Opportunities for brokers as NAB report shows SMEs need help with finance above all else
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Opportunities for brokers as NAB report show SMEs need help with finance above all else
Good financial management is more important than strong leadership of productive staff, according to more than 800 small and medium businesses surveyed by NAB.
58% of SMEs said good financial management was key to a successful business, more than any other factor, according to the ‘Moments that Matter’ survey. However, just 19% of SMEs believe they are already “a really good financial manager”, creating an opportunity for commercial brokers to give clients access to funding they might struggle to get from a bank.
“Our SME customers often tell us that a key part of their success is having the right advisors around them, supporting their vision to build a successful and sustainable business,” Leigh O’Neill, executive general manager of direct and small business at NAB told MPA, “accountants, financial brokers, lawyers and bankers play a pivotal role in ensuring a business has the right framework and methodologies in place for robust financial management.”
With 45% of SMEs surveyed by NAB intending to expand their business over the next three years, access to capital has become a pressing concern for business owners. In the last 12 months, 27% of SMEs had invested in new equipment, machinery or premises and many of those business owners may also have used a broker for their home loans.
NAB also surveyed millennial SME owners, who run one in five Australian SMEs. Two-thirds of millennial SME owners intend to expand their business in the next three years and NAB business boss O’Neill said access to capital was just as important to these business owners:
“For those Millennial SMEs who are intending to expand, almost half will be looking to the digital side of their business to make it happen: 44% plan to either start selling online or grow online sales to expand their business over the next three years.”
Despite the popularity of online expansion with millennial-run SMEs, just 54% of SME owners of all ages said the internet had impacted their business.
Good financial management is more important than strong leadership of productive staff, according to more than 800 small and medium businesses surveyed by NAB.
58% of SMEs said good financial management was key to a successful business, more than any other factor, according to the ‘Moments that Matter’ survey. However, just 19% of SMEs believe they are already “a really good financial manager”, creating an opportunity for commercial brokers to give clients access to funding they might struggle to get from a bank.
“Our SME customers often tell us that a key part of their success is having the right advisors around them, supporting their vision to build a successful and sustainable business,” Leigh O’Neill, executive general manager of direct and small business at NAB told MPA, “accountants, financial brokers, lawyers and bankers play a pivotal role in ensuring a business has the right framework and methodologies in place for robust financial management.”
With 45% of SMEs surveyed by NAB intending to expand their business over the next three years, access to capital has become a pressing concern for business owners. In the last 12 months, 27% of SMEs had invested in new equipment, machinery or premises and many of those business owners may also have used a broker for their home loans.
NAB also surveyed millennial SME owners, who run one in five Australian SMEs. Two-thirds of millennial SME owners intend to expand their business in the next three years and NAB business boss O’Neill said access to capital was just as important to these business owners:
“For those Millennial SMEs who are intending to expand, almost half will be looking to the digital side of their business to make it happen: 44% plan to either start selling online or grow online sales to expand their business over the next three years.”
Despite the popularity of online expansion with millennial-run SMEs, just 54% of SME owners of all ages said the internet had impacted their business.
