It has been some months since George Etrelezis left the Small Business Development Corporation, but the former chief of the state government authority remains as passionate about the sector as ever.
It has been some months since George Etrelezis left the Small Business Development Corporation, but the former chief of the state government authority remains as passionate about the sector as ever.
He firmly believes the small business sector warrants continued government attention and sees it as the economy’s greatest source of innovation, with its resilience key to buffering the economy during downturns.
And he recognises ample opportunity for governments of all political leanings to develop progressive new small business policy into the future.
After 21 years with the SBDC, including 11 at its helm, Mr Etrelezis was regarded as one of the great survivors of the public services, having worked with governments across the political spectrum.
Some have doubts over the timing of his departure, not long after Norm Marlborough joined Premier Alan Carpenter’s cabinet as small business minister, a position he held for less than a year before quitting his ministerial position and parliament amid a recent Corruption and Crime Commission investigation.
But Mr Etrelezis refuses to discuss the matter. It may well be that he is bound by confidentiality clauses in his redundancy package, something that is increasingly common these days – especially with so many top bureaucrats leaving amid controversy.
In responding to questions on the matter from the Liberals’ Katie Hodson-Thomas in state parliament, Mr Marlborough indicated only that Mr Etrelezis’ time had come.
“The state government provides the option of contracts for specified periods of time for its senior executives,” Mr Marlborough is reported to have said in Hansard.
“Such arrangements allow for regular changes in personnel and can foster new innovation, creativity, fresh ideas and best business practice.”
Rather than discussing his departure, however, Mr Etrelezis preferred to look to the future and the economic imperative of continued development of small business policy.
“We know it is the engine room that big business can’t work without,” Mr Etrelezis told WA Business News in his first media interview since leaving the SBDC. “If your small business sector is strong then it’s hard to have things go wrong in your economy.”
To maintain the strength of the small business sector, Mr Etrelezis had a number of suggestions he believed were worthy of being incorporated into future government policy.
• Enhance small business management skills.
• Develop specialist dispute resolution mechanisms.
• Focus on red tape reduction.
• Local content, local purchasing.
• Anti-trust/anti-monopoly.
• Neutralise taxes and charges.
In terms of enhanced small business management skills, Mr Etelezis believes the survival of small businesses depends on management skills, with many operators in the sector lacking basics that would help grow, develop and ultimately prosper.
He cites the Australian Institute of Management as an example of what is needed for small business.
“It should be like AIM but targeting more flexibility in training and more bite-sized chunks,” he said.
Mr Etrelezis said such an institution would need to fit in with the needs of small business, offering online training, classes on weekends and just-in-time courses that delivered speciality needs when the business needed them.
Hot topics for small business – such as attracting and retaining staff – must be covered as they emerge.
Mr Etrelezis said the Department of Education and Training had committed to an institute of small business training, going so far as allocating a $500,000 budget.
“That is a good start, we need the accent on small business management skills,” he said.
He added that education about small business had to start at school.
“It was always my ambition to get year 11 and 12s, before they left high school, to understand a profit and loss and a balance sheet,” Mr Etrelezis said.
“When they left school and started working they’d understand what they were working for.”
Mr Etrelezis said the small business sector needed something beyond the courts in terms of adequate dispute resolution mechanisms.
Currently, he said, costs were often prohibitive, and bodies that did exist, such as the Small Claims Tribunal, were not sufficiently focused on the sector.
“There is a lot of opportunity cost and, because there are two businesses involved, it means two business are dealing with it,” he said.
A government-established mediator would be an answer.
Mr Etrelezis’s own experience highlights the issue, when complainants seeking redress from the Department of Consumer Protection would often be sent to the SBDC.
“We did not have the resources to deal with it,” he said.
Reducing red tape could also have a significant cost effect on small business, Mr Etrelezis said, and every government agency could look at its practices to see how it could reduce its impact on small business. Do, for instance, licences have to be renewed annually, he asked, why not every five years?
On the issue of buying locally, Mr Etrelezis said governments at state and regional levels often didn’t think of the multiplier effect of local purchasing, including taxes or how much smaller local players could benefit from a long lead time in tendering for a contract.
The problem is not just what governments do but also what big companies do.
“Mining companies will say 60 per cent of their buying is local but the dinkum stuff isn’t,” he said.
Mr Etrelezis also holds firm views on the domination of business by major players, and the questions that raises for the introduction of strong anti-trust/anti-monopoly legislation.
“You have to have fair trading at a level small business can compete.”
Another area ripe for change, he said, was taxes and charges.
He believes there is room to find a better balance between what business pays and what other consumers of government services – be it energy, water or various licensing fees – pay in taxes and charges.
“Why should people pay more to drive a business car,” Mr Etrelezis told WA Business News.