Small business must surf the wave of tech says Xero MD

Xero Managing Director Trent Innes has suggested small businesses need to take advantage of digital technology if they want to succeed in the future.

Speaking to a rapt crowd of 3000-plus Xero devotees at Xerocon, the cloud accounting solution’s annual conference, Innes said data from the brand’s latest Xero Small Business Insights report revealed a direct link between tech investment and business growth.

Innes said Australian small businesses need to increase their investment in tech if they want to avoid the digital divide between those who have tech and those who don’t. Innes warned there was a danger small business could be left behind as enterprise companies take advantage of the latest tech.

The data update, ‘Wired for Success: the impact of technology spending on small business’, is based on anonymised and aggregated data from Xero Small Business Insights and was prepared by AlphaBeta Advisors.

The report put forward a good case for small business owners to up their investment in tech, finding those that do, are 68 per cent more likely to be growing than those that don’t.

Currently, small business owners are spending less that one per cent of their revenue on tech.

However, Innes predicted this may soon change as the rollout of the NBN assists small business owner in taking up digital solutions. Innes reported Xero Small Business Insights data has found that, among businesses on Xero, those in mature NBN regions grew employment by one-third more (2.6 percentage points) than businesses in non-NBN regions in 2017.

“In Australia we are at an inflection point for technology adoption for small business and we have to ensure that they surf this wave,” said Innes.

“Small business is best placed in terms of size and agility to take advantage of new ways of working. Australian ranks third  in the OECD in terms of the percentage of small businesses purchasing cloud computing services. This gives them a powerful start, and Xero’s data indicates a direct link between technology investment and growth.

“Xero is calling on small business to take a fresh look at their investment in technology to ensure they are in lock-step with big business, taking the first mover advantage where possible. Access to advanced technologies has also never been more prevalent or democratised – from cloud computing to digital ecosystems — putting powerful services and tools into the hands of anyone with a mobile or laptop.”