02/09/2026
A hairdresser in Perth said what every small business owner is thinking. I'm one of them...
Last night I watched a video of a hairdresser in Perth — Krystal, runs a salon called Luxe Label — absolutely let rip about what it actually costs to run a small business in this country right now. Wages, super, insurance, tax, compliance, on and on, and none of it slowing down no matter how hard you work.
I watched it and just sat there, because she wasn't describing her business. She was describing mine.
This week I had to let Josh go. Not because he wasn't good — he was. Because paying him properly costs me over $300 a day once you stack wages, super, workers comp and every insurance on top of insurance. That's before the $4.5k electricity bill I still haven't been able to pay, before GST, before two years of tax I still owe for the business and then owe again personally.
I work longer than almost anyone I know. When people go home, I'm still working. When people are asleep, I'm still working out how to stay open. And it doesn't matter — every dollar gets spent twice before I ever see it.
She said she read the actual numbers — ATO, ASIC, the Ombudsman — and 43% of small businesses don't turn a profit, and three quarters of business owners take home less than the average wage despite us being a third of the economy. That's not two unlucky businesses. That's most of us.
I'm not posting this for sympathy. I'm posting it because a stranger's rant made me feel less crazy for the first time in months, and if it did that for me, it might do that for someone else scrolling right now who's convinced it's just them.
If this is you too — it's not just you.
And if it's not you — next time you're in a small, local business, the person serving you is probably carrying some version of this. Support looks like showing up again.
