Ramblings from a man with nothing but thoughts. I have not cited anything, and this is not fact based. Just paraphrasing things I have seen/been told/read. What is the future of business? What we do know is that there is more and more interference with small to medium sized businesses. I have seen it first hand, and certainly read about many members on here - many businesses are downsizing. It appears common practice nowadays to contract work out rather than put on your own staff and have to flip the bill when they are "stressed" or have otherwise injured themselves. This can likely be evidenced by rich tradies - the really well off ones bit the bullet and bought their own van, tools and chucked an ad in the Yellow Pages. Summary: small businesses are getting smaller. The internet! Even aside from the interference above, as the internet becomes more readily accepted, small and medium sized businesses will outsource more and more to other small businesses to fulfil their needs. Advertise for a personal organiser in Brisbane and you may end up with 40 terrible applicants. As business accepts the internet they will realise that they have significantly more options from around the world. Of course they make come with it's own challenges (eg: not wanting to deal with certain other cultures), but even expanding the options to Australia/New Zealand over just Brisbane is a huge difference. Furthermore it is one less seat and computer you need to supply in the office. One less staff member that can trip on a power cord and leech money from your business years into the future. Summary: small businesses now have the ability to get smaller than ever while potentially increasing their quality of staff. So I see a move towards small business. I predict that as people find their employment less and less safe (your employer could go broke next week type of thing), more and more will consider going out on their own. After all, if you have no job and can't get a job, what do you have to lose? (Granted many would/will/do just go on the dole or sit around and wait for any job to come along). Summary: More entrepreneurs? Big business will likely both fail and succeed. Too big to fail? More government handouts. Not quite big enough? Better be competitive and adaptable. Big names going broke won't be uncommon, but the bigger, smarter names will capitalise on this and increase their stranglehold. Summary: Coles, Woolies, Holden - will not fail until there is social revolution. However in areas where they don't have control, there may be opportunities for small businesses to really step up. Certain industries however, will likely suffer during downturns, recessions, "tough times" or whatever name you want to give a depression. I can't tell you exactly what, but I figure many big ticket items will go by the wayside. Can Gerry Harvey adapt? He'd want to. You think Holden is in strife now? Wait, the RBA will probably just send them printing plates before long. That said, you would figure that all luxury items would experience much less demand. Tourism would likely tank also, right? I remember reading that in Argentina, it wouldn't be uncommon to see $800 Toyota Corollas driving around with $1500 stereo's in them. When your life sucks, those affordable luxuries may be just what you need to put a smile on your face. So potentially we may see more Aussies spending their holidays in Australia also. No doubt many larger tourism/accommodation businesses are not built on this model and will fail, but again, there should be opportunities if you are smart. Summary: Doesn't matter how bleak the picture is, there are always opportunities. With more and more interference in general, will we see an increasing shift for business overseas? Many businesses have already shifted their manufacturing offshore - at what point does the whole lot jump ship? Very interested to hear what the members think. Do you have a business? Is Australia the place to be or are you thinking about moving your business? Are there opportunities in the future that you foresee/are planning for? Do you employ some or many? Are there certain sectors that you have faith in? Are there other areas you think will just straight up fail?
To confirm what you are thinking, recently one of my suppliers was told by a commercial removalist that "75% of our jobs now are moving factories into garages". He said that small business owners are getting tired of paying rents and the risks and stresses of being employers and are taking the decision to downsize, drop all of the expenses, outsource their supplies and become a one man or husband and wife team and operate out of their garage. It is a sign that the unbearable weight of government and union regulation has far exceeded it's realistic limits and had cracked the foundations of our business economy. I am also seeing a huge rise in "mummy online" businesses where a stay home mum sets up a website with a huge range of photographs of clothing or jewellery or makeup or accessories that she gets from a Chinese wholesaler. The website makes her look like a big operation. In reality she has no stock and if you order anything she has it drop-shipped to you from China. Small business numbers will surely increase dramatically as there are less and less people willing to take the risk of being an employer. Many will be service businesses - Personal trainers, massage, dog grooming, handyman, that kind of thing. Most will be internet based with people setting up as online retailers of stuff that they don't actually carry in stock and try to make a bit of middle man money by fooling shoppers by having a slick looking site while actually being nothing more than a home office trying to order stock items in a couple at a time while hoping that the customer doesn't get impatient and twig to what's going on. Apart from that I guess the GVT could try and turn the public service into a massive employment sheltered workshop....
I think there's too much red-tape to operate as a single person business. I seriously have no idea how those owner/operators do their job... then the paperwork... and keep up with all the changing laws & legislation. I know a lot of them employ spouses & family members to help. But that sounds like a shortcut to divorce to me
You simply outsource that part of the business. The benefit being that outsourcing work to someone else may be a one off thing, a regular few hours a week or full time, but if they suck you can get rid of them and if they "get stressed" it's somebody else's problem. :lol:
A shift towards holiday rentals, lawn mowing, dog washing and tourism based service industries while the rest of the world deals with the retail, manufacturing and food production. There is still mining and working for the Government.
