Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce releases Business Sentiment Index report by McCrindle

For the first time, the community now has an idea of how Toowoomba businesses feel about the current economy and what can be made better. Check out the results here.

Revealing the launch of the Toowoomba Business Sentiment Index report at Clifford Park are (from left) Chamber of Commerce vice-president Chris Black and leading demographer and social commentator Mark McCrindle.

Toowoomba small business owners are mostly optimistic about the future of the local economy, but share concerns about government red tape and staffing costs.

Those were some of the key findings from the first real litmus test of owners and managers across the region — the Toowoomba Business Sentiment Index.

The extensive survey and report, completed by demographer Mark McCrindle on behalf of the Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce, compiled results from more than 132 heads of businesses, ranging from sole traders right up to companies with more than 200 employees.

The vast majority of respondents (75 per cent) had less than 20 employees, while most worked in either professional, scientific and technical services, finance and insurance, health care or accommodation and hospitality.

This contrasts with the top industries across the region currently, with agriculture, construction, and real estate all dominant, although it is understood the survey was weighted to factor that in.

Mr McCrindle’s work found businesses had neutral outlooks on current operating conditions and performance, but were moderately positive about economic outlook and growth forecasts.

Speaking at the presentation at Clifford Park on Thursday, Mr McCrindle said the cost of labour would remain a struggle for most local businesses, particularly small operators with some employees.

“Overall, the report is showing the sentiment is fairly positive to the future, performance being fairly good, there are some key areas where businesses are looking for a bit more support, particularly around red tape,” he said.

“Probably the biggest challenges businesses face here at the moment are managing costs, particularly staffing costs and the cost of doing business.

“Notwithstanding, they’re still expecting to grow and to employ more people in the year ahead, and they’re optimistic that their businesses will grow over the next 12 months.

“Small businesses are the most vulnerable to the costs, they can’t bear those costs as much and that’s where we saw a challenging response there, whereas medium and large businesses have a bit more resilience.”

Mr McCrindle said he praised Toowoomba’s business community for its size and scope, saying this made the economy more suited to cope with market instability.

But he said there was a significant difference in sentiment between businesses who mainly sold to other operators (B2B) and businesses who dealt with consumers (B2C).

“The B2B businesses were going pretty well, whereas the B2C organisations were struggling a bit, as the households are starting to tighten their belts,” Mr McCrindle said.

“When you’ve got a good business hub, the B2B ecosystem tends to function quite well, and that’s what we’re having here.

“It’s also a well-networked business community and that’s why those B2B organisations tended to have a fairly good sentiment.”

Revealing the launch of the Toowoomba Business Sentiment Index report at Clifford Park are (from left) TSBE CEO Ali Davenport, Chamber of Commerce vice-president Chris Black and leading demographer and social commentator Mark McCrindle.

Mr McCrindle said businesses indicated they wanted more support from local and state governments, in the form of red tape reduction.

The survey also revealed strong support for the chamber, which was a delight for vice-president Chris Black.

“We were looking for some quantitative and qualitative data to help us make some good strategic decisions for the next 12 months and we engaged Mark and his team to put that together,” he said.

“It’s a really important step to identify why Toowoomba businesses are successful and what’s attracting new businesses.

“The top five reasons businesses come to Toowoomba are linked to housing.”