Sirdar Business Summit in Brisbane on March 6-7, 2009, will turn tables on business failures

It is well touted that 80% of businesses close down in their first five years of operation and 80% of the remaining 20% close down in the following five years.

More often than not, this is because businesses don't have structures and mechanisms and methods of governance in place to cope with growth. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from the Counts of Business Summary Tables 2003-2006 show that of new businesses created since 2003, over 85% of those employing staff survived, whereas only 53.8% of those not employing staff survived. Businesses employing five to 19 staff have had the greatest survival rates at 90.4%.

From the Optus 2004 Small Business Matters Survey, 55% of respondents said they had more stress from having their own business; only 33% said having their own business had given them more time for themselves and only 34% said it had given them more time for family and friends.

Sirdar Australia chief executive Rozanne Brown said educating small businesses on the strategies to apply was only one part of the business growth equation.

"The real key is understanding the critical structural differences to apply, which will then allow them to sustain and embrace that growth," Ms Brown said. She said such differences related to getting clear on the 'strategic' roles that business owners must play, and separate, in their businesses. These critical, but often overlooked roles were those of director, manager and shareholder.

"As a shareholder, we must look at our business as an investment and expect our board (directors) to give us a return on our investment (that is higher than a simple deposit in the bank)... especially in small business where we invest not only our money, but our time, relationships and a lot of energy. As shareholders, we must hold our board to account to report on and deliver our expected and promised results," she said.

"As a director, we must realise that we are legally responsible to run a solvent business.  We must support and expect our management to be effective, accountable for results and we must guide the strategic direction of our business vision.

"As a manager, we must realise that we are responsible and accountable to our directors, our shareholders, staff and customers for the results we achieve in the day to day operations of the business. This value placed on results will vary for each of these stakeholders and it is the manager's job to ensure that all parties get these results or the health of the business will suffer.

"The key point Sirdar makes is that even if you own 100% of your business, are the only director and indeed the manager, you still need to think about your own business in this way!"

She said often in small business, people juggled all of these roles...wearing all hats at the same time and therefore unable to clearly deliver the results of any single role.

"It is only when we get clear on WHY we must create the separation and HOW to practically apply this separation while still functioning 'in the business' that we create real business success and growth."

Ms Brown said the Sirdar Business Summit helped businesses get the education they require to gain the clarity on how to apply these distinctions in their business.

"Participants leave with a clear plan and clear distinctions on how to step up their business to an entirely new level of operation and results." Figures like these reminded the Sirdar team why they did (and were so passionate about) what they did. "If we can remove the stress levels and improve the quality time (freedom) that business owners have, more businesses will survive," she said.

"If every small business could each employ just one more staff member, it would create 1.8 million jobs.  Whereas, if large businesses employed 20 more staff, it would only create just under 120,000 jobs.  Even if Sirdar only impacted 10% of the small business market to employ one more person (creating 180,000 jobs), we would still create a bigger impact than 100% of the large businesses.

"Every business we help to grow has a ripple effect into a less fortunate community.  This is because of Sirdar's commitment to support enterprise development in our poorer regions and communities through Opportunity International."

Dynamic young Sirdar Global Group chairman Carl Bates, of New Zealand, said communities could only move from poverty to prosperity through economic growth. 

"The Sirdar Business Summit was created in 2008 when we realised that we simply could not educate enough clients one-on-one to really make a difference and impact small business growth.  Before we ran the summit, it could often take six months of working with clients 'on their business' for them to truly understand the power of this knowledge," Mr Bates said.

The first Sirdar Business Summit was held in Auckland in November 2008. Sirdar Group began in 2006 and had grown by 816% since then to a group revenue of more than $10.7 million by 31 July 2008.

The Summit is also being held in New Zealand, South Africa and England.

The Brisbane summit is the first of three summits to be held in Australia this year- to be followed by Perth in August and a southern state in November.

The Summit will be held at the Citigate King George Square.

To book, click this link...

https://www.conferenceonline.com/index.cfm?page=booking&object=conference&id=13483&categorykey=B0ED6AF4%2DABBC%2D40B3%2DA80D%2DD9A11B7C3DE7&clear=1

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