Even though lockdowns are over, many small business owners are worried about the future, especially about how much fuel and energy will cost.
A survey released on Friday found that confidence has dropped to levels not seen since December 2020, when the pandemic was at its worst.
According to a poll of 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses done by MYOB, concerns about fuel prices are higher than they were six months ago, even though taxes have been cut at the pump. COVID-19: Fuel prices are still a bigger issue than COVID-19.
Emma Fawcett, the executive director of MYOB, says that business owners are facing a “crisis in the cost of doing business.”
She says that the cost of living is a worry for both businesses and consumers, and that it threatens the recovery of Australia’s 2.3 million small and medium-sized businesses, which are the country’s largest employers.
Small businesses plan to pay their workers more, but few of them plan to hire more people.
Overall, people’s confidence in the economy has gone down. Less than half (41%) now think things will get better, compared to just over half (53%) six months ago.
Only one out of every four businesses in rural areas expects the economy to grow.
Generation Y business owners (ages 25–39) are under more pressure than baby boomer business owners (aged 55–74).
Younger owners are also less optimistic about the coming year. Nearly two-fifths (39%) of millennial respondents think the economy will get better, while nearly half (45%) of baby boomers think the economy will get worse.
Men are 45 percent more optimistic than women (39 percent).
Nearly half of Victorian firms think the economy will get better, which is more than in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, and Western Australia, all of which are at 40%. (both 37 per cent).
The sectors that are most likely to grow are transportation, postal services, and storage, while manufacturing and wholesale are most likely to fall.
People who started businesses during the ups and downs of the pandemic are more hopeful about the coming year.
About 55% of new businesses expect their sales to go up. This is compared to 34% of businesses that have been around for five to ten years and 27% of businesses that have been around for more than ten years.
Profits are most likely to go up in the finance and insurance industries.
