussies like to say, you beauty.

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Source: Xero Blog