Scream if you wanna go faster: Small biz can't get off shutdown rollercoaster

Welcome back to #FoodForThought, a newsletter serving up food for your brain — exploring news headlines, economic trends and workforce issues. Below, you’ll find insights from small business show #TogetherInBusiness. Hit subscribe above to be notified of future editions and share your thoughts in the comments.

Victoria’s small businesses and retailers have taken to LinkedIn to discuss what lockdown means for them after new coronavirus restrictions across the state forced Melbourne's non-essential retailers to close their doors for six weeks. 

While working remotely has become the norm for many, others describe the new measures as a “body blow” as they remain without income. Indeed, 42% of Victoria’s small and medium-sized enterprises fear declining revenue over the next 4 weeks. 

To make matters worse, small business operators, who were already doing it tough, lament the lack of clarity over workplace restrictions: “So much confusion and so little time”.

This week on #TogetherInBusiness, Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell, architect Redmond Hamlett, business owner Janie Rose and fitness professional Brent Stewart joined me to discuss what comes next for the state’s small business community. Together, we covered:

• Finding yourself outside of government assistance schemes.
• Government tender processes and why SMBs should get a look in.
• Why small business owners need to stick together.
• Resources for supporting your mental health during crisis times.

Watch: Together In Business in full above

Resources for your business:

• How Treasury is supporting small businesses.
• Income support for sole traders
• The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman My Business Health portal.
• Information, grants and assistance state-by-state.
• COSBOA COVID-19 small business quick links.
• The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's employer help guide.

Latest Conversations 

The tech company Atlassian has informed its employees that they are free to “work from home forever.”

Australians have collectively cancelled $10 billion worth of holiday plans since coronavirus restrictions came into place.

Millions of litres of beer, originally bound for pubs and restaurants that found themselves closed or limited due to lockdown restrictions, have been saved from going to waste. Instead, being converted into renewable energy. 

NAB will ask more than 2,600 staff members in three different divisions to reapply for their jobs as the financial behemoth attempts to stem financial pressures created by the pandemic. 

Melbourne-based social enterprise Thankyou will no longer sell bottled water amid growing environmental concerns. 

Who’s heading back to the workplace? The answer to that depends a lot on which industry workers are in, according to LinkedIn’s 9th Workforce Confidence Index.

Questions are swirling around the way businesses are spending the windfall delivered by the federal government’s $102 billion JobKeeper program.

Something for you

Each week, I try and end on something to make you smile and think:

• Stay or go? That's the question workers ask themselves when voluntary redundancies are being offered. Career coaches have this advice.
• Many of us end up sticking with commitments long after our interest wanes. Being upfront and cutting ties is a kindness to both yourself and the people you were working with. Here’s how to exit gracefully.
• Feeling like each work day is just a link in an endless chain of monotonous, uninspiring weeks and months? You may be in a professional rut. Here’s how to break free.

Additional reporting by: Cayla Dengate, Andrew Murfett, Scott Olster, Capucine Yeomans

(Photo credits: Getty Images)