Skills shortage starts in SMB

Australian small businesses are suffering a severe skills shortage because many owners lack the time and energy to learn necessary management skills warns Adelaide business woman Ly Lim.

As well as understanding customer demands for product or service delivery, business owners need to stay on top of sales and marketing, book-keeping, quality control, recruitment and staff management. There is also the constant need for business planning to keep at the forefront of market demand.

Lim, who is managing director of SA-based technology and training business Knowledge Plus, said the shortage of management skills was, ironically, because small businesses were so busy.

“The skills shortage is not due to the lack of ability or application from business owners,” she said. “Often, they lack time and energy because of competing demands. Many business owners run off the rails or run out of steam because they lose sight of the fact that the business should be a mechanism to help them to achieve their life goals.

Lim’s company, Knowledge Plus recently launched the ‘Small Business Leverage Program’, an initiative to bring together business owners with mentors who have many years experience in running their own businesses and want an opportunity to give back to the community.

Knowledge Plus provides IT services, learning and development services and business process solutions for companies throughout Australia. Customers include News Ltd, Caroma Industries, Bianco Building Supplies, AdTrans Group, PPB and Tonkin Consulting. Lim’s book on the skills shortage, ‘Small Pebble Big Ripple’ is available at a range of book retailers.