back to article No, Australian Small business AREN'T flunking out online

The Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday released new data on “Business Use of Information Technology” and I expect that any moment now it will be seized upon as evidence the nation's businesses are technology laggards. That's not the best interpretation of the data. Let's explore why. The numbers that will most excite …

  1. LaeMing

    Yes.

    We only usually hear about the whiners as they are the ones making the noise, while everyone else quietly gets on with getting stuff done.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A simple explanation

    Technology, when it works, is practically invisible. It gets taken for granted and is just there in the background.

    It's only when we get problems with it that it is noticed by people.

  3. Diogenes

    One(or both) of two even simpler explanations

    1. The Information Technology sector already uses information technology (doh!) therefore analysis would lead to the award of an IgNoble Prize

    2. The information technology sector is not expected to grow

  4. Esskay

    5 Areas for IT Growth

    It's interesting that the 5 areas "that present opportunities for future growth" (ie aren't using IT as much as they should) are the ones that tend to be dominated by large companies or multinationals - it seems it's the big guys with large market share/little competition dragging their feet.

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: 5 Areas for IT Growth

      Meh, they're basically all the sectors that have money to burn. That's not the result of patient meticulous cost-benefit analysis, that's a list of rich sectors that the government is hoping to touch to stimulate the economy.

      Australia's high-tech industry? is frankly negligible. Heck, New Zealand has more global players than Australia.

  5. Tannin

    Plain sense

    How sad that this article, which really only contains obvious plain sense applied to some recently-released statistics, must be rated as excellent. It is indeed an excellent summary by the standards of much else written on topics of this nature. Of course many (perhaps most) small organisations regard most of what happens on the Internet as nothing more than a time-consuming distraction from the core activities of doing business. Small business people - the ones who are successful enough to stay in business for any length of time tend to focus firmly, even ruthlessly, on the fundamentals of delivering their product.

    If you are not involved in small business, you might be quite surprised to discover how little effort many concerns put into spruiking themselves (on the Internet or anywhere else). Very often, management is instead clearly focussed on actually dealing with the job in front of them - fulfilling the Johnson order, calling Smith back to make sure that last week's little problem has been properly sorted, deciding how many so-and-so parts to order this week, and the like. Fulfillment of existing orders at a profit and to the customer's satisfaction - as any competent small businessman knows - is the be all and end all of success. Get that right, and you will always have plenty of customers. Unless your business happens to be Internet-based in its nature (selling stuff on-line for example) the more time and energy you waste on updating your Facebook page when you have real work waiting for your attention, the less successful you are. If you have to spend a lot of time and energy on web pages and social media, either your business is one of the minority where this stuff actually matters, or else you aren't doing it right, which is why you need to keep on drawing in new customers because the ones who have bought from you in the past are going elsewhere.

  6. aaaa

    Rubbish

    Absolute rubbish. All of it. The stats and the article. My reasons?

    1. I run an australian business and was not surveyed, so I've no idea where these stats are from

    2. I always look at a trades 'past work' on their web site before proceeding, a tradie without a web site is a subie

    3. Aggregation sites are useless always - you are just one of thousands, may as well sign up for yellow pages…

    4. australia is a highly competitive business environment, to be successful here and not take sales via the web is just to miss out on easy money

    1. Tannin

      Re: Rubbish

      I largely agree about aggregation sites, aaaa, they are a bit of a scam as a rule. They do however serve a useful purpose for many, many businesses. My local car mechanic is a perfect example. He needs his customers to be able to find him with a simple search, and the aggregation site he is listed on is perfectly sufficient for that task. Yep, a small standalone site would be a little better (and I have offered to build one for him), but in his view not enough better to be worth the trouble and expense. If you want to find his number to book your car in for a service - and that's pretty much all you ever want to do bar maybe find out what his trading hours are - the aggregation site does the job.

      Many, probably most, small businesses are constrained not by lack of customers - if you are any good you'll most likely have plenty of customers already - but by other factors. Sticking to the same example of the chap who services my car, he already works five and a half days a week and has zero interest in working Sundays. He already has four or five other mechanics on staff and three hoists and no room for more short of the vast expense of buying a larger site and building a whole new workshop on it. He has no intention of doing that 'coz he's not stupid. What would be the point of him getting a fancy new website to attract more customers? He's already got all the work he needs or wants, he'd just have to spend longer answering the telephone and telling people he's booked up this week, please call someone else.

      This example is replicated across thousands upon thousands of small businesses across the country. Getting more customers in for many ( probably most) small businesses is simply not an issue. There are other constraints, such as space, capital equipment, availability of suitably skilled staff with the right qualities, and above all, time. Most small business people already work 50 hour weeks. Who the hell wants to have to work even longer hours? Or take on extra staff beyond a comfortable number and as a consequence incur nasty adminisatrative overheads such as (but by no means limited to) significantly more onerous Work Cover and insurance requirements and ever-bigger rake-offs for bloodsuckers like accountants?

      For every business, there is a right size which provides the best balance between turnover, profit, long-term sustainability, and work-life mix. Mindlessly expanding beyond that size is usually the first big mistake small business owners make. The successful ones, the ones who stay in it for the long haul, usually learn from it and adjust their business model appropriately.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Article about Australia.

    Picture of a kebab shop in London. Specifically 63 The Cut Lambeth, London SE1 8LL, UK.

    Lazy.

  8. Chris 155

    The "growth" areas are chosen by our illustrious prime minister.

    With the exception of medical research nothing that is remotely forward thinking is allowed onto this list. If it wasn't a career option for Tony's father then it shouldn't be a career option for Tony's as yet unborn grandchildren.

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