How Would Australian Businesses Spend Fresh Funds?

New research from MYOB and OnDeck reveals how Australian small business owners would spend funding.

SME lending platform OnDeck Australia and MYOB - a leading accounting software provider – have announced the results of a survey conducted among small business entrepreneurs in Australia. The survey aimed to investigate the primary usage of capital injections received by SMEs.

The MYOB SME Snapshot polled 530 small-to-medium business owners and asked what they would do if given $50,000 to invest in their business. 34% said they would purchase inventory or equipment, 30% would invest in marketing and advertising and 25% would hire more staff.

Cameron Poolman, chief executive officer of OnDeck Australia commented:

“The MYOB SME Snapshot shows a hunger among small businesses to boost the Aussie economy and employ more people, and we are keen to help them do that through fast, accessible business loans. It’s interesting to see that the top areas small business wants to invest in are economic multipliers, meaning that the loans we provide have a flow-on effect to sales and jobs in the broader market.”

OnDeck Australia is backed by OnDeck Capital Inc., one of the largest online lending platforms in the US. Last April, OnDeck announced that it would be expanding into the Australian market, via a partnership with MYOB and CommBank – Australia's biggest bank.

The company aims to provide Australian small businesses with the ability to access working capital quickly and easily. According to OnDeck, traditional lenders aren’t equipped to meet the diverse working capital financing needs of the small business community, despite the fact that the majority of SMEs require contextually small amounts of money to manage their growth – i.e. $40k for new equipment or $25k for additional inventory.

Cameron concluded:

“Many owners don’t believe they would qualify for a business loan, especially if they don’t own a house to put up as collateral. But at OnDeck, we actually want to lend to small business, so we came up with a different way to decide if a business can repay their loan”.