SME compliance: investing in a dynamic website to manage new policies

The vast majority of business in Australia is conducted by the SME sector.

Running a business is difficult enough, yet in 2008 alone the Commonwealth Parliament passed over 1,000,000 pages of legislation. This is your taxation money at work.

This raises the crucial issue of compliance. Compliance can be passive (adhering to the rules for staying in business). Compliance can also be active (exploiting new opportunities correctly as soon as they appear). It may seem to be easier to ignore compliance issues. The opportunity cost of compliance can certainly equate to missed sales. On the other hand, it only takes one dissatisfied, or vindictive, customer or supplier to complain.

Compliance is an investment. Responding to government agency ‘queries’ or ‘investigations’ or ‘audits’ is a crippling burden for many SMEs. Management time is better spent on revenue-accretive tasks. Compliance, however, applies just as much to marketing as it does to HR or Activity Statements.

For the SME sector, marketing is a crucial budget component. Without marketing, however, growth and economies of scale are elusive. Yet the interaction of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and State Fair Trading legislation are often overlooked: to say nothing of the various industry codes. Can your business really afford to be investigated for making misleading and deceptive statements? Very few SMEs can afford failed marketing campaigns.

Wiliam aims to eliminate compliance issues for clients. This is where a dynamic website is vital. This allows active compliance. For example, governments are more and more making conditional subsidies and payments available on certain products or investments. Potential customers will search for these offerings online. If your business does not have a dynamic online presence that can be altered as soon as a policy announcement is made, that opportunity cost will be immense.

Wiliam has a dedicated Client Marketing Manager that  can assist your SME to maximise the ROI from your marketing budget.