Victorian small businesses are divided when asked about how the State Government has handled the Covid-19 response.
The survey, conducted over the past three days by data insights platform Glow on behalf of Sensis and involving 400 small to medium business owners, found 22% said the Government’s handling was very bad and 20% said it was very good. More than one in four (29%) said its performance was Good, 15% neither good or bad and 14% said it was bad.
Some sectors were more critical with 39% of those in the Culture and Recreation sector saying the handling was Very Bad, 36% in the Property and Services sector, 32% in Finance and 30% in Transport. Retail (11%) and Hospitality (14%) were the least critical.
Sensis CEO John Allan said he was surprised by the responses considering the vitriol from some industry groups which followed Premier Dan Andrews’ plan to extend the Stage 4 lockdown for at least another two weeks.
“There was definitely less anger from businesses than we saw from some industry groups and even when asked whether Stage 4 restrictions should have been lifted on September 13 as scheduled, 52.2% said Yes and 47.8% said No. Again, that was pretty surprising,” Mr Allan said.
“There were varying opinions across the sectors with Property and Services at 68%, Finance at 68%, Manufacturing at 63% and Construction at 61% saying Yes the restrictions should have been lifted.
“Surprisingly in the Retail sector more businesses (56%) said the restrictions should not have been lifted and 46% in Hospitality.
“Through Yellow we manage the marketing of over tens of thousands of small businesses. We conducted the research to find out what Victorians were really thinking. I think this shows they are very resilient and are willing to push through. This is something we are also seeing from our customers.
“Having said that we also asked about how difficult it will be for their business to survive given the new roadmap and more than one in four (26%) said it would be Extremely Difficult and 46% said it would be Fairly Difficult and nearly one-third (28%) said it would have no impact.
“There was a big difference between Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria with 43% of businesses in Regional Victoria saying no impact compared to 25% in Metropolitan Melbourne.”
There were some worrying signs with 18% of businesses saying they did not think they would have a business in 12 months. Some sectors were more pessimistic with 28% of Construction businesses saying they wouldn’t be around in 12 months, 25% in hospitality and 23% of those in Finance. Those most optimistic were Health at 4% and Property and Services at 5%. Nearly one in four (19%) in Retail believe they won’t have a business in 12 months.
When asked how long once restrictions are lifted will it take their business to be profitable, 3% said they would never recover, 62% said between one and six months, 18% 12 months and 16% more than a year.
Nearly one in four (19%) of Melbourne Metropolitan businesses said it would take more than a year to return to profitability compared to just 4% of Regional Victorian businesses. The Construction sector says it will recover quickest with 26% saying it would take just one month compared to 11% in Hospitality. 11% of those in the Culture and Recreation sector said they would never recover.
When asked about their main focus once lockdown is over, their focus was on winning new customers (23% of businesses) and persuading previous customers to return (20%).
There was also a focus on staff with 17% saying their biggest issue would be getting staff back to work and 17% said balancing working from home and in the office.
Release Ends
About the survey
- Conducted by Glow research from Monday, September 7 to Wednesday September 9 2020.
- 83% of businesses were in greater metropolitan Melbourne and 17% in regional Victoria.
- Businesses fell into 10 categories with retail the greatest number of respondents with 21%.
- 32% of businesses survey had more than 100 employees and 14% were sole traders.
- 33% had been in business more than 10 years, 29% between 5 and 10 years and 24% from 2 years to 5 years.
