What keeps business owners awake at night? - NAB survey identifies three major issues - 3 June 2005
Friday, 3 June 2005
There are three major issues that give business owners and managers nightmares, says the National Australia Bank (NAB).
The major issue that keeps business leaders awake at night, according to a survey of 175 businesses by NAB, is their staff.
“More than 29% of the business owners and managers we surveyed said concerns about their staff kept them awake at night,” said George Frazis, executive general manager of Business and Private Banking at NAB. “This included solving staff problems, such as conflict between employees, to attracting and retaining the best staff.”
“The second-most worrying issue for businesses is cash flow,” Mr Frazis said today. “This worried 27% of business leaders.
“The next greatest concern is compliance and tax, especially the increasing amount of legislative and compliance obligations. Compliance concerned 12% of respondents with tax worrying 6%.”
Respondents also identified other concerns such as customer issues, interest rates, the economy, lack of time, risk management and succession planning as concerns that kept them awake at night.
| Concern |
Percentage of respondents
|
|
| Staff issues | 29% | |
| Cash flow |
27%
|
|
| Compliance |
12%
|
|
| Tax | 6% | |
| Customer issues | 5% | |
| Interest rates | 5% | |
| The economy | 4% | |
| Risk management |
3%
|
|
Source: Internal NAB survey of business customers
The proprietary survey was undertaken by the National Australia Bank’s Business and Private Banking division in April-May 2005 to better understand the needs of its customers and involved customers responding to a questionnaire inserted in NAB’s Infocus Business magazine.
“In response to these concerns, we are trying to make doing business easier for our clients, so that they can sleep better at night,” Mr Frazis said.
While NAB can’t help with individual staffing issues, it can help businesses become an employer of choice through some of its services such as AdvantEdge and National@Work which enable employers to provide special offers and benefits to their staff.
NAB bankers can also help provide advice and assistance in terms of how to better manage cash flow.
NAB also offers independently developed information guides for entrepreneurs and small business owners, including one on cash flow, or check out their business scenario tester on www.nab.com.au, which provides a way to test drive the financial impact of your business strategies. Everyone makes mistakes: successful businesses learn from theirs.
New, quicker processes and approvals also provide business leaders with more time, said Mr Frazis. “Our customers are increasingly asking us to make business and personal finance and wealth management easier for them,” he said. “We are responding.” Recently, NAB has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve its ability to meet business customer needs. These include;
• Freeing up credit decision processes by increasing credit decision limits for NAB’s front line relationship managers;
• Providing business customers with easier asset finance and leasing, and
• "On The Spot" business loans, where customers receive quicker response times to their requests for loans. In many instances this is ‘on the spot’ and in 15 minutes.
“These initiatives demonstrate how we are making advances in reducing complexity and making finance easier,” Mr Frazis said. “Reducing the time business owners and managers are spending on their finance helps them get on with running their business and hopefully lets them sleep easier at night.”
About NAB Business and Private Banking
The National Australia Bank employs over 3,400 business banking specialists and 450 financial planners and specialists at over 170 business banking centres Australia wide. It is one of the market leaders in providing business banking services to Australian business. The National provides a number of ‘Business Information Guides’ that are available on its website www.nab.com.au. For further information visitwww.nabgroup.com.
Further media information contact:
NAB Corporate Affairs
Guy McKanna
Tel: (02) 9966 3532
Mob: 0402 893 843
* The information contained in this media release is for media advice purposes only. The contents are true and correct at time of publishing/issuing, however may change over time. For further information about NAB products or rates, please go to Interest Rates, Fees & Charges
