Western Australian small business owners are generally not a happy bunch when it comes to the performance of the state government, according to the latest MYOB Australian Small Business Survey released today.
Western Australian small business owners are generally not a happy bunch when it comes to the performance of the state government, according to the latest MYOB Australian Small Business Survey released today.
The quarterly MYOB Australian Small Business Survey consulted almost 2,000 small business proprietors around Australia, between October and November 2007, on subjects ranging from state government performance to lifestyle changes and business outlook.
45 per cent of Western Australians ranked the WA state government's contribution to the small business sector as very poor, while 31 per cent described it as somewhat poor.
Nationally, more than half of small business surveyed believe that state government's performance on small business development was poor.
Among factors negatively affecting small business owners, state government policies rank third after interest rates and general business costs.
Despite negative feelings about the state government, concerns about interest rates, petrol prices and competitive activity, small businesses are predicting a good year in 2008.
67 per cent of WA respondents expect their revenue to increase, compared to 71 per cent in Queensland and 65 per cent in South Australia.
On the employment front, 27 per cent of all small businesses surveyed intend to employ staff within the next 12 months, which is slightly higher than previous quarters (23 per cent in July and 24 per cent in April).
Of all the states, more WA small businesses (32 per cent) planned to hire new employees.
Small business owners were also asked how many hours they worked and to rate how satisfied they were with their overall lifestyles.
When examining the breakdown of working hours by gender, the survey found that 62 per cent of male and 46 per cent of female small business owners are working between 41 and 70 hours a week.
88 per cent of small business owners surveyed worked as a full time employee prior to starting/purchasing their own business.
Of this 88 per cent, about two-fifths (43 per cent) believe that the level of stress in their work has decreased since owning a business.
More than a third (37 per cent) believe that there is more pressure/stress now in their work as a small business owner, when compared with their time as an employee.
MYOB Australia managing director Tim Reed said it was important to not only gain a business insight of small business owners, but to understand how satisfied they were with their lifestyle, hours worked, work-life balance, goal achievements and stress levels.
"This decrease in stress levels could relate to business owners being happier with the actual work they are doing. Forty eight percent of business owners started their own business with the goal 'To do what I like doing/work in the area I am passionate about'," Mr Reed said.
