March 2023 Small Business Momentum Survey

Small business confidence has dropped by 4 percentage points to 30 per cent since the February survey, the second consecutive monthly fall. High inflation and interest rates continue to affect businesses significantly. The level of consumer spending and demand is an increasing business concern, the proportion of businesses citing this as a worry jumping by 9 percentage points since the previous month.

Businesses also cited increasing input costs (including energy, wages, fuel and rent), staff shortages and cash flow and/or working capital as their biggest challenges to trading.

The outlook on profitability and revenue has worsened since the previous month, with only 11 per cent of businesses expecting profitability to increase and 16 per cent expecting revenue to increase over the next three months.

One in three (36 per cent) businesses indicated they had plans to grow, alter or expand their operations. Of those businesses, only 47 per cent are looking to hire staff, down 20 percentage points since August 2022.