News

Australia’s largest business management software provider, MYOB, is thrilled to have helped more than 30,000 Australian SMEs level their online playing field over the past almost-12 months with the national ‘Getting Aussie Business Online’ initiative it runs with partner Google.

Getting Aussie Business Online provides businesses with a website builder - MYOB Atlas - and other tools they need to create a well-designed website in 15 minutes at no cost for their first year. PayPal integrated an e-commerce function in August.

The initiative reaches its one year milestone on 2 March, a few days after MYOB plans to launch more than 20 new themes with a range of colour palates and website layouts, allowing enthusiastic website owners to personalise their online presence even further.

At present, participants are most likely to be Eastern state start-ups or well-established SMEs who fly solo. The top industry types represented are business services, construction and trades, and retail.

MYOB CEO Tim Reed says, “We’re delighted to have assisted so many SMEs via the ‘Getting Aussie Business Online’ initiative - to date their websites have received 4 million visits from 1.4 million unique visitors - and we hope to help many more build their own online presence this year.”

“The more than 60 percent of Australian businesses that haven’t harnessed the internet’s power by creating a website are facing a terrific opportunity to stand apart from competitors, to generate awareness of what they have to offer potential customers and business partners.

“With the majority of people heading online first to research their purchasing decisions, almost two thirds of SMEs are missing out on revenue generated this way. Our research shows businesses with a website generate 6% more revenue than those without. This could mean the difference between success and closing up shop, which is something that as a nation we should be striving to prevent.

“MYOB is delighted to be enabling better connections between SMEs and their customers.”

Getting Aussie Business Online customer Brigette Kelly of The French Pawtisserie says, “Taking up the website offer was the easiest business decision I‘ve made… the only reason I now have a website is because of MYOB.”

“I always knew I’d love to have an online store as it’s quite risky in this climate to open a store, despite the lack of overheads and other expenses because I work from home, but I couldn’t afford a person to create a website for me. Now, I’ve quit my fulltime job that I returned to after maternity leave and look after my son full time while baking dog biscuits and running a small business.”

Following are graphs detailing the demographic split of Getting Aussie Business Online participants.