"Small businesses will collapse, people will lose their homes, everything they worked for," the beauty therapist and owner of Charlestown beauty salon The Bodhi Effect said.

"JobSaver isn't enough to pay our overheads. Small business owners' mental health won't survive this. Today is RUOK? Day and I really feel like the majority of answers people will give today is 'No'."

Ms Jones, 38, has run her business for 14 years and bought her new salon building in June, 2019. She had barely finished renovating it and was "getting back on her feet" financially when the first lockdown hit.

"I'm lucky that I have been a good saver. In the beginning I never paid myself super and I kept savings, but now I am using that to have a business to reopen," she said.

Ms Jones employs seven female staff and is paying off a mortgage on her salon building, a personal home loan and a loan on an investment property.

In the 2020 lockdown she leaned on JobKeeper and said an "overlap" of payments that continued when she resumed trading had allowed her to save her business. She also got a second job delivering council garbage bags so she could pay her bills.

The 2021 lockdown has been far tougher.

She qualified for the NSW government disaster payment available for a 30 per cent drop in her takings. [At the time, her turnover was down 47 per cent so she was unable to apply for the 50 per cent payment.] Her takings are now down by almost 100 per cent and she has since applied for a greater support package but is not confident she'll receive it.

After news of the lockdown extension in the Hunter on Thursday, she called her bank manager to ask for a "loan holiday" on her building mortgage. She has been granted it for September and October but must still pay interest and then repay the two month period at the end of her loan. "Essentially, the banks will still profit," she says, adding that her has redrawn her home loan and had been lucky to pay off some of it in advance earlier in the year.

Ms Jones' staff are on Centrelink support payments and she faces ongoing overheads, including council rates, water bills, rising accounting fees and the cost of the appointments platform her business relies on.

She is receiving just over $4000 from JobSaver per fortnight however says that the cost of running her business, with loans included, for a single week was about $5000.

"The government needs to cover our overheads while we are closed, that is what will keep us out of hot water. We don't need to make a profit, we just need our overheads paid so we can reopen without a crippling future debt, because it's not just about opening now, it's about future survival," she says.

"I am 38 and single and I don't have a husband in the building industry or an essential job to fall back on. It's just little old me."

The only thing that is bringing her peace of mind right now is learning to surf with her father.

"When I am out there and petrified of getting smashed by a wave, that's the only thing that shuts my brain off," she said. "As soon as I am on dry land, I am back to, 'What am I going to do?'

On Thursday, she says, she didn't have the energy or mindframe to surf.

Ms Jones says when the Hunter exits lockdowns, the ongoing social distancing restrictions would still make it tough for big salons.

"There is a five-person capacity and I am lucky because I have five rooms but for those who can only have five people in a room, it's so limiting," she said.

Ms Jones is using her social media platforms to appeal for customers to "pay it forward" until she can reopen for appointments.

"I can make a small amount of money selling product online, but more than 95 per cent of the business income comes from beauty services in the salon," she said.

She has offered discounts or added value on gift purchases to encourage people to open their wallets and free delivery of products including customised masks and facial kits and gift vouchers.

Her message to those buying online from big businesses is simple.

"To the big guys, you are nobody, you are just a number. The little guys like us know you," she said. "In Newcastle we have so many small businesses and our everything is our customers. We break our backs for Novocastrians, and it would be really lovely if they know that."

She has joined a Lake Macquarie campaign that is encouraging residents to "pay it forward" and snap up gift vouchers and products from the small businesses who cannot easily pivot.

"That's money directly in the bank. Yes, you have to do the treatment later, but it helps me pay bills now," she said.

While residents were supporting local cafes and restaurants and buying online, Lake Macquarie mayor Kay Fraser said "paying it forward" to services like hairdressers, beauticians and tourism operators was vital because they did not have the same opportunities to continue trading in the lockdown.

How to support local business through lockdown: