The MGI Australian Family and Private Business Survey 2013

Australian Family Businesses - “Surviving Not Thriving”

Australian family business owners – more than two million of them – are surviving but certainly not thriving according to The MGI Australian Family and Private Business Survey 2013.

In a sector worth $4.3 trillion according to Federal Government sources, in 2013 operators are employing fewer people and more ageing owners intend to keep working as fewer have adequately funded retirement programs. Selling to fund retirement is becoming less of an option as for many the sale price of their business has also declined.

To make matters worse in the past three years only 24 per cent of family business owners have experienced an increase in profitability and market share. For 76 per cent of family business owners business conditions have either remained the same or declined.

The survey, the longest running of its kind in Australia, reveals a bleak state of affairs in the sector with a continuing gloomy outlook.

The MGI Australian Family and Private Business Survey 2013 was undertaken by RMIT University and supported for the last decade by MGI, a leading international accounting firm specialising in advice to family and privately-owned businesses.

Over the past 19 years the series has tracked the concerns and motivations of Australian family and private business owners. It is the longest running survey of its type in Australia and one of the longest running of its type in the world.