NZ small business is an enterprise employing less than 20 ppl.

In 2019 small business constituted 97% of all enterprise in NZ & a quarter of NZ’s Gross Domestic Product.

Stats NZ & MBIE; 487,602 businesses.

Did you know that approx 50% of small business is owned & operated by a person 50 years or older?
And 70% of the enterprises were actually sole traders? Self employed - no employees.

Self-employed folks impress me the most. Not only are they creating their own income, they are ‘doing’ their job plus all the required administration & compliancing work. But I digress.

I want to talk about redundancy.
I’m one of the small business owners the stats refer to. I employ less than 20 people.

I’ve been in business for 20 years.

Stats show than less than 50% of businesses survive beyond 10years.

My survival in business is a bit of a mixture of a good product, good governance, a touch of luck, experience and expertise.

Most of all, what has made my business successful are the people. EMPLOYEES.

Our company motto is:

Happy people make happy product and happy product makes money.

I have people who have worked for me for 20, 12, 10 years. Blows my mind that my little business has been such a huge part of their working lives.

And as a small brag; we are an all female company and we work in a male dominated industry. As in 99.9999% of our industry is blokes. I’ve been to industry conferences of 500+ attendees and been the only female present.

I’m often asked “why an all female company?” It’s not deliberate. I’ve just employed the best person for the job. Turns out that of all the job applicants, the best person for the job happened to be female.

It’s not gender related. From day 1 of being in business I made sure we were a true equal opportunity employer.
A few years ago we were recruiting and I used the biggest recruitment firm in NZ. We were struggling to find the right person.

The MD of the recruitment firm refused to show me the cv’s of ALL applicants. He said they didn’t matter because they were ‘carpet kissers’. I threw him out of my building and refused to pay their fee. Exhausting legal action ensued as they went after monies owed.

I’ve had a pair of angry men show up at my work with softball bats threatening to ‘smash the fuck out of everyone’ unless I did what I was told. I immediately became the human shield to protect my staff. I talked the pair down and they left.

I had a man call me a whore in front of a room full of his company men. He reckoned the only way I could be successful in the industry is if I whored myself out to every client. I politely said that was another industry and that my energy levels disqualify me for it.

I’ve had competing companies attack me legally & personally.
Our opposition have been multinational corporates. One lot did the rounds in NZ doing back room deals with ALL suppliers freezing us out of the industry.

Their Aust CEO even had the balls to turn up to my office to tell me to my face that the deals had been done. He smiled as he told me that my business was dead. What I remember most about that day; I was wearing black & had a forest green pashmina over my shoulders. It was itchy.

My angry mysogynistic father repeatedly reported me to MS for alleged software license violations. Ever had your offices raided? It’s a picnic. Not.
We’ve never broken any laws and never will.

I’ve also suffered at the hands of violent stalkers. Plural. One even tried to set fire to my house when my young offspring were home.
I’ve had hackers get into our systems.

I’ve had men try to steal my business or ask me to be ‘their bit on the side’. I’ve had violent ex-spouses try to get to my staff. I’ve had legal threats, lawsuits, defamation suits, and one man yell at me in public about my brother’s suicide. I’ve been called Satan’s slut.

We’ve survived the GFC and the CHCH earthquake that decimated our offices and my house.
And now the Covid-19 pandemic.

One advantage of small business is that we can pivot our systems/business quickly. We can adjust almost overnight.

When the Govt ruled our business as non-essential it nearly killed us. I agree w what the govt did. I’m not complaining. What I had to do was go into short/mid/long term survival planning mode. Nothing unique about us doing that. Many businesses did the same.

12 weeks of careful micromanagement. Over the previous 3 weeks we’ve had to restructure. Roles were made redundant.
It broke my heart.

I’ve never made people redundant before this. And I know it’s not about me.
When people lose their jobs they lose their income and everything they have can be put into jeopardy. Homes, food, families, bills, vehicles, healthcare. Everything.

They also lose their working family. The people they see everyday. Emotionally it’s a massive deal. There’s a sense of why me? What now? WTAF do I do now?
The NZ Govt legally required processes of restructure are EXCELLENT. They’re not political correctness. They’re fair.

If you go into business to get rich, you’re delusional. If you do strike it rich, congratulations. You’re a unicorn. Mostly you will be one of the many small businesses that does ok. You will be a sole trader or an employer.

I can’t really tell you why I went into business. I saw an opportunity, took it, & decided I was going to create the perfect place to work. That was my goal. Make a company that people wanted to be a part of.
Losing people, letting them go is the worst thing I ever experienced

TLDR: woman goes into business and survives. Worst thing experienced is making people redundant.

Takeaway: the other side of redundancy is that even bosses emotionally struggle with it.