Cash crisis eclipses crime as top challenge for SMEs

THE CASH crisis has moved to the top of the list as the most pressing issue for SMEs. That’s the interim finding of SME Survey 2008, which indicates that rising fuel and interest rates have surpassed crime and even blackouts as the leading challenge facing small and medium businesses today. According to principal researcher Arthur Goldstuck, in 2007 crime was way above everything else, with 27% saying this was an issue for them; 19% said cash flow. “Back then power failures were a problem for a mere 9%," Goldstuck said. This year, he says a dramatic transformation has occurred in SME owners' experience of the environment – although the impact of crime has not been reduced at all. "Crime remains a steady concern at 27%, but what leaps to the top is the cost of petrol, with 34% of SME decisionmakers saying it is giving them sleepless nights, and rising interest rates, at 30%. These are issues that have come from nowhere, barely featuring on the radar last year at below 12%."