Credit Management
Top of mind for SMEs in 2021:
paying down debt and finding new ways to fund business Small businesses have signalled they’ll be looking for different ways to fund their businesses in 2021. This, and other insights that should be on the radar of credit managers, from the latest ScotPac SME Growth Index. By Jon Sutton*
Jon Sutton
Small businesses have named paying down debt as their top priority for 2021 and have flagged building on their 2020 efforts to find new ways to fund their businesses. These are two key findings in the latest ScotPac SME Growth Index. It has been a very challenging year for the small business sector: efforts to prevent the spread of COVID19 created hard internal borders, temporarily devastated certain industries and led to a government stimulus package of unprecedented size and scope. Conditions were so challenging that at the time of the research (September and October 2020) one in three small businesses indicated
they may sell or close if conditions don’t significantly improve. Since 2014, ScotPac has engaged East & Partners to undertake SME Growth Index research twice a year, interviewing more than 1200 small businesses in the $1-20m turnover range (a representative sample of metropolitan and regional businesses across all mainland states and major industries). Given many of the federal stimulus measures which helped prop up the national economy were designed around businesses taking on more debt, it’s worth looking at the SME debt landscape. The November 2020 Index records rising angst amongst small ➤
“Given many of the federal stimulus measures which helped prop up the national economy were designed around businesses taking on more debt, it’s worth looking at the SME debt landscape.”
January 2021 • CREDIT MANAGEMENT IN AUSTRALIA
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