More than a third of the nation's small businesses were affected by recent extreme weather conditions, with the biggest impact being in South Australia.
Adelaide sweltered for a record 13 days over 40C this summer, with 11 days topping 42C, while the rest of the state also recorded high temperatures and bushfires.
Sixty-one per cent of SA's small and medium businesses experienced some impact from the weather, with 37 per cent reporting loss of productivity, 20 per cent power outages and 12 per cent absenteeism.
This compared nationally to 17 per cent, eight per cent and six per cent, a survey of small to medium size companies shows.
The latest quarterly TEC Business Confidence Index, released by The Executive Connection, showed that one in four businesses were now doing something to prepare for extreme weather conditions.
A further nine per cent plan to do something, while eight per cent would like to do something but don't know what to do, The Executive Connection's CEO Nikki Potter said.
"These figures demonstrate the key role that governments and business leaders must take in assisting businesses, big and small, to respond to the current and future challenges posed by climatic conditions," she said.
The survey also showed that affected businesses were less optimistic about sales revenues increasing over the next 12 months, were less likely to expect profitability to increase and less likely to expect an increase in staff numbers.
