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SME sentiment at five-year high

The March 2014 MYOB Business Monitor study commissioned to Colmar Brunton of 1,032 SMEs revealed dissatisfaction had significantly eased when asked about the Government’s support for helping businesses like theirs succeed.

Around 32 per cent of respondents are dissatisfied. Satisfaction had also improved with 24 per cent of respondents happy with the Liberal Government’s backing of the sector.

MYOB says this is a  turnaround from the September 2013 report, where 50 per cent of SME operators were dissatisfied and only 16 per cent were satisfied under the Labor Government.

MYOB CEO Tim Reed said entiment is moving from negative to neutral.

“There’s also likely to be a relationship between the significant easing in SME dissatisfaction with the Federal Government and strong performance in the SME economy. SME annual revenue growth is at a level unseen since 2011 – around one quarter reported rising revenue, an improvement on the previous five consecutive surveys. Around one third reported a revenue decline and this was the best result since March 2011.

“The SME business outlook is definitely more upbeat, with one third expecting their revenue to increase in 2014, up from one quarter in September 2013. This indicates the tide is turning for Australia’s economic engine.

“Small and medium businesses are the bedrock of our GDP health, and their needs are paramount to the success of our economy.  We should do all we can to make their business life easier. To give them a voice, MYOB explored the initiatives and policies that they would vote for.”

Making business life easier by reducing paperwork burden, investing further in infrastructure and retaining tax incentives are the leading initiatives and policies preferred by SMEs surveyed.

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