New index to keep monthly eye on how small businesses fareAustralia has more than 2 million small businesses, and a new index has been launched looking at how those businesses are faring.Developed with support from the global accounting firm KPMG Enterprise and using aggregated data, Xero Small Business Insights now plans a monthly report.
The report will provide a monthly picture across five major areas: cashflow, payments, employment, trading overseas and cloud adoption.
It is based on anonymised and aggregated data from half a million Australian subscribers, using the accounting app Xero rather than information from traditional survey methods.
Demographer and KPMG special adviser Bernard Salt says the first report reveals some interesting insights.
Two-thirds of small businesses are sole traders, and a further 25 per cent employ between one and four people.
About 10 per cent, or 200,000 small businesses, employ between four and 19 people.
The Xero report shows a slight increase in the number of people employed in small business, a jump of 1.3 per cent month-on-month in June.
Indian Australian Auto repair shop owner Alpesh Patel says first year is most testing for any small business.
