QLD SMES STRANGERS TO STABILITY

QUEENSLAND SMEs are strangers to stability at the moment according to the latest MYOB Business Monitor Report, with the state seeing the highest revenue rises and falls across Australia.

Queensland and Western Australian-based SMEs were most likely to see revenue rise from the March Monitor, with 23 per cent of businesses across each state experiencing revenue growth.

However, Queensland was the most volatile environment for business, 41 per cent of its SMEs reporting a revenue fall.

Overall though SMEs are welcoming a stronger revenue stream Australia-wide.

They are consolidating the gains of the last 12 months with one of the highest revenue performances in the last three years and those experiencing revenue declines are falling to a five year low.

31 per cent of Australian SMEs reported a decrease in annual revenue in the 12 months to August 2014, 21 per cent reported an increase and 42 per cent reported a steady level of revenue.

MYOB CEO Tim Reed (pictured) says he is pleased to see revenue is moving in the right direction, although more businesses are still reporting declining revenue than growing revenue.

“Although the September Business Monitor reflects that running a small business in the current economic environment is not easy, many local operators are beginning to see their hard work pay dividends,” says Reed.

“This survey again reinforces how resilient our SME community is and underscores how important they are to the economy as a whole.

“It is particularly heartening to see many more businesses looking forward to an improved end to the year, and confident about what 2015 will bring.”

Perhaps the best news was for the manufacturing sector, the proportion of its businesses seeing revenue decline falling from 43 per cent in the March Business Monitor to 32 per cent in the latest survey.

Furthermore, manufacturing businesses experiencing revenue gains rose to 29 per cent, the highest level across the sectors.

This trend is set to continue, the sector tipped second for revenue growth over the next 12 months at 35 per cent, just trailing finance and insurance’s predicted growth of 36 per cent.

Established in 2004, the most recent MYOB Business Monitor surveyed more than 1000 Australian small and medium business owners and managers.