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The world’s small and medium business owners are struggling to innovate due to competing business priorities and lack of appropriately skilled employees, a global survey said.
The survey, done by Sage, the leader in integrated accounting, payroll and payment systems, was conducted among 2 621 small businesses with less than 100 employees in 11 countries.
It was commissioned as part of a broader campaign by the company to recognise and celebrate the contribution small and medium business owners make to the global economy.
Small companies represent 99 percent of the world’s businesses and have created two-thirds of all new jobs in the UK and US since 2009.
The survey said a third or 32 percent of small business owners has neglected the development of a new business idea, with the problem stemming from lack of time. This is despite the fact that small to medium business owners are working over 40 hours a week.
About 42 percent of small business owners surveyed attributed their long hours to the unavailability of skilled employees. South African entrepreneurs are finding this particularly tough, with 57 percent saying that improved skills within their workforce would help release that necessary time.
The development of new ideas was ranked as the most common area of neglect, with customer contact, staff development and bill payment also on the priority list. In some countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany, entrepreneurs that said they would rather spend time on innovation than on general office administration.
But innovation isn’t the only thing to suffer as a result of time-poor entrepreneurs. Over a third (38 percent) of those surveyed say that time pressures result in losing customers and clients.
In South Africa, nearly half (49 percent) reported losing customers, a client or a new business opportunity at least once because they were too stretched to service the business.
However, small business owners are open to solutions to help them devote more time to innovation. As well as improving skills amongst employees, better administrative processes and technology were highlighted (by 51 percent of respondents) as useful in releasing more time. Brazilians rank this much higher, with 69 percent saying this would help.
Mr Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Sage commented: “Small businesses around the world are the true heroes of the global economy and we need to support them in helping them find the time to develop and grow. When so many businesses create a dream business from a great idea, it’s heart-breaking to see business owners forced to let that innovation fall by the wayside. We know how hard they work, and we want to help entrepreneurs carve out some time to keep their innovative spark alive.”
Ivan Epstein, president of Sage International added: “Small business owners around the world say they often neglect developing new ideas and products because they have limited time to innovate.
“We see the same challenge throughout Africa, where there are many hardworking and creative entrepreneurs who just don’t have the time to explore and execute on their new ideas.
“And that is in spite of entrepreneurs sacrificing their evenings, weekends and holidays to keep their businesses running. Stifling businesses with administrative processes and red tape discourages them from thinking big and starves the Innovation Economy.
“It is, as such, encouraging to see many African governments striving to make it easier to do business in their countries.”
Online Reporter