After another challenging trading year, New Zealand’s SME owners have entered 2024 with a distinct balance of personal and professional priorities in mind.
According to MYOB’s recent SME Snapshot – a survey of over 500 local SME owners and operators nationwide – the top goal in 2024 for those leading New Zealand’s SMEs is improving work/life balance (35 percent), followed by investing in the growth of their business (29 percent) and taking a holiday (24 percent).
MYOB General Manager SME, Emma Fawcett, says it’s encouraging to see more local business owners eager to prioritise their wellbeing as they enter a new year.
“When we reflect on the challenges of the last few years and the persistent economic headwinds of the last 12-24 months, SME owners have had to deal with it all – while still keeping the lights on and the team paid,” explains Emma.
“While there are many rewards, I don’t think it can be overstated how tough running your own business can be. This is why it’s so heartening to see more business owners paying attention to their own well-being and focusing on finding more time for themselves. It’s incredibly important – for avoiding burnout, improving their mental health, and for ensuring they’re feeling refreshed and in the right mindset to support their teams and make the right calls for their business when it counts.”
For many local SMEs, the busy holiday season meant more rather than less work, as they sought to maximise one of the most important trading periods of the year. Heading into the Christmas/New Year season for 2023/24, a quarter of the SME operators surveyed said they wouldn’t be taking any time off.
Underscoring the pressure SME owners and operators have been under, MYOB’s insights also revealed that for one-in-five SME operators polled, it has been a year or more since they last had a break longer than three days from their business, and a further eight percent couldn’t recall the last time they took a holiday.
“With our insights showing increased optimism from SMEs around New Zealand’s economic performance in 2024, it is no surprise that local business owners are looking forward to some respite. For some, this means taking the time to prioritise a better balance between work and wellbeing – taking a much-needed break. For others, it means seizing the opportunity provided by any potential improvement in trading conditions to fuel the growth of their business,” says Emma.
“For those looking to grow their business in 2024, success here will rely on opportunities to work smarter, rather than harder – using the tools available to increase productivity, reduce time-consuming manual admin and the ability to prioritise actions that really contribute to the development of their business.
“Finding these efficiencies could be the key to a very happy and positive year ahead.”
Courtesy NZBusiness (nzbusiness.co.nz)
