More than one quarter (28%) of Sydney and Melbourne SMEs have not been impacted by the lockdowns at all, while 53% say they will focus on bouncing back when restrictions ease, according to a new survey commissioned by Corporate Traveller Australia.
Among the SMEs that have been impacted but will bounce back after the lockdowns, most will focus on growing their sales, scaling their customer offering and recovering their internal resources to handle new sales. Specifically, 42% of those surveyed say they will put more of their time, budget and resources into new customer sales, marketing, or changing their sales model.
One-fifth (20%) will mostly focus on changing or growing their product or service offering, while 19% will focus on bringing resources back into the business, such as ‘stood-down’ employees.
It appears that only a small proportion of Sydney and Melbourne SMEs will focus on downsizing to help propel recovery. Just 10% said they will focus on reducing business costs, downsizing and/or improving supplier arrangements.
Employee strategies are not on the top of the priority list either, with just 9% admitting they will mostly focus on changing their employee-working model and/or improving company culture and morale.
According to Corporate Traveller Australia general manager, Tom Walley, it’s promising to see that SMEs across Australia’s two major states, which have been hit hard by lockdowns and restrictions, will proactively build their businesses back up after lockdown.
“SMEs are the backbone of our economy and a renewed focus on thriving rather than surviving will be important in driving the country’s economic recovery,” he said.
“A promising number of businesses are doing well during the current lockdowns, which suggests they have applied lessons learnt through COVID, and have found ways to strengthen the business in preparation for challenging periods.”