MYOB business monitor results released

The MYOB Business Monitor survey, which canvassed the opinions of more than 1,000 SME owners, found that the franchise sector was most positive about the sharing economy, with 71 per cent of franchisers and 41 per cent of franchisees reporting a positive impact to their business.

The results showed that 18 per cent of small business owners generally said the sharing economy was having a positive impact on their business, while only 7 per cent reported a negative impact.

MYOB chief technical advisor Simon Raik-Allen said small business was “an area of genuine growth and innovation in Australia”, and new approaches to the sharing economy were “clearly creating their own markets”.

“SMEs are starting to embrace the sharing economy with almost one in three (31 per cent) saying they had used the services of an Uber driver, rented an Airbnb property or similar,” Mr Raik-Allen said.

“We’re starting to see a real buzz among our customers around outsourcing as well, so I’d be expecting growth in the virtual assistant, and social and website management areas as operators increase their online operations.”

Digital use among small business owners was up, with 48 per cent of respondents reporting having a website, a rise from 43 per cent in the previous Business Monitor.

Despite these results, there was a strong divide between generations, with Gen Y (75 per cent) and Gen X (66 per cent) the most likely to have an online presence, in contrast to 29 per cent of those aged over 70.

“We are seeing something of a generational divide here with traditionalists aged over 70 (51 per cent) and Baby Boomers (23 per cent) more likely to state the pace of technology was too fast, compared with 13 per cent of Gen Y and 14 per cent of Gen X respondents,” Mr Raik-Allen said.

“Operators with social media sites named more interaction with customers as the top result of that presence, followed by more customer inquiries and leads, and increased appeal to younger customers. These are key insights for businesses looking for growth.”

The report also revealed that two-thirds of SME operators were using online banking.