SMEs would like to spend more time on growth, but bogged down by administrative tasks: Survey

Everyday important administrative tasks are overwhelming SMEs who would like to spend more time looking at growth opportunities, a survey has found.

The Commonwealth Bank Better Business Survey, of 469 financial decision-makers in businesses with an annual turnover of less than $10 million, has found 73% of SMEs would like to spend more time looking for business growth opportunities.

But the most time-consuming tasks for the SMEs were inventory management (49%), supplier management (48%) and staff management (47%).

Lex Thornton, manager in CommBank’s Local Business Banking team, says while the top three tasks are obviously important, they are overshadowing the opportunity for SMEs to focus on growth.

“Everyone can work smarter, not harder,” Thornton says.

“The survey tells us that if SMEs are spending time on these things, they’ve obviously important, but they also want to spend more time on higher-value opportunities.”

While describing the results as unsurprising, Thorton says it demonstrates the importance of time management, speaking to accountants and business advisers over streamlining, and networking to see how other businesses are achieving success.

Improving productivity is key, he says.

Matt Comyn, executive general manager at CommBank, says the survey showed an increase in the number of small businesses looking to spend more time on growth opportunities.

Forty-one percent of respondents ranked growth as one of the top three activities that they spend time on, with 16% ranking it number one overall.

Comyn says anything more than 10% saying their primary focus is bringing in new sales is significant.

The survey also found that a quarter of time-poor SMEs were spending more than 10 hours per week on business – a result the bank acknowledges as too high.