Take action on your mental health this NSW Small Business Month

This October, the NSW Small Business Commission is holding NSW Small Business Month to help you build your skills in branding and marketing, cyber security, business health, ecommerce, current market conditions, resilience and teams.

NSW Small Business Month is a month-long program of events for small business owners to learn new tips and skills aligned to their individual business interests. This year, NSW Small Business Month also aligns with Mental Health Month, creating the perfect opportunity for you to take action on your mental health and wellbeing. Two of the key areas of this Small Business Month are resilience and teams, which are great to focus on when creating a mentally healthy workplace.

Being resilient means that you can manage the stress of running your business and can cope and recover quickly from difficult life events. To build your resilience, you need to be proactive about looking after your mental health and wellbeing. This might include developing personal self-care and stress management strategies, or overarching strategies to improve wellbeing at work. Ahead for Business has many resources that can help get you started:

• Create a Wellbeing Plan or a Rural Agribusiness Wellbeing Plan to develop strategies you can use to improve your mental health and resilience.
• Read resources about building resilience with self-care and building resilience to prepare for adverse events.

For small businesses with employees, your team contributes to workplace culture, social wellbeing and connection, all of which form a vital part of a mentally healthy small business. Looking after the mental health of your team and encouraging connection can help improve team morale, engagement, and productivity at work. Some Ahead for Business resources that are helpful with this include:

• Enrol yourself and your team in our free Business Wellbeing Online Training to develop an understanding of how to contribute to a mentally healthy workplace.
• Read resources about looking after your staff and improving employee retention in your small business.