We are delighted to release the inaugural Australian small business profitability and risk benchmark report for 2024. This report was prepared by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) in collaboration with the University of Melbourne. 

The report offers a comprehensive view of the small and medium sized enterprises landscape in Australia. The detailed benchmarks show the typical performance for different business categories across different industries and sizes. 

We aim to continue to provide reports like this as they are a valuable resource for small business owners, potential entrepreneurs, and their accounting and financial advisors.

There are many uses for the benchmarks including: 

• Assessing the relative profitability of a small business operation: Understanding the relative performance and future expectations of a small business is crucial. This report helps by providing business variables to assess normal, high, or low levels of success.
• Budgeting, forecasting, risk management, and valuing SMEs: To manage a business effectively, it’s essential to understand typical performance drivers and baseline behaviours. This report provides benchmarks to help align your business accordingly and understand baselines.
• Policy formulation and advocacy: This report offers detailed insights into the financial characteristics of Australian SMEs, essential for informed economic policy and public discourse.

This report uses performance benchmarks: very low (10th percentile), low (25th percentile), typical (50th percentile), high (75th percentile) and very high (90th percentile). Industry classification is taken from ATO business industry codes (BIC). Businesses have been allocated into size categories based on the number of employees: micro (1 –4 employees), small (5 – 19 employees) and medium (20 – 199 employees).