TRANSCRIPT

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson interview with Jac Underwood.

2BS Bathurst

12 January 2023

Subject: Mental and Financial Wellbeing for Small Business Owners

Jac Underwood

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson is urging small business owners to take time early this year to take stock of their mental and financial well-being. And we welcome Bruce Billson to the program now. Good afternoon.

Bruce Billson

Jac, awesome to be with you. And fab to see a New Year in with your listeners and best wishes for 2023.

Jac Underwood

Happy New Year to you. Now, this is really important advice that you're talking about here. I wonder if you can expand a little bit on the meaning and the reason behind it.

Bruce Billson

We were motivated by seeing really exhausted small businesses in our dealings with them. Many were feeling burnt out, that there wasn't a lot of fuel in the tank. Others were understandably challenged by the economic environment, recovering from natural disasters. In some cases, the disaster would be themselves being unwell, perhaps from Covid or the flu this season.

But really, we’re just making the point it's time to take care, take stock of your own wellbeing and your own health and that of the business, and get yourself in as good of shape as you can for the year ahead.

Jac Underwood

So, do you have any practical tips of what that looks like and how you can set that out in a day-to-day way?

Bruce Billson

It's really funny you should ask that, because that was my first reaction. We did a lot of work. Treasury has done some terrific research. It was mainly through a Covid lens, Jac, and it was pulling out that one-in-five of those they surveyed - and this was particularly at the peak of Covid - had a diagnosed mental health condition and one-in-three in the manufacturing, retail, accommodation and food services area also had a similar diagnosis.

We were looking at that and you know, there's lots of advice around taking up mindfulness and things like that, and I thought to myself, the average small business I run into if I said a bit of mindfulness would help, they might not quite know what I'm on about.

So, we did a bit of work to try and unpack that and our key tips were about really structuring their days because a lot of small businesses talk about there not being enough hours in the day. Really encouraging them to proactively schedule the important stuff, set some time aside to deal with phones and emails and social media engagements and those sorts of things, and important admin and compliance tasks. To really take hold of your own program and not let events wash around too much and overwhelm you.

Another part was around self-care, and you know, you and your listeners would pick that up in terms of personal wellbeing, trying to be healthy, have your sleep, do a bit of exercise and find ways that enable you to unplug from the business so it's not constantly overwhelming you.

There’s a real concern for small businesses that, you know, they are often the person to do pretty much everything. But sometimes not trying to do everything is a good way of keeping yourself in a good space. Prioritising the important stuff, who can you delegate to, what outsourcing might you think about and even, Jac, saying no occasionally.

And then some other themes around a real focus on what matters, have a to do list, reward and celebrate your progress and tap into the support that's around you. Other business groups, your peers, trusted advisers. There’s rarely a business challenge someone hasn't had to navigate before. And tapping into that wisdom can really map a path forward for you as well.

Jac Underwood

That's a big one that learning to unplug because some small business owners that I know that I'm close to in my in my own personal life, feel like they're working around the clock, 24-7, and they feel that pressure that they need to do it because that paycheque isn't guaranteed. That's their livelihood.

Bruce Billson

It's a big responsibility anyway in the best of times, but in challenging times that that's another layer of responsibility and stressors. And let's remember, small and family business owners, a lot of their personal identity is interwoven into their business and they feel a very deep personal commitment to it.

And, also, they look around their workplace and if they've got a few staff members, they know not only is their own livelihood critical to the success of the business, but others are as well. And they have that that strong relationship at a small business level that is very different from say a big corporate. And we hear stories about people, particularly working from their home and running their business from home, how they get up in the morning, actually change to their work week and get into that vibe and they make a real important step later in the day to step away and change into casual gear, turn the phones off, not constantly check for social media traffic in the middle of the night and really be present for those other key ingredients to success. And that's the people around them, their loved ones, those near and dear and actually have that roundedness to their life, I suppose.

Jac Underwood

Just before I let you go, are there any resources that outlines some of this information that we can find at any time we like online?

Bruce Billson

Yeah, highly technical term, Jac, there's stacks.

If your listeners want to jump on to my website, which is asbfeo.gov.au, that will steer them towards a range of resources. There’s also a really important free program that's implemented by Beyond Blue and Richmond Fellowship that pleasingly the Government recently extended the funding for and that's the New Access for Small Business Owners program. You'll find that via our website or also through Beyond Blue. It’s like a coaching strategy session where other small business owners have tapped into the mental health, emotional wellbeing, know-how of Beyond Blue and others and shaped a program. It’s about six different visits to build up self-awareness when you're feeling stressed and what impacts and what those signals are and then what strategies you can adopt to navigate that and get back into a good spot.

And there are some other links on there as well, such as MindSpot. There’s some good resources around.

Jac Underwood

It's all very positive. It's great to welcome you to the program in a brand new year, the season of 2023. Bruce Billson, thank you for your time.

Bruce Billson

It's great to be with you. And together, Jac, we will energise enterprise.

ENDS