SMEs call for cuts to paperwork and more support post-pandemic

National Australia Bank has warned in its Backing Australian Small Businesses report that boosting SMEs is key to speeding up the nation’s recovery post-pandemic.

Renee Baltou, owner of The Barberhood - barber shop in Martin Place in Sydney. Britta Campion / The Australian

National Australia Bank has warned in its Backing Australian Small Businesses report that boosting SMEs is key to speeding up the nation’s recovery post-pandemic.

Small and medium enterprises are doing it tough, with the burden of everyday paperwork coming on top of the hammer blow from the coronavirus downturn.

NAB chief executive Ross McEwan said the coronavirus pandemic was “falling very heavily on SMEs” and large businesses and governments could lead the way by levelling the playing field.

“When we do emerge, how can we make this a good environment for business,” he said.

“If we could get those small businesses employing just one more person as we came out of COVID-19, this economy would fire up pretty quickly.”

NAB’s report finds NSW and Queensland were overall the best states for small business policy.

But NSW ranked among the lowest for running a business overall. NSW was highlighted as the best place to start or grow a business, but ranked lowest in the nation for access to skills and transport.

The owner of Sydney barbershop chain Barberhood, Renee Baltov, said she had put her plans to open a third shopfront in the CBD on hold after the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

But she said any help from government would be welcome so she could continue to grow the business she built from the ground up only five years ago.

“I had always planned for business growth, not the typical way of how these businesses run,” she said. “There isn’t anyone you can go to, to help you navigate difficulties. It would be great if there was more assistance.”

Ms Baltov added that there were changes that had been made by the council and state governments in recognition of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as prioritising paperwork approvals, that should be preserved once the pandemic was over.

She said this was illustrated by a four-week delay and a $300 fee from the City of Sydney after she misstated her barbershop’s address as 5A instead of 5 Martin Place.

“For someone like me with two very small children, the more time saved the better off I am,” she said.

Ms Baltov said access to skilled barbers was key to growing her business and moves from the government to remove barbering from the skilled visa list would greatly affect her business.

“My workforce is 50 per cent overseas employees — there’s a huge shortage of barbers in Australia,” she said.

“If we lose these visas from the short-term list, we won’t have enough barbers.”

She said payroll tax relief and simplification of reporting would give her a chance to focus on the things that mattered. “All I have been doing for the past three months is paperwork. Speed helps with saving time and time is money,” she said.

“Tax is so hard to navigate. I pay a payroll company because it’s very hard to navigate.”

Ms Baltov said she was concerned that the complexity of rules around pay, tax and regulation meant small business owners could be punished for honest mistakes.

“Sometimes really hard-working people are penalised for not understanding and are slapped with fines,” she said.