Small Business Is Big Business

WHETHER it is the local deli, a family-run building company or a hairdressing salon, owning a small business is always tough.

In small businesses the line between work and home life is often blurred, as is the line between family obligations and business obligations. The stresses of small business life are sometimes too overwhelming for many.

We often hear about large businesses collapsing, but the collapses of small businesses are very rarely publicised. All too often small businesses are forced to close because they cannot compete with larger ones that over-run the market or open up down the road.

Take, for example, the proposed new Warnervale township on the Central Coast. How many big businesses will move in there and spell the forced closure of the smaller shops that already support the community?

There are a large number of small businesses operating in Australia today with many individuals, families and groups devoting their skills, funds and time to the running of a business.

Unlike big corporate groups, small businesses generally do not have large financial backing. To gain financial support, funds or loans, small business owners mortgage their own assets as security and often risk losing everything.

Small businesses are being forced out of the market because many cannot keep up with the advertising methods and cheap imports that some larger companies use.

Instead of buying quality Australian-made products and using five-star Australian-owned services, many people are sucked in by the gimmicks and campaigns used by many major corporations. Instead of supporting the "aussie battler" and putting money back into the Australian economy, Australian money is being sent overseas to corporations that do not hold Australian values and do not care about Australian workers.

It's not the competition that's the problem. The Webster dictionary defines competition in business as: "the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favourable terms."

But who are these terms favourable to?

Are larger overseas companies going to make life even harder for those involved in small business?

You be the judge.

Will you let hardworking fellow Australians suffer because of advertisements and gimmicks, or will you support local businesses?

Small businesses are a large part of Australian society, because small business means big business.