Keeping the lights on: One small business owner details the current struggle

Sunday, 24 May 2026

Penny Mahoney is the founder of Lab Brow Bar with locations in Hamilton and Auckland.

OPINION: Running a small business has never been easy, and I don’t think anyone goes into it expecting a smooth ride. There are always challenges, unexpected costs, and moments where you have to figure things out as you go. That’s part of being in business.

But lately, it feels like everything has become just that little bit harder, and it’s coming from every direction at once.

Fuel prices are a good example of that. On the surface, it sounds like a simple issue about filling up the car, but for small businesses, it affects far more than people realise. The impact flows through almost every part of day-to-day operations.

When fuel goes up, staff are spending more just to get to work. Suppliers and freight companies increase their costs, which then gets passed on to businesses. Deliveries become more expensive. Travelling between appointments costs more. Even clients start thinking twice about driving into town for a service or appointment if it’s going to cost significantly more to get there and back.

It all adds up surprisingly quickly.

And fuel costs are only one piece of a much bigger picture. Across New Zealand, families are feeling the pressure of rising living costs in general. Mortgages have increased. Rent has increased. Groceries, insurance, power bills, it all keeps climbing. Naturally, people become more cautious about where and how they spend their money.

In industries like beauty, wellness, hospitality and retail, you notice those changes almost immediately. Clients still want to support local businesses, but they might stretch appointments out a little longer, delay purchases, or cut back on extras. The loyalty is still there, but spending habits shift because people are simply trying to make everything work.

At the same time, the cost of running a business is not easing anywhere else.

Wages are higher, which is important and necessary, especially when everyone is dealing with increased living costs themselves. But payroll is still one of the biggest pressures for many small businesses. Rent hasn’t gone down. Utilities haven’t gone down. Product costs continue to rise. Software subscriptions, merchant fees, insurance, compliance costs, all the small operational expenses in the background quietly keep increasing too.

The difficult part is that small businesses cannot endlessly increase prices to absorb those costs.

There is only so much you can pass on before clients start to feel it too. Most business owners are constantly trying to find that balance between staying profitable and remaining realistic and fair for their customers. It becomes a daily exercise in decision-making: where can we absorb costs, where can we be more efficient, and where do we simply have no choice but to adjust?

I think one thing that often gets overlooked is the human side of small business ownership.

Behind every business are real people carrying a huge amount of responsibility. Business owners are not just looking at spreadsheets and profit margins. We are thinking about our teams, their hours, their security, and whether they feel supported. We are thinking about whether we can continue growing or whether we need to pull back. We are thinking about our customers and making sure they still feel valued during difficult times themselves.

Every decision feels heavier right now because the margin for error feels smaller.

But despite all of that, small businesses continue to show up.

We adapt. We look for smarter ways to operate. We become more efficient. We focus even harder on customer service because relationships and trust matter more than ever. There is a huge amount of pride in small business ownership, and a huge amount of resilience behind the scenes that most people never see.

Fuel prices might seem like a small issue on their own, but they are symbolic of a much larger reality. When one cost rises, it creates a ripple effect through the entire business ecosystem. And when multiple pressures hit at the same time, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage sustainably.

Small businesses are not asking for sympathy. Most of us chose this path because we genuinely love what we do and care deeply about the communities we serve.

But I do think it’s important people understand what it actually looks like behind the scenes right now.

Small businesses employ locals, support families, contribute to their communities and keep town centres alive. Most business owners simply want to keep going, continue serving their clients well, and look after the people who work alongside them.

At the moment, though, there’s no denying it, it’s tough.