Factors Affecting Small Business In Australia: An In-Depth Analysis

The Significance of Small Business in Australia

Question:

Write an essay on "Key Factors in Success and Failure of Small Businesses in Australia".
 

A small business defines a business that has less than 20 employees in a non-manufacturing industry. The significance of small business is extremely high regardless on the economy. Over the years, small business has played a critical role in the society and economy development. Australia also is not an exception, as it has been an instrumental for the Australian society development. However, as the competition is increasing in the market, small businesses are facing lot of challenges in order to survive in the market successfully. Especially in Australia, this has emerged as a major issue of the economy as many small businesses have to shut down due to extremely competition in the market. Therefore, the study will focus on the key factors that have the potential to affect a small business. In this study, an in-depth analysis will be conducted so that it can able to provide recommendation on how the key factors can be managed so that small business can able to maintain its sustainability in the market.

The prime aim of the research is to identify the major factors related to small business in Australia in order to recommend the best possible way for handling the issue.

The objectives of research are as follows:

• To identify the prime factors that can have positive impact on the small businesses in Australia.
• To identify the factors that can have major adverse impact on the sustainability of small businesses in Australia
• To evaluate the kind of impact small business can have on the Australian economy
• To identify the best possible way for handling small businesses in Australia

Background of the study:

Introduction:

As per the article by Kotey (2016), small businesses are one of the prime determinate to both local and national economies. Since, it has the potential to provide employment opportunity for the public community. The article also highlighted that small businesses are often found to adjust quickly at the time of economic downfall. Bloch & Bhattacharya (2016) mentioned that small business are mostly customer centric and do not really depends on large businesses and political sources to gain sufficient amount of revenue level. Even on the economic downfall, customers still purchases products and services from the small business. As a result, it helps the small businesses to remain afloat in tough times that will lead to have an immense impact on the economies of the local community.

According to Kotey & Sorensen (2014), small business also plays a key role in helping the larger business. As it has the potential to assists, larger companies in the areas that they are might not have specialization. Therefore, the study highlighted that small business plays a key role in overall business development of the society. On the other hand, Hatten (2015) mentioned that small businesses and large businesses also have a great partnership. Since, growth in the small business can able to provide large business innovative ideas about the product and services especially for the niche market. In addition, employment in the small business allows people to gain knowledge and skills relating to any particular skill that eventually helps the economy to grow as a whole. 

As per the article by Stubbs (2014) factors affecting small business can be categorized into two groups namely internal factors and external factors. The article highlighted that internal factors of small business includes motivation level of the employees towards the work. The article mentioned that, employee motivation is a key for the success of the business. Since, small businesses run with very limited number of employees. It is very important for the small business that they give their best at the workplace so that the small business can able to remain competitive in the market. On the other hand, external factors of small business include the competition in the market. The article highlighted that evolution of e-commerce has also made it very tuff for the small businesses to survive in the market. As e-commerce allows large businesses to enter in the all the community of the economy, small businesses are finding it very tuff to cope up with the market challenges (Holmes & Gupta, 2015). As a result, many small businesses have failed to survive in the market. Furthermore, technological evaluation has influenced organizations to invent new products and services on a regular basis. This leads to high quality and cheaper substitute product of a small business. On the other hand, small business generally does not have alternative business options. Therefore, it had to face immense challenges in order to remain competitive in the market.

Key Factors Affecting Small Business

As per the article by Longenecker et al. (2013), small business has the capacity to create a huge amount of positive impact on any economy. However, it does require few helps from the government at the initial stage of the business. In fact, the article mentioned that government has to be very careful regarding the kind of support they are providing to the success of the small business. Geljic, Koustas & Burke (2016) mentioned that the prime objective of government intervention is to provide relevant business information to the small business and also have to facilitate access to avenues so that small business can able to conduct its business effectively. In addition, it has often found that small businesses have limited resource, time and financial capacity to conduct their operations. Therefore, they often do not consider for expert advice regarding its business processes that eventually create a huge amount of negative impact on the success of the organization. Therefore, it highlighted the importance of government intervention regarding the success of the small business, as it can provide a bridge for the information gap for the small businesses. In addition, the article also mentioned that small business is highly depended on the rules and regulations imposed by the government of a particular economy. Since, it play a major role in deciding the way that the small business will adapt in order to compete with the large scale businesses.  

