About this episode
Here's a small myth-busting exercise for you – things aren't as bad as you might think.
Business sales from small and medium businesses are up and by quite a lot. They're up 21% in fact.
Why would you buy a business at a time like this?
You know why. Because life goes on and people have dreams and those dreams don’t get buffeted about by fiscal uncertainty.
There were 27,000 confidentiality agreements signed in the past year. That's a lot of agreements.
For an average of $800,000 you can buy your dream. Values are up, listings are up, demand is up (it's up more than listings), so prices are holding and the returns, multiple, is up.
So a lot of people are doing fine, thank you very much.
This is a nation of small businesses and all these numbers show is nothing changes that. Not a war, not petrol, not an election, and not the weather.
If you ran a poll and asked, "is it a good time to buy a business", like they ask, "is it a good time to buy a major household item", you know what the answer would be.
And yet life goes on.
Now, for all the New Zealand First supporters about to text me and say it's all Indians, save your 20 cents.
It isn't.
It's another myth busted. 9.7% are Indians, 15% are Asian (so that will be Chinese and Koreans, maybe Filipinos), which leaves 67% identifying as European.
So the idea this is all about migrants buying jobs is not the tsunami you thought it might be.
I think these stats are a microcosm, or a small example of the disconnect between studies, surveys, polls, politics, news headlines, and what is really going on.
The rhythm of New Zealand life gets buffeted about by issues of the day; the petrol price, the war, the spend. And why wouldn’t it?
But if you believed the polls and the stats and the national conversation, as driven by the headlines, you'd think we were at home huddled in a corner waiting for the end.
Yet we are not. We are buying businesses, planning the future, taking the risks and, God forbid, having a good time.
What a shock.
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Full transcript
The SME Stream — Mike's Minute: It's not as bad in business as you think. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
A small myth-busting exercise for you, the smalling things out as bad as you might think. Business sales, I'm reading about those over the weekend, I eat small and medium businesses. The business sales are up and they're up quite a lot, 21% in fact. Why would you buy a business at a time like this, eh? You know why? Because life goes on and people have dreams and those dreams don't get buffeted about by fiscal uncertainty. There were 27,000 confidentiality agreements signed in the past year. That's a lot of agreements. For an average of $800,000, you can buy your dream. Failures are up, listings are up, demand is up, demand is up more than listing, so prices are holding and the returns multiple is up as well. So a lot of people are doing fine, thank you very much. This is a nation of course built on small businesses and all these numbers show is nothing's going to change it. Not a war, not petrol, not an election, not the weather. If you ran a poll and asked, is it a good time to buy a business like they ask, is it a good time to buy a major household item? You know what? The answer. You know what the answer would be and yet life goes on.
Now for all the new Zealand fur supporters about to text me and say, oh it's all the Indians, save you 20 cents, it isn't, another myth busted, 9.7% are Indians, 15% are Asians. So Chinese Koreans may be Filipinos, which leaves 67% identifying as European. So the idea that this is all about migrants buying jobs is not the tsunami you thought it might be. These stats I think are a microcosm or a small example of the disconnect between study surveys, polls, politics and news headlines and what's really going on. The rhythm of New Zealand life gets buffeted about by issues of the day. The petrol price, the war, the spend, you know, who's spending who isn't. I mean why wouldn't it? But if you believe the polls and the stats and the national conversation has driven by the headlines, you think we're at home huddled up in a corner waiting for the end of the world and yet we are not. We are buying businesses, planning the future, taking the risks and God forbid. Having a good time, what a shock.
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