Digital transformation, leadership and differentiation – those are the three things business expert John Knight says SMEs need to embrace to leverage the distinct advantage that Brisbane has as the city looks to a post-pandemic recovery.
Not many people have the kind of unique, all-encompassing view of Brisbane’s small business landscape quite like Knight, who is the managing director of Fortitude Valley-headquartered company businessDEPOT.
businessDEPOT is an award-winning diversified accounting firm that’s grown to include and offer a number of services to support small businesses.
Having worked alongside business owners in Brisbane for decades, Knight’s perspective about the state of things for SME owners is one seated in deep analysis of the numbers, and in the transformative effects of great culture and leadership.
And he says since the pandemic upended the economy in March, he has seen just about everything 2020 has had to throw at small business owners, their staff and in particular their business models.
“Brisbane’s SME world has been all about the extremes,” Knight says.
“Tourism, travel, fitness and those sort of services in particular, some of them had to close their doors for so long and have not been able to get back to normal – it’s been a survival event.
“But don’t underestimate how many businesses have been thriving during these times.”
Leadership and the people power driving positive results
Thriving may seem like a dirty word during an economic crisis but Knight’s point is a salient one – when you take out the businesses devastated by border closures and their knock-on effect, it has been the people behind the businesses who have driven things past survival and into pivoted, profitable, and successful territory. And there are some strong numbers to back up a positive view of things.
“It doesn’t mean SMEs haven’t had their challenges,” he says. “But when we look at the people behind SMEs, what we’re seeing is there are extremes within that as well.
“Some owners used their lockdown time to catch up on things that they’ve been meaning to do. Or they’ve been able to pivot their business, or they’ve been able to add a new line that they’ve been wanting to add because they knew it would be good for their business.
“And if you refer to Xero’s latest Small Business Insights report, they showed a decent drop in revenue very quickly when lockdown hit, but it has actually come back pretty quickly.
“That mimics what we’re seeing in Brisbane SMEs here at Business Depot more broadly – we’re seeing pretty good results.”
And those good results haven’t come about by accident. Knights says the pandemic has revealed some strong acts of leadership in the toughest of circumstances across Brisbane’s SMEs.
