Even if not open every day of the week, the job of doing it yourself can be exactly that.

There's stock to source, books to balance and, most importantly, strategies to develop and implement to get customers through the front door in the first place.

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If you don't have customers, or anywhere near enough of them, no business can survive.

Our COVID-19 times have made all this a heck of a lot harder; many sound businesses with a loyal clientele are, nonetheless, struggling to keep open when they're not even allowed to do just that.

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We've already seen some long-established retailers in the Border region decide to shut-up shop for good, given the current extremely challenging environment, and no doubt there will be some to follow.

But in the main the resilience of our business community has been extraordinary.

People have just got on with it and done the best they can because they remain convinced the pandemic will not persist.

Besides, there are their own families to feed and support, there's their employees who rely on that weekly wage to do the same.

Tom O'Toole, the high-profile face behind the Beechworth Bakery brand, agrees COVID-19 has brought challenges never before seen.

As he says, social distancing and other pandemic-requirements have put paid to the days of a packed cafe floor.

Building up his business over the decades has required, like it is so for so many, an incredible amount of hard work.

It has though created so much, both in terms of its profile and, significantly, the number of people who now rely on the bakery for an income.

At last count, that was in the region of 280 employees.

"Today, it's a much bigger business," he says, "not a Mum and Pop show. But it's still a family business."

And it's a business sure to go on for many years to come, with business partner Marty Matassoni at the helm.

Congratulations on your retirement, Tom O'Toole.

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