What are the current issues for small business

May 14, 2008 at 4:31 pm | In Business | Leave a Comment
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A recent survey conducted by CPA Australia suggest that

  • Skill Shortage and
  • Fuel and interest Costs

are the major issues facing small businesses today.

Two other interesting findings in the survey were that

  • the majority of small businesses are doing nothing about reducing their greenhouse gas emissions
  • Compliance is not as big an issue as it was 5 years ago for small businesses, however an increasing percentage of small businesses want to see simplification in compliance for Occupational Health and Safety requirements

An issue with surveys is they can provide information but if that information does not result in action (either physical or mental) it is not that useful. In the rest of the article, to overcome that issue, I will provide a more in depth analysis of some of the findings and suggest what actions businesses can take to take advantage of the current conditions.

The findings of the survey included that it was not just a skills shortage but also a shortage of skilled staff with the “right attitude” that was an issue for small businesses. Also it appears that the skills shortage is now an important driver in employing casual staff. In comparison, in a survey done five years ago the lower total costs of casuals compared to full time employees was a more important driver in employing casuals.

A way to alleviate this problem is to keep existing staff. But one way that has been regularly suggested as a means of retaining staff, the offering of flexible employment conditions, is not being used. Only a minority of small businesses offer flexible employment conditions and this percentage is roughly the same as it was five years ago.

Small Business Initiative 1: Develop a retention plan for the staff that you want to retain. Follow the plan.

In regards to confidence in 2008 one of the biggest concerns for small businesses was the increasing cost of fuel and interest. Fuel was rated as a higher concern than interest. This implies that the fuel price increases has had a greater impact on the cash flow of a small business than the interest rate increases. This flags an opportunity for businesses as it would not be surprising if some of the businesses that rated fuel as the highest concern to have their cash flow more adversely impacted by interest rate rises than fuel cost rises.

Small Business Initiative 2: Have an analysis done on the business cost structure to understand the impact of rising costs in general and fuel and interest in particular and implement initiatives to maintain or improve the business cash flow.

One of the surprising findings of the survey was that the majority of small businesses have done nothing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Those that have done something to reduce their emissions have focussed on recycling and reducing energy use. This will be an interesting trend to watch as it is possible that being environmentally aware and taking actions to reflect that may result in a competitive advantage. This will happen if customers increase the value that they place on the well being of the environment and place a greater importance on this when making consumer decisions than they currently do.

This increasing importance on the environment is reflected in a pest control business brochure that my wife picked up from a home show. The brochure included the environmental commitments of the business which were:

1. 100% carbon neutral by July 2007

2. Install solar energy hot water system by January 2008

3. Company vehicle fleet to use carbon neutral fuels by January 2010

4. Investment in solar energy grid power system by January 2015

This is a business whose operations could have an adverse impact on the environment and so they have an incentive to be proactive in regards to environmental management. They have decided to take their environmental message to potential customers and made their environmental commitments prominent in their marketing brochure.

Small Business Initiative 3: Develop an environmental plan for the business and uncover ways of how it can make a return on investment

The survey is available from the CPA Australia website.

How to move forward by looking back

May 14, 2008 at 4:27 pm | In Life | Leave a Comment
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Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop that was presented by Wendy Swift. Wendy is a sports psychologist and works with many sporting organisations including the Queensland swim team at the Queensland Academy of Sport. The Queensland trained swimmers will make up at least half of the Australian swim team at the Olympics and the Australian team is the second strongest (behind the USA) in the world. At the recent Australian championships Queensland swimmers broke 5 world records. This suggests that the input from Wendy and the other coaching and support staff is working.

At the workshop Wendy outlined some tools and techniques that she uses. One was called a visual debrief. It involved the athlete having a structured process to review their performance after an event. The athletes are asked to measure their performance in 7 areas by giving a point score between 1 and 10. The 7 areas are:

  • Switch off: This is the amount of time in the 4 hours before the race that the athlete was completely switched off from swimming related thoughts. A score of 10 would mean that the athlete was “switched off” all of the time.
  • Thought Volume: In the 4 hours prior to racing how mush time was spent on thoughts related to the particular race.
  • Activity: In the 4 hours prior to the race how busy or active was the athlete. 10 would mean very busy
  • Arousal: How “pumped” was the athlete immediately prior to the race.
  • Confidence: Immediately before the race how confident was the athlete that they could do the job that they were meant to do.

As a side issue note the terminology “do the job”. This confidence is not how confident the athlete is about winning the race but how confident they are that they will be able to do their job. The reason for this is to keep the athlete focussed on what they have control over. They don’t have control over the outcome of the race but they do have control over what they do during that race.

  • Nerves: How nervous the athlete was before the race.
  • Control: During the race what was the level of control that the athlete felt.

There is an eighth measure and it is the evaluation of the race performance on a scale of 1 to 10.

This tool is used each time the athlete performs. They record how they were in regards to each of the seven areas and record what was the performance outcome. They then identify what are the consistent factors when they do their best performances and then plan to do the same things before future performances. Thus they are moving forward by looking back.

The exciting thing is to use this tool to improve the outcomes in our everyday life. The seven categories may have to change but the principle is a simple and effective one. It is to identify what we did and how we felt before the times that we did really well so that we can repeat that in the future. Possibilities for using the tool in our own life includes:

  • Sports: I could see this helping with golf, running, squash, triathlons in fact probably all sports.
  • Job Interviews:
  • Exams:
  • Presentations:
  • Sales: This tool could identify the actions and feelings that result in the highest percentage of conversion of potential clients
  • Dating:
  • Public Speaking:
  • One on one talks: e.g. Parent child, teacher student, supervisor employee

Doing these reviews is a time investment in you. It is an investment that will generate a healthy return.

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