Small businesses have always formed an important part of the Western Australian business landscape. They provide a great source of employment opportunities, they supply products and services tailored to the community, and help create a sense of community amongst locals and business owners. According to the Small Business Development Corporation, as at 30 June 2021, there were 223,524 small businesses in Western Australia, which amounts to 97.2% of all businesses in Western Australia. At 30 June 2020, small businesses in Western Australia employed 462,995 people, or 38.4% of the workforce, and added $54.4 billion to the economy. Small business owners play a very important role in our community.

Being a small business owner can be very rewarding. It can provide an opportunity to build a business based on passion, beliefs and values. There can also be a sense of independence when owning a small business, the power of hiring and creating a team suited to your needs, and of course the possibility that it might become a great money maker! But as with most things in life, with pros also come cons. 

A small business owner wears many hats. Unlike large corporations, the small business owner is often the sole person responsible for many critical functions within the business. These include roles such as customer service, cash flow management, legal compliance, marketing, growing whilst maintaining quality, risk reduction and managing employees and all of the people issues that arise. Wearing this many hats and being available to customers and employees sometimes seven days a week is stressful, and often leads to burn out. So what can business owners do to avoid this?

The first step is for the business owner to decide where their time is best spent. The main focus of the business owner should be customer satisfaction, client relationships and business growth. If other tasks are getting in the way of this focus then the question needs to be asked - are there roles in the business that require specialist input and are better suited to being outsourced? Can someone else do this better than me? Do I really have the time to do all of this?

Some key areas within a small business that can be outsourced include:

Accounting, compliance and bookkeeping

If you are not an expert in this area it can take a lot of your precious time performing these tasks. There is also the risk that it is being done incorrectly. A skilled accountant or bookkeeper can perform this task for you quite efficiently.

Cash flow management

This task is often poorly managed by business owners, not necessarily because they can’t do it, but because they just don’t have time for it. It is however a critically important role in the business. It doesn’t matter how good the service or product is if the business owner doesn’t invoice on time, chase debtors, make debt repayments, replace aged plant and equipment, can’t pay its staff, or receive a reasonable return on investment. Monitoring cash flow is a key task that a qualified professional can do.

Marketing

Word of mouth is great however there can be great benefits in trusting a marketing specialist with your marketing plan, special events, advertisement content and social media. They do provide new ideas, creative solutions and strategies that the business owner may not have time to contemplate.

IT Management

IT is one of the largest outsourced industries worldwide. Given that most businesses in 2022 have some sort of IT reliance, and in most cases a heavy IT reliance, getting this part of a business correct is essential. Turning it on and off doesn’t always work, so building a relationship with and using a trusted IT firm that can provide on demand assistance is money well spent.

Human Resources

Dealing with staff can be the most rewarding and difficult hat that a business owner wears. When the business owner is time poor and is faced with staff leaving, training new staff, or managing staffing issues, it can become overwhelming. There are also day to day staff related tasks to deal with, such as employee benefits, leave queries, payroll, and time or attendance problems. Getting a HR specialist involved in some of these tasks can offer peace of mind and result in a more beneficial long term outcome with staffing.

Of course all of these services come at a cost so it is important for business owners to determine which roles are most critical to their business, are most neglected and take up too much of their time. The time saved by dealing with some of these tasks more efficiently and with more expertise could also result in more sales, less risk, happier customers and better qualified staff members.

If you need assistance with accounting, compliance, bookkeeping or cash flow management, please contact us at Smith Thornton Accountants on 9842 5155.