Mark Bouris: ‘We need to take a big step to help small business’

It is a big risk to go into business today. Most small business owners barely pay themselves a wage, let alone put money aside for their super. More needs to be done to help small businesses continue to contribute to the economy, Mark Bouris writes.

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With the sharemarket performing at record highs — and savings accounts operating at record lows — superannuation finds itself at the top of the agenda for our politicians.

Some of them want to abandon plans to raise compulsory employer contributions to 12 per cent by 2025, while others want to make any superannuation voluntary for low-income earners.

And, as that debate continues to rage, most of Australia’s 2.1 million small business owners are thinking: “Who bloody cares?”

Small business owners deserve a fair go, Mark Bouris writes. Picture: iStock

Most small-business owners — and I meet plenty through my Mentor program — barely pay themselves a wage, let alone put money aside for their super. For them, the conversation about superannuation is irrelevant.

When you’re working 90 hours a week, it’s hard to focus on anything more than putting one foot in front of the other. But while they might be ignoring government chatter, our government can’t afford to ignore them any longer.

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Small businesses are huge contributors to the economy. As of June 2017, there were 4.8 million people employed by small businesses, about half of the country’s total workforce.

While most small business owners take some comfort in the idea that they’ll have an asset to sell when they’re ready to retire, plenty of them simply won’t make it that far.

In fact, some 55,000 went bust in 2018 alone — and that number is increasing.

So what happens to those people, most of whom are left with debt and not a dollar in a super account? Rightly, we as a nation take care of them through social policy. But surely we should help before it gets to that point?

It is a tremendous risk to go into business today. Add to that the pressure of collecting GST for the government and the corporate behemoths that are waiting to out-spend you, out-market you or simply out-muscle you and you’re left wondering why anyone would do it.

Yellow Brick Road executive chairman Mark Bouris fights for the rights of small business owners. Picture: Hollie Adams

Now, I’m not suggesting the government fund small business superannuation or anything like that, but it is time we as a nation directed our fiscal policy at the very people who keep the economy ticking along. And support for something this important needs to be bipartisan and permanent.

Reducing the company tax rates is a start but an equally important step is to introduce long-lasting policy business owners can rely on.

Take the $30,000 instant asset write-off, for example. As it stands right now, that policy — a lifeline for many small businesses — is in place until June 30, 2020.

Businesses need to be able to plan for more than 12 months at a time, so let’s make that policy permanent, and let’s do it now.

And it’s not just government. We all have a role to play in keeping small businesses strong. If we don’t look after the two million small businesses, we will risk killing those businesses.

* Mark Bouris, chairman of Yellow Brick Road, is one of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs. He writes a column for The Sunday Telegraph, sharing his extensive business skills and answer your questions about doing good business.