Former Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell has urged Mount Gambier’s business women to manage with empathy and ethics, saying operating inside the law was not enough.
The Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce and Women in Business and Regional Development hosted Ms Carnell at a breakfast event aimed specifically at women in small business last week. While much of the event was dedicated to explaining the public resources available to businesses, the former ACT Chief Minister offered candid advice to small business owners.
As well as emphasising the importance of not procrastinating and acting swiftly in times of crisis and staying engaged with customers and staff, Ms Carnell stressed empathy was critical. “People have dealt with COVID differently,” she said. “Some staff have found working from home fantastic, others have nearly gone crazy. I’m on the board of beyondblue and the level of mental health issues has escalated, there’s no doubt of that.”
Ms Carnell advised business owners to understand staff, customers and “feel with them”. “Operating inside the law is not enough anymore – it never probably was,” she said. “Values are important. Share those values with your customers, with your staff.”
Sharing an example of ethics from her time as a pharmacy owner, Ms Carnell said it was not illegal to sell six bottles of cough mixture to one person in a pharmacy, but it was unethical. “I suppose I learnt pretty early that if I went and picked something up off the shelf and put it in my handbag then the staff will do the same. It’s obvious, but if you have an ethical base, if you have got lines that are really clear, then your staff will share them and so will your customers. “People like working for companies that have solid ethical backgrounds.”
Ms Carnell also shared her ‘six Es’ of small business success- enthusiasm, engagement, entrepreneurial spirit, empathy, ethics and enemies. On the last E, she said she learnt this mostly in politics. “One quick way to ensure that you’re failing in business is to try to keep everyone happy. The fact is you have to do what you believe is right.
“You have to have some solid lines in the sand and enemies are really part of that as well. “So for me, the stuff I learned back in the day in pharmacy and in politics is that you can seek and succeed in everything as long as you stick with my six Es. “They have stood me in good stead through lots of things and I think they’re particularly important in the small business space.”
