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MSPs Can Solve Australian SMB Headaches… With The Right Services

Small businesses in Australia face a range of major challenges. For MSPs that can develop SMB-targetted services, this is a big opportunity.

Written By: Matthew Sainsbury

Oct 22, 2024

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A new report by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) and CBA has highlighted the critical challenges that small businesses face.

These challenges are many and varied. In many cases MSPs are well placed to address these issues and, realistically, the best and only solution for them. However, the small business market is typically one for MSPs to service, leaving open opportunities for those that can navigate a way.

The Four Biggest Challenges For Small Business

According to the report, small businesses are being buffeted from multiple angles, with their biggest challenges being:

Rising business costs: Small businesses are grappling with increasing costs in energy, rent, insurance, and interest rates, all of which are heavily impacting cash flow and available resources.

Workforce shortages: There is a critical shortage of both skilled and unskilled workers, limiting business growth and strategic development. This is in core areas of the business too, let alone the supporting areas such as technology.

Energy transition: Nearly half of small businesses have yet to embark on their green transition due to financial barriers and a lack of knowledge. As this becomes a regulatory requirement SMEs are facing an expensive effort to catch up.

Cyber security threats: Almost half of all cyber attacks target small businesses, with cyber criminals using increasingly sophisticated methods. As already noted, SMEs struggle to find the resources and talent to build a cyber security practice.

In addition to this, the report also notes that AI was a point of ongoing concern for SMEs, both in terms of how to use it and the impact it would have on their business.

Finally, changing industrial relations laws, which make employment more complex for small businesses to navigate, means that 90 per cent of SMEs are “less likely to employ.”

MSPs With SME Services To Thrive

While almost half of small businesses don’t expect to break even this year, managed services might be one strategic opportunity for them.

By shifting costs to opex models they can improve the cash flow position, while also leveraging their MSP’s capabilities around cyber security and technology support to avoid the need to find in-house capabilities.

MSPs can also support their SME customers to learn how to use basic AI tools and automations to help build efficiency and productivity into the business. “Small businesses need access to training and affordable, responsible, and practical AI products, as well as clear guidance and ethical regulation to harness AI’s potential and drive productivity gains,” Luke Achterstraat, CEO of COSBOA, said in a release.

These are all standard services for MSPs, and can be difficult to supply when SMEs have such limited budgets, but given the ongoing challenges that SMEs face, it’s clear that there’s a greater need for these services than ever.

Read more about how 2025 is shaping up to be a year of growth and opportunity for the APAC IT channel.

Matthew Sainsbury

Matthew is a Sydney-based multi-disciplinary journalist that has covered IT for 15 years. . In particular, he covers B2B IT and other channel topics in the APAC region. In addition to Channel Insider, Matthew’s work has been published on ARN, where he previously served as the editor, as well as CRN and AFR. On the side, Matthew is an award-winning arts and entertainment critic and author, and he also participates on the judging panel for the Australian IT Journalism Awards.

MSPs Can Solve Australian SMB Headaches… With The Right Services

The Four Biggest Challenges For Small Business

MSPs With SME Services To Thrive

Matthew Sainsbury

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