As per the article by Bean (2015), startup capital is a major factor that can affect the success of a small business. Since, lack of funds can influence small businesses to borrow excessively. As a result, the small businesses become insolvent, as the liabilities are become higher than their present level of asset. Connolly, La Cava & Read (2015) mentioned that the role of financial institutions is to provide the flow of funds from surplus spending units of individual to the units of deficit spending. It is also called as a money market. The article mentioned that the money market reaches its equilibrium where demand and supply for money are equals. The article also highlighted that for small businesses, money plays a key role, as it allows firms to acquire additional capital from the capital market so that it can able to maximize its return.

From the above discussion, it can be asses that several factors have the potential to create adverse impact on the path of small businesses. It also highlighted that the challenges can be both internal and external. The above discussion also mentioned that government also has key role in the development of small businesses. Therefore, the focus of the study will be to identify all the prime factors that are affecting the small businesses of Australia. Since, many articles have reviewed that small businesses have to face greater number of challenges in Australia. The study will focus on analyzing all the factors in such a way so that it can able to suggest some recommendations on the development of small businesses in Australian economy.

Government Intervention in Small Business

The research questions of the study are as follows:

• What are the prime factors that can create positive impact on the path of small business in Australia?
• Which factors can create negative impact on the sustainability of the small business in Australia?
• What extent small businesses can create positive impact on the Australian economy?
• What is the best possible way to manage all the key factors related to small businesses so that it can have maximum amount of impact on the Australian economy?

According to Flick (2015), research methodology is one of the most important factors for conducting any research study effectively. Research methodology consists of many techniques and tools that help the researcher to evaluate all the factors of the research topic effectively. It also assists the researcher so that the research can able to fulfill the objective of the study. Thus, research methodology selection is a very important part of implementing any research. Firstly, the researcher will consider about the selection of research design. Normally, design of the research divided under three categories exploratory design, explanatory design and descriptive design. In this research topic, the researcher will consider exploratory research design. The researcher will consider implementing exploratory research design as it would assist to explore different perspective of the research study. In addition, exploratory research design assists the researcher to have an in-depth knowledge about the research topic, which eventually will help the study to fulfill all its expectation.

Figure 1: Research design

(Source: Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015)

On the other hand, the topic small business in Australia is extremely vast topic. Therefore, the researcher will consider both qualitative and quantitative research method for the research topic. The researcher will select both qualitative and quantitative research method, as it will help to the researcher to identify the trend of the outcome as well as will provide different perspectives relating to the research topic of small business in Australia. Furthermore, the researcher will select both qualitative and quantitative research method, as it will help the researcher to interpret the gather information in a much more effective way.

Panneerselvam (2014) mentioned that research approach is another significant factor regarding successful completion of any research topic. Research approach has two parts such as inductive and deductive research approach. For the particular study, the research will consider inductive approach so that the research topic can be evaluated in an effective way. Furthermore, inductive research approach will allow the research to utilize many concepts and theories relevant to small business in Australia. The research will also implement inductive research approach so that it can able to gain knowledge about different perspectives of Australian small business. The researcher will implement this approach by including three factors such as pattern, theory and observation. The researcher will perform these factors so that the research study can able to achieve its objective. In addition, another advantage of selecting inductive approach is it will help to develop a data oriented research study. 

Figure 2: Research approach

(Source: Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler, 2014) 

Since, the prime objective of the research study is to identify and analyze different factors that are creating impact on the small businesses in Australia. Therefore, the researcher will follow a systematic process so that the study can able to cover all factors effectively. Furthermore, implementation of systematic procedure will also help the researcher to complete the study within the provided timeframe. In the first step, the researcher will try to identify major areas relating to the small business in Australia. In the second step, the researcher will formulate objectives and aims of the study, as it will assist the researcher to construct primary questions of the study. In the third step, focus will be on the literature review. In this set, the researcher will evaluate different concepts and theories regarding to the small business in Australia. This part is very important for the completion of the research study, as it will assist the researcher to increase the significance of the research study. In fourth step, data collection method will performed by the researcher. The data collection method will provide practicality to the research topic of key factors affecting small businesses in Australia. In fifth step, the research will implement different data analysis techniques so that the study can able to depict the actual factors that are affecting Australian small business. In the final step, the researcher will compile the entire research work in an effective manner so that the research study can able to conclude.  

