Partner Article

Bouncebackability – a survival essential for business leaders

Running a small business is often exhilarating and many SME bosses wouldn’t change it for the world. But business life rarely comes without its pressures.

Indeed, at AXA PPP healthcare we recently asked* senior SME decision-makers to tell us what keeps them up at night when it comes to running their business and learned that their top two concerns were managing client demands and work/home life balance (each chosen by 22 per cent respectively). Worries about growth (21 per cent) and profitability (20 per cent) followed closely behind.

When it comes to their people, losing staff to other employers (29 per cent) came top of bosses’ biggest worries, followed by staff loyalty (25 per cent) and skills shortages (24 per cent).

Wages were bosses’ top cash concern, with 27 per cent identifying paying employees as their biggest cost issue, followed by access to finance (22 per cent) and operational costs such as IT, rent and equipment and paying suppliers (both at 15 per cent).

Time lost to sickness absence is also a headache, with more than half (57 per cent) saying they’ve had to deal with employees being signed off sick for four weeks or more in their business. For those who remain, this means the additional stress on themselves and on colleagues of having to pick up the absentee’s workload (49 per cent). Over a quarter (27 per cent) complain of the loss of specialist skills and a similar proportion (24 per cent) note a drop in business productivity.

Keeping things in perspective when you’re running a small business can be a challenge at the best of times. And, when adversity strikes, it can be even harder to keep things running smoothly. It’s well worth remembering that you can’t always avoid the pitfalls and setbacks that can affect your business and your people. You can, however, take positive steps to assess and address those issues you can do something about. And perhaps one of the best places to begin is by taking some positive steps to boost your own resilience. In practice, this means looking after your own physical, psychological and social wellbeing. While it may sound daunting, it isn’t rocket science and, to find out more about some of the simple measures you can take to get started, why not visit our Business Health Centre.

-ENDS-

*Online survey of 275 SME owners, CEs, MDs and senior managers, September 2016 by market research agency Atomik

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chris Horlick, Distribution Director for AXA PPP healthcare .