For Australian SME owners battling record fuel spikes, evaporating margins and threatened supply chains, the Prime Minister’s rare address to the nation has confirmed a fear: financial shockwaves from the Middle East conflict mean, in his words, “the months ahead may not be easy.” But instead reaching for a spreadsheet as the crisis unfolds, a smarter move may be to reach for a pen.
Getting communication wrong in a crisis carries real commercial consequences, says crisis communications expert Sally Branson, particularly for SMEs. Having already endured the pandemic, high inflation sparked by the Ukraine war, plus natural disasters, she says even the most resilient small businesses can’t afford to lose customers or reputation.
For SME owners navigating the economic turbulence, she says communication is a vital survival tool. “If SMEs aren’t prepared, their customers, their clients, their stakeholders will not be as forgiving as they were when we weren’t prepared during COVID,” she said.
The solution, she argues, comes down to a three-step framework any small business owner can act on today: map the right stakeholders, consider the purpose of every message and put a human face on your messaging.
Customers Need To Hear From You During A Crisis
Branson says while some business owners may wonder what constitutes a crisis, the definition is clear: “A crisis is just an issue that really starts to impact your daily life, that means it impacts your ability to make and earn money, that you usually wouldn’t have an issue with.” Using that test, she says, businesses facing soaring input costs have a right to worry and a duty to take action.
She says many owners will think back to the early months of COVID, when nobody had a playbook and customers gave companies grace. “The businesses that went really well in COVID were ones that communicated really clearly,” she said. “You might not have all the answers, but you need to know what you need to tell your consumers, your stakeholders, your customers to keep them informed.”
Branson says in the post-pandemic marketplace, consumers can interpret silence as caution. “If you’ve got a supply chain issue, you can’t just keep quiet about it,” she explains. “You might not know when the timeframe for resupply is going to happen, but give that information. For me, it’s really about knowing what to say, knowing where your stakeholders get their information from and knowing how you’re going to communicate with them in that space.”
Increased input costs have left many SMEs with no choice but to raise prices in response. Branson says while it may feel uncomfortable, it’s crucial this is communicated clearly. She uses her brother’s water-drilling business as an example. “A bore that would cost $1,000 in diesel to drill is now costing $3,500,” she says. “As a small business, there’s no way that he can wear that cost.” But being honest with people can build trust. “It’s about communicating how and why, telling them ‘We’re not raising our prices because we feel like it, we’re raising our prices because it’s the only way we can keep in business.’”
How SMEs Should Prepare Before Hitting Send
Before drafting a single email or social media post, Branson urges business owners to start with one foundational step: know exactly who needs to hear from them. “The very first place for me – and this is a tattoo I’ll have on my forehead – is make sure your stakeholder mapping’s right,” she says. “You need to just know who needs to be communicated to. Don’t waste your time or energy talking to every man and his dog when they might not be the right people in the stakeholder map.”
Getting this wrong can be costly. Branson cites the lesson of one SME that sent an email about a supply chain issue, along with a promotional offer, to every customer in its database. “They then were oversubscribed on the offer, they couldn’t afford to actually deliver,” she recalls. “They made a mistake in getting their mapping wrong and talking to the wrong people.”
A stakeholder map does not need to be a sophisticated document. Branson notes that AI tools can help build a basic version quickly, and encourages SME owners to start rough rather than stall. “In the time of crisis, let’s not make perfect the enemy of done,” she advises.
The second step is a filter Branson applies to every piece of communication. “The other tattoo I’m getting is ‘To what end?’” she says. “You’ve got to ask, with every communication, ‘Why am I sending this? What will it do? How does it fix my problem?’” A valuable crisis message, she explains, follows a clear structure: here is the problem, here is the cause, here is what the business is doing about it, and here is when the next update will come.
“If it doesn’t fix your problem, if it doesn’t serve a purpose, in a crisis or an issue, don’t send any comms,” Branson says. The goal is to avoid disenfranchising an already stressed audience with noise, while only sending messages of genuine value. Careful consideration must also go to channels. Do you need to address existing stakeholders via email or a broader audience via social media? This is where professional advice may prove priceless.
A small business owner herself, Branson acknowledges the pressure on leaders guiding teams through crises. But she says it’s important they remember they’re not the only ones under strain. “When there is a global crisis, a lot of people are feeling very stressed and anxious. So you need to communicate clearly and not waste their time as well.”
Why the Business Owner Should Be the One Talking
The final step in Branson’s framework is visibility. The name at the bottom of an SME’s message needs to be the owner’s. “People don’t trust brands as much as they trust people,” she says. “And a really big deal for SMEs is having a face to the brand and a face to the name.” For founder-led businesses that have built audiences on platforms like Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn, disappearing during a crisis creates a trust vacuum.
“If there’s a crisis and your stakeholders are used to seeing your face and then you don’t show your face during a crisis, the response isn’t genuine,” Branson says. “So it’s really important in a crisis that things are as normal as possible, that you don’t surprise or shock clients with what they’re seeing or what they’re not seeing.”
That same principle applies internally. Branson has heard from SME owners fielding requests from staff expecting to work from home to avoid fuel costs, based on news reports alone. “This business owner said to me, ‘I’ve only just got everyone back to work after COVID. How do I manage this?’
I think it’s about being really clear on what your policy and regulation is and making sure that your communication stipulates that it’s either your own personal policy or that you’re following government directives. You need to give a really strong line,” she says. Owners may be comforted by the Prime Minister’s explicit statement that his government was avoiding COVID-style mandates for remote work, instead relying on voluntary efforts.
Branson says working in crisis management means it’s her job to see around corners. But while she sees challenges for SMEs in the coming weeks or even months, decades of experience tells her the businesses that are the best prepared will be ones who best weather the storm. “The environment for SMEs is difficult,” she concedes, “but SMEs are notoriously resilient.”
