{"id":14130,"date":"2022-05-25T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T14:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/2022\/05\/12\/technology-is-the-key-to-small-business-growth\/"},"modified":"2023-06-20T12:31:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T11:31:32","slug":"technology-is-the-key-to-small-business-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/2022\/05\/25\/technology-is-the-key-to-small-business-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology is the key to small business growth&nbsp;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Singaporean small businesses that leverage technology are more likely to experience business growth, according to global professional accounting body, CPA Australia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around one-third (36.4%) of\u202fSingapore&#8217;s\u202fsmall businesses grew in 2021, a slight increase from 35.5% in 2020. This result was affected by COVID-19, increasing costs and challenging economic landscape.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among businesses that grew, 58% found their investment in technology last year made their business more profitable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are among the new findings from CPA Australia&#8217;s annual survey of small business issues and sentiment across 11 Asia-Pacific markets, including\u202f Singapore.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over four in 10 of\u202fSingapore&#8217;s\u202fsmall businesses surveyed reported that more than 10% of their revenue came from online sales. It was also found that 58.1% received more than 10% of their sales through new payment technologies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the survey found that one in five of\u202fSingapore&#8217;s\u202fsmall businesses are still not using new digital payment options, while around a third did not earn any revenue from online sales.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the survey, the top four factors that had a positive influence on growing small businesses in\u202fSingapore\u202fwere:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Customer loyalty&nbsp;<\/li><li>Improved business strategy&nbsp;<\/li><li>Technology&nbsp;<\/li><li>Cost control&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In an uncertain business environment, it&#8217;s important for small businesses to focus on the fundamentals of a business \u2013 increasing value and satisfaction for the customer while managing costs,\u201d said Max Loh, CPA Australia&#8217;s Divisional President for\u202fSingapore. &#8220;An increased focus on technology is one way that small businesses can achieve long term growth. The government has a number of grants available that businesses can access to assist with the costs of adopting technology, such as the SME Go Digital programme.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Small businesses should continue to invest in technology to improve their ability to reach customers, improve customer satisfaction and increase efficiency. This will drive their profitability higher.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As businesses invest more in technology, cybersecurity is an area that small businesses will be susceptible to. In the last six months, 34% reviewed their business cybersecurity protection, while nearly three in 10 expect to be cyberattacked this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Small businesses will not be spared from costly cyberattacks and have to manage cyber-risks to protect their operations and maintain their reputation,&#8221; added Loh.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The growth outlook for small businesses in\u202fSingapore\u202fremains cautious due to global political tensions, supply chain disruptions and rising costs. Just over half of businesses surveyed (53%) expect their business to grow in the next 12 months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CPA\u202fAustralia\u202frecommends that\u202fSingapore&#8217;s\u202fsmall businesses consider the following measures:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Focus on investing in technology to meet changing consumer behaviour&nbsp;<\/li><li>Utilise social media to learn more about potential customers&nbsp;<\/li><li>Seek professional advice&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Singaporean small businesses that leverage technology are more likely to experience business growth, according to global professional accounting body, CPA Australia.&nbsp; Around one-third (36.4%) of\u202fSingapore&#8217;s\u202fsmall businesses grew in 2021, a slight increase from 35.5% in 2020. This result was affected by COVID-19, increasing costs and challenging economic landscape.&nbsp; Among businesses that grew, 58% found their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":14666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1463,6,51,38,44,54],"tags":[3288,1625,69,2686,2687],"class_list":["post-14130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apac","category-industry-verticals-banking-finance","category-intelligent-technology-newsletter","category-analysis-research","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-cpa-australia","tag-research","tag-singapore","tag-smb","tag-sme"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14898,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14130\/revisions\/14898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}