Small Business

Four Australian startups raised a combined $31 million this week, according to SmartCompany’s funding round-up. Sydney’s MP Space raised $23 million in seed funding, led by Blackbird, to build spacecraft power systems in Australia. The money will go to manufacturing and growing its engineering team. Adelaide AI robotics startup Metacognition received $5 million from Airtree,

The Supreme Court of Victoria has ordered discount retailer Panda Mart to close two Melbourne stores for short periods next month, after ongoing product safety concerns. Cranbourne must shut from November 9 to 11 and Preston from November 16 to 18, so Consumer Affairs Victoria can check the products meet Australian safety standards. Panda Mart

Businesses in Manjimup, 290 kilometres south of Perth, say the federal government’s changes to working holiday visas are already hurting, and want them scrapped. Pub owner Paul Fowler says backpackers make up more than 70 per cent of his staff. He gets through 50 to 80 backpacking workers a year and says that without them

The Fair Work Ombudsman received a record 31,596 anonymous tip-offs in 2025-26, up 23% from 25,608 the year before, according to its latest annual report. The regulator recovered $453 million in unpaid wages and entitlements for more than 181,000 workers, a 27% jump. It also lifted proactive investigations by 86% to more than 2,680. Hospitality

Australian activewear brand Stax is trying again after collapsing earlier this year with almost $24 million in liabilities. New owners are offering up to $1.7 million in store credits to customers who never received their orders. Stax went into receivership in June and liquidation in July. A private investor group led by Justin Truong and

Australian businesses worried about losing their .com.au or .net.au web address can breathe a little easier. The domain regulator auDA has revised a controversial plan to overhaul its registration rules. Under the new approach, existing domain holders will keep operating under the current rules. Only people applying for new domains would face the tighter requirements.

Harry Styles’ Australian tour is already lifting hotel prices in Sydney and Melbourne, according to new data from Australian tech company SiteMinder. Hotel bookings across the two cities are up by as much as 30% on the same period last year, ahead of six shows in November and December. Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium hosts four (27

HiveKeepers, a small Victorian business, has had its Micro Honey Harvester named among TIME Magazine’s 300 best inventions for 2026. It is one of just 13 picks in the food and drink category. The device is aimed at hobby and small-scale beekeepers. Rather than lifting out a full frame, users remove small plastic cassettes from

After 16 years selling mostly online and through other retailers, Melbourne accessories brand Bellroy is opening its own stores. The first will be on Little Collins Street in the Melbourne CBD, with New York and Kuala Lumpur to follow within about six months. CEO Lina Calabria says those three are only the start. Internally, the

If your accountant, lawyer or real estate agent has started asking for ID and details of who owns your company, it’s not curiosity. Since 1 July 2026, Australia’s anti-money laundering laws have covered these professions, and they must ask. The regulator, AUSTRAC, says the change lifts the number of businesses it oversees from about 19,000

Competition Minister Andrew Leigh is urging Australian franchisors to put their standard franchise agreements online, saying openness would help attract new small business owners. He will make the pitch in an address to the Franchise Council of Australia, asking brands to make better use of the government’s Franchise Disclosure Register. Thousands of franchisors already list

Meta is changing the terms for businesses that advertise, sell or manage pages on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The changes are due to start on 30 October. The new wording lets Meta use automated tools such as bots and crawlers to access websites linked to a business user. It also suggests that information could be

Australian universities and research bodies earned a record $336 million from commercialising research in 2025, up 39% on the year before, according to Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia. The sector also created 102 new companies and signed 766 licensing and partnership deals, up 25%. The good news comes as the federal government redirects more than $800 million

Three weeks after the card surcharge ban took effect on 1 October, most small businesses are still waiting for cheaper card fees. A new comparison site, Compayr, found that just seven of 20 popular card acceptance plans have lowered what they charge merchants. The ban came with a cut to interchange fees, the wholesale charge

Research links ICE enforcement surges to lasting declines in local spending, foot traffic and jobs. In Minneapolis, businesses are still recovering. Read the original report.

Trump's tariffs have resulted in rising job cuts and less investment, according to a survey from the Association for Supply Chain Management and CNBC. Read the original report.

Trump has already imposed a variety of tariffs on Canada and its specific exports, including metals, lumber and auto parts. Read the original report.

New data shows that states where key midterm elections races will take place paid over $134 billion in tariffs during 2025 as affordability issues mounted. Read the original report.

Researchers forecast 6 million small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs, will be available for acquisition by 2035. Read the original report.

Some congressional Republicans are hoping to tack on tax and other spending proposals to an effort to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security. Read the original report.