Small businesses have had a challenging year but bosses see a brighter outlook next year, according to a new survey.
It found that 51 per cent said that their businesses have expanded this year, down from the 57 per cent who told last year's poll that they expected an increase.
Despite the muted growth, 61 per cent of small businesses - those with fewer than 20 employees - expect the economy to grow over the next 12 months.
Last year, 48 per cent of those polled felt this way.
And only 18 per cent expect the economy to shrink, down from 25 per cent who said so last year, the survey by the accounting body CPA Australia found.
It polled 2,985 respondents in eight economies in September, including 310 Singaporean business owners and senior representatives of firms.
"The Singapore small business sector is showing its resilience and maturity, with many firms focusing on reviewing cost structures, increasing marketing and improving customer retention over the past year," said CPA Australia chief executive Alex Malley.
Across the region, small business confidence in Indonesia remained the strongest, with 89 per cent of those polled tipping expansion next year. This reflects strong small business support for the new government's reform agenda, said the report.
Hong Kong's small businesses remained the most pessimistic - 33 per cent expect the economy to shrink while just 39 per cent believe it will grow.
"With its high level of international exposure, Hong Kong is still experiencing the lingering effects of global economic uncertainty and below-average domestic economic growth," said CPA Australia business policy adviser Gavan Ord.
In Malaysia, 68 per cent of small businesses have a positive outlook. This reflects growing domestic demand and strong export growth against the pending introduction of a GST (goods and services tax) in April next year, said the report.
For the first time this year, the survey also polled small businesses in four Chinese mainland cities - Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. It found that 71 per cent of bosses expect China's economy to grow over the next year.
Across all economies, small businesses from the rental, hiring and real estate services sector were the most optimistic about their local economy, slightly ahead of firms in the banking, finance and insurance sectors.
Rising costs was voted the top issue shaping the small business environment in Singapore, as it was in all economies except Australia and Vietnam.
Staff costs and rent here tied for the title of most detrimental expenses for small businesses, with 39 per cent of firms polled having reviewed costs over the year.
The survey also tracked online sales for the first time, noting that 69 per cent of small firms in Singapore sell online and 54 per cent expect these sales to grow over the next 12 months.
And only 16 per cent of firms here did not use social media for business purposes.
For those who did, Facebook was the top choice - by a wide margin of 62 per cent, followed by LinkedIn with 12 per cent of the vote and then YouTube with 6 per cent.
Facebook was also the most popular social media tool in all other economies except China, where Facebook is blocked.
WeChat is preferred there. "For businesses outside China that are seeking to attract customers from that market, they should be considering social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo to reach that market," said the report.
This article was first published on November 20, 2014.
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