“I am on a small-business crusade to help my town,” she says. “I don’t want to see a world where you didn’t have shops!”

Over many years, Toni has experienced the challenges of running a small business in Queanbeyan, selling home décor, jewellery and giftware.

She found that business was tough in the border town, and that she was competing for the local’s dollars with Canberra’s shops.

“Queanbeyan was a difficult gig from a retail point of view. People who are of a working age mainly work in Canberra and shop in their lunchbreaks at the malls rather than back in Queanbeyan,” she says.

“I ran two retail enterprises in Queanbeyan but I had to close them because they were not financially viable. This was a costly lesson to learn,” she says.

Toni opened a jewellery and gift shop, La Shabbie, in March at Jamieson Plaza.

“I would have loved to do it in Queanbeyan but it’s better for me right now to be in Canberra,” she says.

“My family were very apprehensive about me opening another business but my love of trinkets and jewellery drove me to give it another go.”

After joining the Council three years ago, Toni has been actively involved with plans to revitalise the CBD, understanding firsthand the trials and tribulations of running a small business in Queanbeyan.

“Council is trying to improve the retail areas but it’s not an easy task. It’s about an education thing for locals to understand that if they want.

Queanbeyan to have a thriving CBD, think about shopping here first,” she says.

Council has plans in progress including a promotional campaign to entice shoppers to shop in Queanbeyan to go into the draw to win a house.

“I am also in the process of creating a social media page on Facebook which will be called ‘Spend your Money for Good and Services Sake’.  I think it is irresponsible of the current government to not alleviate people’s fears about the economy,” she says.

“The constant doom and gloom talk makes people fearful of spending money, which is detrimental to small business operators like me.  Small business employs the majority of working Australians, so if we don’t do what we can to help small business, unemployment will rise and the economy will stagnate – this is not good for our country,” she says.