As business owners we sometimes wonder: how well is my business doing compared to those in my industry?
Historically, benchmarking has been difficult. Business owners had to rely on word-of-mouth and publicly available economic data, most of which was released months after it would have been useful. Such data also typically focused on large businesses, leaving small business owners making educated guesses.
Xero noticed this trend and set up Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI). This is a collection of monthly benchmarking data produced by Xero’s team of economists and analysts. The findings are published in several useful formats (such as infographics, blog posts and graphics) and can be used by any small business owner to understand their position in the market and recent economic trends. This data can be extremely helpful when making strategic decisions for your small business, enabling you to make data-informed decisions on everything from marketing to budgeting.
The data isn’t just used by small business owners either. The government used this data to inform their decision-making around pandemic relief and Statistics New Zealand and the Office of National Statistics use this data as part of publishing a weekly summary of private sector sales and jobs data.
The Xero Small Business Insights web page is updated each month based on the analysis and finding of the previous month. It also explains the reasoning behind Xero’s findings and what we can expect to see in the months ahead.
There’s a lot of information in the XSBI so let’s examine just one great feature and how you can use it: the Xero Small Business Index. This index reflects changes in the overall performance of small businesses month to month, calculated for New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom and Worldwide.
The New Zealand Small Business Index fell 12 points to become 125 points in September 2022. New Zealand’s average index is 100 so the small business economy is ahead of its average. However, the index has been steadily dropping for the last three months due to the growth in wages slowing down. Wages growth is treated as a positive influence on the Xero Business Index but this easing in wages will likely be a relief to many small businesses!
The Xero Small Business Insights also provides industry specific information. For example, hospitality sales for September 2022 have risen 65% compared to September 2021. Sales in professional services have stayed within 1% of the period year, and agriculture sales have decreased by 6%. Retail trade has risen 11%.
Check out the Xero Small Business Insights page for even more interesting data and find out what is happening in your industry. There is a goldmine of information at your fingertips!