Startup Capital and Financial Institutions for Small Business

Figure 4: Research process

(Source: Gast & Ledford, 2014)

Data collection:

Neuman & Robson (2012) highlighted that data collection is arguably the most important part of any research study. Since, the success of any study is highly depended on the data collection procedure. Now, small business in Australia is vast topic. Therefore, the research will utilize both primary and secondary data collection method. The research will collect secondary information from different websites, online portals, business magazines, trusted websites and other online sources. On the other hand, the researcher will focus on the primary data collection method so that the study can able to describe the actual situation of Australia regarding the maintenance of small business. The researcher will formulate questionnaires for the primary data collection purpose. The researcher will also include both qualitative and quantitative questions in the questionnaire so that it can able to provide both trend and in-depth information about the Australian small business. The researcher will select 125 personnel from different small size organizations in Australia for primary data collection purpose. The researcher will utilize online communication platform and also face-to-face communication process for the primary data collection purpose.

Figure 5: Data collection method; Source: Tuohy et al., 2013)

For the implementation of data analysis technique, the research will consider to implement sampling method. Generally, sampling method divided into two parts non-probability sampling and probability sampling (Anfara Jr & Mertz, 2014). To analyze different factors related to small business in Australia, the research will implement non-probability technique. Since, it will help the researcher to gather primary data in an effective way. As the researcher is looking to implement quantitative method, it will help to implement different statistical method for the analysis of several factors related to the Australian business. In this research study, the researcher will implement statistical intervention like mode, mean and median to analyze the quantitative information. Furthermore, the researcher will focus on the graphical representation for representing the quantitative data so that the outcome of the study can be understand easily. In addition, as the researcher is also utilizing qualitative data for the evaluation of different factors of small business in Australia. Therefore, the researcher will implement additional statistical intervention method such as regression, correlation and probability distribution for this particular study.      

Figure 6: Sampling method

(Source: Salaberry & Comajoan, 2013)

From the above discussion, it is expected that the researcher will able to cover all the aspects of the Australian small business in an effective way. As the researcher focuses on the literature review portion, it will help to enhance the significance of the study. In addition, literature review portion will also help the researcher to increase the knowledge about Australian small business atmosphere. Furthermore, the systematic procedure will assist the researcher to cover all the factors related to small businesses in Australia. Therefore, it is expected that the researcher will effectively identify all the factors related to the research topic. Therefore, it will also help the researcher collect primary data in an effective way. Again, as the researcher implementing several statistical interventions, it is expected that the study will able to identify the exact factors that are creating positive impact on the Australia small business and also the exact factors that are creating negative impact on the small businesses in Australia.    

As mentioned earlier, the major focus of the research is to evaluate all the factors related to small business in Australia. Therefore, the outcome of study has the potential to improve the present condition of the small businesses in Australia. In addition, it has the potential to contribute regarding the enhancement of the knowledge about the small business practices. Furthermore, the outcome of the research can contribute significantly for the development of the government strategy regarding the protection of the small businesses in Australia.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be observed that small businesses can have major impact on the development of the economy. Therefore, Australia will have to be extremely careful about the management of small businesses. Thus, it highlighted the significance of the study, as it has the potential to identify the major factors related to small businesses. 

Figure 3: Gantt chart

(Source: As created by the author) 
 

References:

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Bean, J. (2015). Big Government and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration. University Press of Kentucky.

Bloch, H., & Bhattacharya, M. (2016). Promotion of Innovation and Job Growth in Smallâ€Âand Mediumâ€ÂSized Enterprises in Australia: Evidence and Policy Issues. Australian Economic Review, 49(2), 192-199.

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Hatten, T. S. (2015). Small business management: Entrepreneurship and beyond. Nelson Education.

Holmes, S., & Gupta, D. (2015). Opening Aladdin's Cave: Unpacking the Factors Impacting on Small Businesses. In RBA Annual Conference Volume. Reserve Bank of Australia.

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Kotey, B., & Sorensen, A. (2014). BARRIERS TO SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION IN RURAL AUSTRALIA. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, 20(3), 405.

Longenecker, J., Petty, J., Palich, L., & Hoy, F. (2013). Small business management. Nelson Education.

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