By Tina Zawila
Can you believe it’s less than 2 months to Christmas? 2020 has certainly been a wild ride and many people have commented over the last few weeks how exhausted they feel. It seems that for many of us, we have worked harder and longer this year than ever before.
For some businesses in certain industries demand for products and services has increased significantly since the onset of COVID-19 leaving many of us struggling to keep up and working more hours. For others, even if their business was subject to closures and/or reduced demand, owners and some employees have still been working long and hard to keep their businesses ticking over.
Therefore, it seems we are all looking forward to a well-deserved Christmas break. And as we start to turn our minds to Christmas holidays and celebrations, make sure you support our local businesses who have had a tough year. It’s never been more important to buy local.
However, when supporting our local businesses in the lead up to Christmas, keep in mind how they may have been affected by COVID-19 this year.
If demand for their products or services has increased, then they may be having difficulty keeping up with demand including stock shortages (particularly if sourced from Victoria or overseas) and/or they may be struggling to find enough hours in the day to service the increased demand from customers. With this in mind, as a customer, you may want to plan or order ahead to give the supplier a chance to ensure your item will be in stock when you need it. Or you may just need to be more patient as the business endeavours to service more customers than usual. We may all need to be a little more organised this year!
If on the other hand the business has suffered from closures or reduced demand, as a customer can we support this local business over the next couple of months to get them back on track? Remember small businesses are usually family owned/operated businesses who also employ local people and we all deserve a good Christmas this year.
At UHY Haines Norton Gladstone, we are here to support all businesses, big, small, busy or quiet. If you need professional business management, accounting or taxation advice, please call our local team on 07 4972 1300 or email us info@uhyhncq.com.au.