Here at Taskmaster Enterprises we get intelligence from all sorts of places, but a nice chunky survey is something I always love to sink my teeth into.
The Private Business Barometer, which surveys businesses between $10 million and $100 million in revenue, is such a report, although of course my own business towers over many of these respondents.
The businesses on the report have posted growth of 6% in revenue and 7% in profit in the last 12 months – not great, but reasonable in what remains patchy conditions.
One snippet I picked up from the commentary around the report was around pricing, which is a major challenge for the companies involved. Basically, they are being forced to discount for a number of reasons, including poor consumers sales and completion from cheap imports.
But another reason is stock – they’ve got too much of it. Either because their sales have been lower than expected, or because they bought up big on the strength of the US dollar.
Too much stock can be a killer for a start-up. It ties up working capital and effectively weighs down your business. You don’t have funds to use for other opportunities and you’ve got a pay to store the stuff.
Be very careful with stock right now. Do some planning and analysis and take a conservative approach.
Get it done – today!
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