Since being established six years ago, ASBFEO has helped more than 28,000 small businesses across Australia to successfully resolve disputes outside of the costly legal system. 

As we look ahead to the month of April, there are promising signs for small and family businesses.

This Easter holiday season will be the first in two years with freedom of movement and no trading restrictions to contend with.

2022 is off to a patchy start – with those small and family businesses well suited and adapted to pandemic constraints powering forward, those reliant on foot-traffic, dependable supply-chains, team availability, predictable movement opportunities and person-to-person interactions are still facing heavy headwinds.

The festive season is upon us and a significant proportion of our small business community is in the midst of a busy pre-holiday rush.

It is very encouraging to see a new and positive outlook for many businesses as lockdowns are coming to an end, and we are looking forward to seeing business confidence resume with a blockbuster end to 2021.

While we move into another month of lockdown, we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel and we’re starting to hear about the pathways out of COVID-19 lockdown from many of the states and territories.

The global pandemic continues to have a heart-breaking effect on many small and family businesses.

It’s gut-wrenching to see so many small and family businesses doing it tough in Sydney, with the COVID lockdown now extended until at least the end of August. 

My thoughts are with small and family businesses in our two largest capital cities - Sydney, who are in the midst of an extended COVID lockdown, which we now know will last until at least the end of July, and sadly again in Victoria where a snap lockdown has just been declared. We must also remember those travel and visitor-dependent enterprises suffering due to movement limitations.