I don’t mean to alarm you, but…Christmas is fast approaching. Have you thought about how this will affect your business from an operational perspective? 

For some businesses, this is peak season. This is likely the case if your business is involved in tourism, hospitality, retail, food production, warehousing and logistics, transport and delivery services, beauty therapy and hairdressers, healthcare services and even aged care or support services.

If this is the lead into your boom time, you need to start preparing now, if you haven’t already! Some things to think about:

• Do you have enough staff? 
• Are your staff adequately trained? 
• Are you aware of the penalty rates for your staff over the public holidays? Use this calculator to help
• Is your supply chain intact and prepared for any supplier closures over this time? 
• Have you communicated open hours to your clients and customers?

Perhaps you work in a business that is busy over this period, and you want to take leave. Please be aware an employer may refuse a request for an employee to take annual leave, should the decision be based on ‘genuine, sound business reasons’. The best advice is to talk early about your intentions with your employer to see if alternate arrangements can be made and check your award agreements.

On the flip side, many Australian businesses see a downturn in trade over this time and therefore take advantage of this opportunity to shut down for a short period or to run on skeleton staff.

Should this be the case in your business, it is important to have an open discussion with your employees so they can prepare for a forced shutdown, or reduced staff numbers. According to some awards, this also needs to be in writing with reasonable notice for those affected. During this time, employees may be eligible to use this time within their accrued annual leave entitlements, access annual leave before it is accrued or have unpaid leave. 

To find out more information regarding the rules and entitlements during the end-of-year holiday season, check out the Fair Work Ombudsman for more details. You will also find details on this page regarding public holiday pay rates and entitlements should a public holiday fall whilst on annual leave.

The official National Public Holidays are listed below. Each state and territory government have different days that they also recognise as a Public Holiday, you can see a full list by each state by following this link.

• New Year’s Day
• Australia Day
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Anzac Day
• Christmas Day 
• Boxing Day

We know keeping up to date with rules and regulations can be tricky when you are a small business owner. That is where our expert advice comes into play. We are on top of our government regulations, so you do not have to be. Compliance is our passion, so you can focus on your own! If you seek advice about how this holiday season may affect your staff and business operations, please get in touch, we are here to help

Have you thought about how you can still pay your employees even though trade has stopped for a period of time? When you have a proven money management strategy implemented in your business, like Profit First, you can stress less when it comes to wages in the quieter times, as this advocates for money to be put aside during the busy periods for this purpose. 

Whether the festive season is your business’s busy or quiet time, implementing Profit First can be the game changer you have been looking for when it comes to a proven, tried and tested successful cash flow system. We can help you work out the percentages that your business needs to help you say goodbye to cash flow woes. Each business is different, that is why we tailor the Profit First method to suit your business. If this is of interest to you, please book a call.