Happy Stats for Small Business Operators!

If you operate a small business, it’s likely you’ll identify with some of the following statements:

• Sometimes I feel like I’m in this all on my own.
• Am I really making that much of a difference anyway?
• I’ve heard most small businesses fail; I wonder if I’ll be one of them?
• My friends and family are fed up with the hours I work – maybe I am doing more than is normal.

Well you can turn that frown upside-down. We’ve found some delightful statistics to make your (14-hour) day!

Definition
Small businesses, as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, are those with less than 20 employees.

Number of small businesses
There are approximately 1.93 million active small businesses (1,927,590) in Australia, representing 96 per cent of all businesses (2,011,770). [June 2007]

Sizes of businesses
Around 61 per cent (1,171,832) of small businesses are non-employing businesses, 27 per cent (527,445) employ between 1 and 4 people, and 12 per cent (228,313) employ 5 to 19 people. [June 2007]
(An active business is defined as one that has an ABN and has had an active GST role in any of the last four quarters. An employing business is defined as one that has an income tax withholding (ITW) role.)

Growth
There was net growth of 49,695 small businesses in 2006-07. Since June 2003, the number of employing small businesses has grown by 37.4 per cent.

Economic contribution
Small business forms a vital part of the Australian economy, contributing around 39 per cent of private industry value added in 2007–08.

Exports
Approximately 17,017 small exporters shipped goods to the value of $1.2 billion in 2007–08. This represents 39 per cent of all goods exporters and 1 per cent of the total value of all goods exported.

Employment
Small businesses provided employment for 5.1 million people as at June 2008, accounting for around half of private sector employment, which totalled 10.0 million people at June 2008.

Business entries and exits
In 2006–07 there were 330,453 small business entries and 280,758 small business exits. Business failures make up only a small subset of total exits.

Demographics
In June 2006, 68 per cent of non-agricultural small business operators were male and 32 per cent female, 29 per cent of small business operators were born overseas, 58 per cent of small business operators were aged between 30 and 50 years, 33 per cent were aged over 50 years and 9 per cent were aged less than 30 years.

Home operators
Around 67.5 per cent of all small businesses are home based (ie. operated either from home or at home). Approximately 70.7 per cent of operators are male and 39.6 per cent of home-based operators worked less than 35 hours per week compared to 32.9 per cent for all small business operators [June 2004].

Computers, the internet and eCommerce
Around 97 per cent of small businesses own a computer. Ninety five per cent of small businesses are connected to the internet with a further one per cent expecting to connect their businesses to the internet within the next 12 months.
Of the small businesses reporting connections to the internet, around 95 per cent had broadband access. Seventy eight per cent used the internet to place orders, 71 per cent received payments over the internet, 60 per cent took orders over the internet, and 57 per cent of small businesses have a website [May 2009].

Time spent at work

• 22% of small business owners estimate they work 41 to 50 hours in a typical working week.
• 18% of small business owners estimate they work 51 to 70 hours in a typical working week.
• 6% of small business owners estimate they work over 70 hours in a typical working week.

Source: http://www.innovation.gov.au/Section/AboutDIISR/FactSheets/Pages/SmallBusinessFactSheet.aspx

TELL US: What are your small-business-operator fears and thoughts? Did these stats provide any information you weren’t aware of?