Speaking Sensis

In business it is important to look forward, but it is also important to stop sometimes and look back.

One year ago, the Sensis® Business Index recorded the lowest level of confidence among Australia’s small and medium businesses since the survey began in 1993.  Confidence at height of the downturn fell to 12 per cent net balance in the first quarter to 2009.  This quarter, one year on, we measured confidence at 49 per cent.

And you can see from the chart it has been a pretty volatile couple of years in the business world.  And while confidence has improved, it suffered in the past quarter – such is the complexity of economic recovery. 

When global economies headed downhill, governments went into action with stimulus packages to keep things ticking over. The prescription that governments and central banks followed worked to a large extent.

While I could make a comment here about roof insulation, it is probably best to just say that the Australian economy made it through without a recession, technical or otherwise. Let’s just leave it at that…

The interesting thing is that the prescription for the GFC was pretty well known, but what was not well-known was what to do “next”.  As an economy we are now at this “next” stage and Australia’s small and medium businesses are saying that they are still facing problems of economic downturn, such as falling sales and lower demand.

But at the same time they are having to concurrently deal with the “problems” of growth, such as trying to find staff for their businesses and trying to get finance to grow their businesses.

Managing the recovery is as complex, if not more so, than managing the downturn. But it is still important to look back to where we were a year ago and what we have achieved since then.

And after you look back, it is also important to remember to start looking forward again. I’d be keen to hear about what you see on the horizon…