“More than clients”: Big business must play a role in promoting small business mental health

Mental health advocate Leanne Faulkner is calling on large firms to consider the wellbeing of their small business clients when making decisions amid ongoing concern many owners are suffering in silence.

Speaking to SmartCompany on the eve of World Mental Health Day, Faulkner, the founder of Billie Goat Soap, said business owners need to come together and support each other with mental wellbeing.

“Small business would not survive if not for the help we get from one another,” Faulkner says.

“If you feel isolated, reach out and put yourself in a space with other small business owners.”

A recent survey of 440 small business owners conducted by mental health advocacy group Everymind found the rates of symptoms associated with depression and anxiety are higher than the national average.

Stress levels are particularly bad, with 57.6% of respondents falling outside of the “normal” range.

Faulkner, who has had her own lived experience with mental health as a business owner, says a key message to communicate on World Mental Health Day 2018 is that large firms have a crucial role to play.

A total “98% of all businesses are small in this country, big business would not exist without us,” Faulkner says. Read more

Matthew Elmas - SmartCompany - 10 October 2018