Want to know the trick to unlock creative thinking in just three minutes? And the four numbers that will put your business in a position of power? Learn from the small business brains trust at the Vodafone Small Business Growth Masterclass 2025 in Sydney this June.

When you’re running a small business, it’s incredibly easy to get stuck in the day to day. Between paying the bills, managing staff, servicing customers, reaching new eyeballs and taking a moment to rest yours, it’s hard to find the time to come up for air and recharge.

It’s a juggle, but in a country of more than 2.5 million small businesses, you’re definitely not alone.

Live events like the Vodafone Small Business Growth Masterclass series provide business owners a rare opportunity to stop, zoom out and take a bird’s eye view of the business – and get a nudge in the right direction.

Creativity, cash flow and connection

Following a successful Melbourne event in April, it’s now Sydney’s turn for the Vodafone Small Business Growth Masterclass 2025 – a free breakfast masterclass and networking event at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks, from 8AM to 11.30AM on Tuesday, June 17 (REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE).

With two expert-led sessions, a panel discussion, networking and activations, the masterclass event is open to any businesses with 1-100 staff. You’ll come away with the latest insights, practical strategies and tools to drive business success, learning from some of the Australia’s top business thought leaders.

“Small business feels lonely and at the end of the day – especially as women – we don’t take time for ourselves,” keynote speaker Victoria Devine said at the Melbourne event. “Your business can’t grow if you’re not nourishing it. And things like this are just so nourishing for you personally and for your business.”

From how to price for profit to creative marketing that connects, here’s a taste of what you can expect.

Meet the experts

Keynote speaker: Victoria Devine, Author and Host of She’s on The Money, award-winning #1 finance best seller and podcast

Victoria Devine speaking at the recent Melbourne event. Image: Supplied.

Victoria Devine is a multi-award-winning retired financial adviser and bestselling author, helping thousands of people change their relationship with money. Founder and host of She’s on The Money, the chart-topping personal finance podcast for millennial women, Victoria is passionate about empowering women to make smart money decisions.

She’s on The Money has quickly grown into a progressive online community of more than 200,000 women, a podcast with more than 45 million downloads and a financial education platform giving women the tools and confidence they need to change their financial situations.

Her exclusive masterclass, titled Money, Mindset, Momentum, gives businesses at any stage a blueprint for how to help build momentum and scale your business sustainably with confidence.

“The successful businesses are ones that have a really solid foundation and understanding of how many dollars are coming in and out, what is profit, how much is being spent on marketing and branding and even just the shipping of products,” she shared at the Melbourne masterclass.

That resonated with attendee Svetlana Kisseleva, who recently opened her salon Kissel Beauty. “That was quite an eye-opening experience, because turns out I don’t know how much beyond the day that I work,” she said. “I’m going to figure out my finances and sit down with a calculator and figure out how much I’ve earned in the last couple of months and figure out how much I owe.”

Masterclass speaker: Wade Kingsley, creator and founder of The Ideas Business

Wade Kingsley helps businesses unlock the creativity they didn’t know they had. Image: Supplied.

Don’t twiddle your thumbs waiting for a lighting bolt to hit – Wade Kingsley knows how to fast-track creative thinking and is ready to share it with you.

“Sometimes playing with ideas is the key to success. We want to cut through, that’s the aim,” he said at the Melbourne event. “Creativity is available to all of us. If you have no marketing budget, it doesn’t mean you can’t come up with a great idea.”

Over the past 25 years, Wade has facilitated more than 10,000 workshops about creativity and innovation, and worked in leadership across media and marketing companies including Nova Entertainment and Southern Cross Austereo.

His current focus is The Ideas Business, a creative consultancy that helps businesses unlock the creative potential of their teams, in order to be stronger innovators and problem solvers. In 2019, the business was named one of the Australian Financial Review’s Top 100 Growing Companies in 2019.

Wade also hosts The Creative Coach podcast and is the Australian Ambassador for World Creativity and Innovation Week.

His session, Creating Big Ideas For Small Business, will showcase ideas from around the world that large companies have used to get attention, grow revenue and increase customer loyalty. Then, he’ll share three ways to create your own ideas to improve your marketing and increase revenue.

Wade’s three-minute exercise for creativity sparked a breakthrough for attendee Suji Sanjeevan from Light + Glo. “When you’re a business owner you don’t have that time to close your eyes and pay attention, but [from] the three minutes… I’ve got an incredible idea that I’m going to pitch today,” she said.

Masterclass industry panel

Media commentator Jessica Ridley hosts the masterclass panel. Image: Supplied.

The Small Business Landscape in Australia panel will explore the key challenges and opportunities for small businesses today, featuring:

• Catherine Coulter, Director, Small Business Solutions at VISA (Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific)
• Kate Limbach Clarke, Head of Marketing and Digital at TPG Telecom
• Wade Kingsley, Founder of The Ideas Business
• Jessica Ridley, former Sunrise and 7NEWS Australia journalist and founder of By the Way Media.

Topics of discussion will include the latest small business trends, digitisation tools for productivity and streamlining payments, opportunities for revenue growth, working capital, customer retention and how to reach new customers. Bring your questions and tap their brains!

It’s all thanks to Vodafone Business, who are dedicated to supporting Australian small businesses to stay connected, stay competitive and be ready for growth in a digital world. With enhanced connectivity – the Vodafone network recently doubled, now covering 98.4 per cent of the Australian population – there’s more more choice, competition and value for businesses wanting to charge ahead.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE for your free ticket to the Vodafone Small Business Growth Masterclass 2025 in Sydney on June 17. Spots are limited – get in quick!

This article is brought to you by Business Builders in partnership with Vodafone Business.

Feature image: Victoria Devine and Wade Kingsley speaking at the Vodafone Small Business Growth Masterclass held in Melbourne in April. Image: Supplied.