With all the talk of big businesses donating money to help the devastated Christchurch economy I got to thinking what small businesses like ours could do.  Most of the businesses affected by the Christchurch earthquake are small too and have faced the same challenges of trying to build and maintain a business through the last few tough years.

I checked online and there are approximately 450,000 businesses in NZ deemed to be SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) with between 1 and 19 staff.  If you take out 150,000 of them to include all those harmed by the earthquake, and a few thousand others across the country that are in serious trouble, that still leaves 300,000.  If we all donated $500 we could collectively contribute $150 million that could go into a fund specifically to help small businesses in Christchurch. It would be an incredible achievement in terms of practical help and also sending a message that the whole New Zealand business community cares.

It would be a way for SMEs across the country to help our fellow SMEs who are potentially ruined by the earthquake.  It may also put some of the bigger corporates to shame as many of us would be giving a much bigger proportion of our turnover than they are.  The last few years have been tough for most small businesses but donating $500 each is not going to ruin us.  I am awaiting a reply from the Govt department organising the earthquake fund to see what they think of a special SME fund donated by SMEs to help SMEs.

As we've seen on tv every night the little people can make a world of difference.