Published in the Canberra Times

By Bruce Billson

The small business landscape looks different from 30 years ago, but what hasn't changed is the passionate and hard-working small business owners and entrepreneurs who are building businesses across the country to delight their customers and clients.

We are seeing important changes in the demography and journey of these enterprising women and men.

In the 1980s, there were twice as many small business owners aged between 30 and 49 as there were aged over 50. Now the most common age of a small business owner is 50 years, but in 2006 it was 45. And there are 22 per cent of small business owners aged 60 and over.

When we look at the under-30 group, 8 per cent of business owners are currently under the age of 30. And it's interesting if you go back to 1976 because it was over twice that number at 17 per cent.

The proportion of the younger generation that are part of the small business community, is far less than it was.

What we are seeing though, is young entrepreneurs engaged in the digital economy on social media as content creators, digital nomads and starting-up new and exciting businesses. And while start-up rates vary across OECD countries, young people are more likely to be starting a new business than older adults.

According to the OECD, "About 9 per cent of young people in the OECD were working on a start-up relative to an overall rate of 8 per cent between 2018-22. Young people are also active in managing new businesses with a share of 6 per cent in the period 2018-22, which was above the overall population (5 per cent)".

Yet, young people are much less likely to be operating an established business than adults over 30 years. The large drop-off between ownership of a new business and an established business suggests that young entrepreneurs often struggle to develop their business into one that will be a relatively stable source of income and perhaps create jobs for others." (OECD define youth as 18-30).

It is regularly reported that younger entrepreneurs are in no position to access the finance needed to acquire an established business.

I worry that retiring business owners not being able to secure full value for often decades of diligence and dedication to their business and aren't able to achieve the hoped-for retirement nest egg.

Too often, business owners do not follow their own lead in making superannuation contributions for their team.

Another concern is that we don't have a true picture of the number of young small business owners and entrepreneurs.

I wonder if the many young people who run and manage a "side hustle" are identifying themselves as small business owners.

An office worker whose passion and creative outlet is baking which started out as something they did for friends and family on weekends, is now getting requests from around the community for the handcrafted baked goods. Do they identify as a small business?

If we can't see all the small businesses in all their passion and glory, then how can we influence and shape small business policy that reflects what's needed to make sure our small and family businesses can continue to make their important contributions to our economy and our communities.

Policymakers and regulators need to see and understand the breadth of the small-business ecosystem and their needs to deliver good policy and effective regulation. At ASBFEO we are currently researching the extent that these entrepreneurs may be omitted from current statistics.

In a recent Westpac study, almost half of Gen Z said their reason for going into a business was because of seeing a successful entrepreneur.

The Gen Z group are really motivated by what they see other entrepreneurs doing. And thankfully, we are still observing strong next-generation interest in entrepreneurship being passed down from generation to generation, often with an eye to enterprise opportunities both within and outside the family business, motivated by their passion.

The importance of mentors and inspiring business owners and entrepreneurs can't be overstated.

Having people around you that are good sounding boards, that have been in business themselves, who can even talk about the way they've handled challenges in their business life is invaluable to aspiring small business owners - a kind of grounded and practical crowd-sourced solutions factory.

This peer support and access to wisdom and insights is also a compelling reason for joining business incubation and acceleration groups and industry associations.

It is a fantastic learning journey for start-ups and new business owners to follow the journeys of those that inspire them.

But young entrepreneurs need help too and regularly contact our office for assistance. This is most common in industries such as personal training and personal services (e.g. hair and beauty services).

We hear many stories where young entrepreneurs struggle with some aspects of the "business of running their business". We helped an independent contractor in the beauty industry who had resigned after being bullied at work by her hirer - her hirer was refusing to pay her outstanding invoices.

We provided the contractor with information on the dispute resolution processes, including how to prepare a letter of demand. This sort of useful guidance and advice can be found on the ASBFEO website www.asbfeo.gov.au

We continue to support small business by making information available and easily accessible. It is not our gift to make every business succeed but it is our mission to make sure no business fails because the owner or entrepreneur didn't know about something that might have helped.

We need to keep supporting and encouraging the next generation of aspiring business owners and entrepreneurs to follow their dreams because there is much joy to be found in leading and owning your own business.