Chris Small: ABC Business Sales Managing Director on the data showing small business sales rose 3.9% in the March quarter

Confidence for small business owners, with sales continuing to grow.  

New Xero small business data shows business sales rose 3.9% in the March quarter – March alone rising 5.5%.   

ABC Business Sales Managing Director Chris Small told Mike Hosking it's been a tough 12 months, with many weaker businesses weeded out, leaving high quality small businesses in the market.  

He says data doesn't reflect the current climate, given two out of three months were not impacted by the war in Iran.  

Small says volume of transactions were up 10% and dollars invested in small business were up 16% – all with a positive mindset until March kicked in. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Zero meantime back here, have produced some new small business
data for us this morning. So new data on small
businesses turns out they're doing well. Sales up three point
nine percent year on year March alone, five point five, retail, hospit,
and construction all lifted. So what's this tell of about resilience?
Chris Small ABC business managing director is well us Chris,
morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well Mike Key you doing very well?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Thank you. Is this all pre war?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah? Well, I mean, look two months of the three
months were pre war, but you know those numbers mirror
executed what we're seen in business sales where that same
quarter volume of transactions were up ten percent and dollars
invested in small business were up sixteen percent. So certainly,
you know January and February he went had a positive mindset,
especially business owners till March chicked in, and I think

(00:44):
you know, it took a while for the water sort
are really comprehend and come through. So I think the
start of March was also fairly strong compared to last year.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
So how do you explain March up five point five
in a month. What's what was going on?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Look? I think I mean the last we have twenty
four months pretty tough for small business. People have actually
said themselves, we just need to move on, get a
good positive mindset and actually just go for it now.
And a lot of a lot of the weakerd players
have actually been weeded out in the last couple of years,
so you've probably left with a high quality small, smaller
medium sized enterprises still in the market. But I suspect
April may be a little bit different.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, and do you have any sense of that or
are you like Jerome Powell, who the hell knows what's
going on.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, we've just we're just closing the books for April
and we are level with where we were last year
in regards to business sales and money invested in business.
But that's a lot of those a lot of those leaders.
You know, there was stuff that was in the pipeline,
and Jennery and Februne is still happening, So there may
be a little bit of a lag, but everyone just
wants to see three of us and get on. You know,
if we're all sick of being in what recession and

(01:47):
a recessionary environment, we need to get a positive mindset
and get our businesses and get our ecmomy back and firing.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
And speaking of that, I've been talking to a couple
of people in christ to their own businesses in the
last couple of days let's post the event that rugby
and all that sort of stuff over the weekend. They
literally have not seen it like it is. They're fizzing that.
It's it's like it's a different world from the rest
of the country from your Do you see that in
what you're doing?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Absolutely spot on. I was about to talk to the
regional bias. So South ISDS has been our fastest growing
business sales here. We're up forty one percent year and
in two particular regions absolutely dominate, one being christ Church
and the other being Central o Targo. You got to
I wasn't Central Otago two weeks and they were just
all the business owner saying, look, we're in a bubble
around here. You can watch the news and don't really
understand what's going on in the rest of the country.

(02:32):
And christ Church is exactly the same. So we do
have a bit of a two speed economy with Central
Targo on christ Church in a bit of a target
as well going at one speed. And then you've got
you know, I guess the bigger urban areas like the
likes of Auckland and Wellington and so forth, going to
the slightly slow speed and sort of crawling along compared
to those other regions.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
And the funny thing is, I'm glad you're on actually,
because not to confuse people with the zero numbers versus
you're the you know your industry's numbers, which is the
sale of businesses, and looking at the sale of businesses
the other day, it's up. I wonder do people just
march to their own tune, because if you follow the news,
you'd want to shoot yourself. But there are people still
buying businesses and you think, why would you buy a

(03:11):
business in this climate? And the answer is because that's
what you're going to do anyways.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
That's for you absolutely. I mean, you've just got to
keep on living in what's take me now, you've got
to look through that. When you make a business investment,
it's a ten year it's a ten year play. It's
not for three months. So you've got to look through
these short term blips that seems seem to keep on
coming thanks to our friends off sure, but you've got
to look through that. And you've just got to look
life and do what's do what you're thinking to see

(03:35):
you up as far as wealth creation for the future.
So absolutely people are just looking through short term offshore problems.
I guess good stuff. Chris.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Always good to have you on the program, Chris Small,
ABC business Managing Director. For more from the mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays,
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