Canberra boss mums turn COVID-19 crisis into opportunity

When coronavirus came to Australia Perpetua Kish, Rachana Chitre and Julie Okely faced the tightening of purse strings, the grounding of flights and social-distancing concerns which threatened to shut down their businesses.

In response, all three women changed tack to keep their heads above water and their businesses afloat.

Alongside business partner Jonathon Naef, Mrs Kish sensed troubled times ahead and adapted her positive communication-based law firm to focus on wills and estates.

The self-described dance mum said the economic uncertainty pushed them to develop an area of their business they'd previously been too risk-adverse to chase.

"We were initially very worried that because of the uncertainty our clients would delay doing things like documenting settlements, because they may not have that certainty around income," she said.

"We had been very quietly building our wills and estates practice and we thought 'well now's the chance', because mortality has become front of mind at the moment."

Mrs Kish said as a result March through to now had been their most successful months to date.

Their innovation has allowed the virtual business to continue employing other working mums who help run proceedings from their homes around the country.

Rachana Chitre opened a travel agency named after her daughter Sara four years ago after being made redundant from her travel consultancy job.

The main focus of the business was to facilitate travel plans between Australia and India.

With India suspending all international passenger flights in and out of the country until at least the end of August, Mrs Chitre has turned her attention to providing support for travellers stranded abroad.

"For two hours a day I am taking phone calls from people asking for advice on how they can get back home," she said.

"For another two hours I am working on the See Local, Support Local campaign to help domestic tourism."

Mrs Chitre said financially it had been a terrible blow but she had used the time to develop other skills and help organise seats on repatriation flights.

"It's a very tough time when you're chasing refunds but it's my responsibility when I have done a booking to chase airlines and suppliers to get money back," she said.

Mrs Chitre said her daughter was online last week when she came across her mum's travel business.

"She said to her sister 'look at that, mum has a five star-reviewed business'. These are the small moments where you feel proud of yourself," she said.

"Whoever survives this phase is going to be a winner."

Pre-pandemic, Julie Okely had operated a hairdressing salon out of her home in Bonner. She said clients' coronavirus concerns forced her to shut it down and diversify into product sales.

"I've been self-employed as a hairdresser since I was 19 and this forced my hand to try to build my product range during COVID-19 - which I did," she said.

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With a daughter at the University of Canberra and a son about to start at the Yurauna Centre to finish year 12, Ms Okely said the strain had been on managing everyone's stress while they juggled learning from home.

Having returned from holidaying in Victoria with friends just before the border closed, she said her heart went out to those in lockdown.

"I still can't process that something has shut the world down," she said.

"It's phenomenal, really."