At a glance
CPA Australia has published its 15th annual Asia-Pacific Small Business Survey 2023–24, which provides a detailed insight into the challenges facing businesses in 11 different markets across the region. Gavan Ord, business investment and international lead, shares expert analysis and key insights into the survey.
Australia and New Zealand
“Australian and New Zealand small businesses have underperformed against other small businesses across the Asian region, but also, they have underperformed against medium and large businesses within their countries.
“There is no expectation that the gap between small business performance in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere is actually going to close. There is no data to show that the gap is closing.”
Sector and GDP growth
“Think about small businesses in Australia. They contribute around about a third of Australia’s GDP, so if the small business sector is underperforming, that is a drag on Australia’s economy, it is a drag on wealth creation, it is a drag on productivity, and it is a drag on job creation.
“The data shows that, while the gap is not decreasing in terms of differences of performance, Australia and New Zealand small businesses are making incremental improvements in different areas of how they run their business. For example, in the technology uptake, there is a little bit of improvement in those areas.”
Key factors
“Underpinning the weak results over a long period of time are two or three factors. One is the low comparative levels of technology uptake. The second one is the low levels of investment and innovation.
“The third one that sort of sits underneath this is the older age profile of Australian and New Zealand small business owners. Australian and New Zealand small business owners are significantly more likely to be aged 50 to 60 than their counterparts in Asia.”
Technology investment
“We know in Australia and New Zealand that business owners are incredibly time poor. They are just running their business. They do not actually have extra time to look at the new technology that might be great for their particular industry.
“This is why we encourage them, yes, you do not have time, but if you do have some spare time, go and speak to tech experts in your industry. If you are not using that time to engage with the experts, you are missing out on opportunity and that actually flows through to growth.”
