NSW small business owner divides social media with controversial definition of 'expenses' in running a pop-up shop

Sky News AU

6 days ago

A Newcastle small business owner has divided social media with a controversial way of defining expenses, in a video she made about how much money she lost running a pop-up shop.
Claire Neilson, 42, set up 'Clare Makes' during the pandemic to make scented candles.
But when she hosted a pop up in Maitland, she realised she had lost a concerning amount of money.
In the video, she said that her total sales were $643.50, but when her overheads were taken into account, she had made a loss of $790.35 for the whole weekend.
Ms Neilsen said that she had taken into account not just the fuel costs of getting there, but volume discounts and GST [Goods and Services Tax] totalling 10 per cent of all sales.
Controversially though, she also included the costs of breakfasts and lunches.
Some comments praised her for showing the difficulties small business owners face.
'Thank you for walking through this. Really interesting insights!' said one.
Another said. 'Wow I didn't realise the shopping centre stalls were that much. Thank you for sharing such a detailed breakdown'
Another said 'Thank you for sharing. It shows that despite having high quality products, small businesses are really struggling at the moment. Like you said, that doesn't include your time sourcing materials, making, packing, setting up, sitting on your stall, and in and on it goes.'
But some commentators noted that she had taken into account the cost of meals and added them to her expenses.
'It is wild you've included your food costs,' one complained.
'Food that you eat or your kids eat isn't a business cost. An employee would have to buy their own food,' someone else pointed out.
'To be fair, the majority of the loss was meals, which don't count as a business cost,' another said.
Ms Neilsen defended it by saying that she wanted to be transparent about every single dollar and where each one was going.
'People were mad that I was counting food costs. If you want me to take out food costs, okay, but let me add back in the time I spent and my loss would be a lot bigger than $157,' she told news.com.au.
But she said despite the cost setbacks, she was not going to stop trying.
'There have been points in my business where I have thought is this the end? Because I have just done so badly over a weekend, but my answer always is – just because you've had a bad weekend doesn't mean you have a bad business,' she said.