Share the love with small business on Valentine's Day: minister

While Valentine's Day and the days leading up to it are some of the busiest of the year for the entrepreneur, Ms Wijewickrema confronts many of the same pressures bearing down on small businesses around the country, including rising power and input costs and recruiting and retaining skilled staff

Ms Wijewickrema, a former ACT Young Australian of the Year, co-founded GG's Flowers in 2014 as a way to provide meaningful employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Since then, the business has grown to the point where it now has 35 staff.

But the entrepreneur is feeling the pinch as the support provided to small enterprises during the pandemic has now ended.

"There is nothing that has replaced it. The support has stopped. There should be some sort of transition, maybe some sort of tax incentive," she said.

Ms Wijewickrema said her message to the government would be to ask for some assistance for small enterprises like hers, which is one of 2.5 million small businesses operating in Australia, including 30,000 in the ACT.

Ms Collins urged Australians to use Valentine's Day to "show some love" to small business.

"It's been an incredibly difficult few years for small businesses - the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters including floods and bushfires," she said.

"So now, more than ever, it's an important time to support local small businesses."

Ms Collins said businesses like GG's Flowers not only provided good products but also give back to their local communities.

"So when you're searching for the perfect Valentine's Day gift for your loved one, stay local and support one of Australia's amazing small businesses," she said.

The federal government has introduced a number of reforms and initiatives which it says support small business, including stronger protections from unfair contracts, energy saving grants to reduce power bills, making it easier to bid for government procurement contracts, improved access to mental health support and improving payment times.

Less than one-third of large firms make payments to small business on time and almost one-quarter take more than 120 days to pay what they owe.

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson condemned the result and called on big businesses to "lift their game".

"This is a woeful performance and is bitterly disappointing news for small and family businesses," Mr Billson said.

"Cash flow is vital to these businesses [and] there is abundant scope for big businesses to lift their game."

Conditions for small businesses began to soften late last year but remained well above average, supported by strong trading and good profitability, National Australia Bank's latest quarterly SME Survey showed.

But small firms reported forward orders declined in the December quarter and confidence is wilting as high interest rates and inflation bear down on activity across the economy.

NAB chief economist Alan Oster said small business conditions "eased somewhat across the board in late 2022 and that was true for SMEs".

"Confidence fell in Q4 across our surveys, with concerns about the global economy, rate rises and high inflation weighing on the outlook," Mr Oster said.

"SMEs displayed the same falling confidence, which was evident across all industries and states."

The NAB survey found both input costs and prices - while elevated - eased in the December quarter, adding evidence to the Reserve Bank of Australia's view inflation peaked late last year and will ease through 2023.

Purchase costs grew 2.1 per cent in the quarter and final prices increased 1.5 per cent, but the rate of increase had slowed from the September quarter.

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Labour shortages and difficulty obtaining raw materials and parts remain a key constraint. Almost 80 per cent of the small firms surveyed reported problems recruiting staff and more than half had trouble obtaining inputs.

"Supply chain issues and labour shortages remained a pressing concern for SMEs in Q4," said Mr Oster.

"Like larger firms, there was some evidence that cost pressures were easing late in the year but price growth remained very elevated."

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