Good news for franchisees, the NAB SME Survey Australia – June 2009 shows the profitability outlook for small business is positive for the first time since September 2008. The survey found that whilst times remained tough for many SMEs, there was a small improvement in business conditions after a number of quarters of decline.

NAB’s SME business conditions index improved by two points to -10 in the June quarter. After experiencing substantial drops in activity in the March quarter, larger businesses showed an index score of -12.

SME businesses are the real economic drivers in Australia and this will be welcome news to businesses and governments who are hoping that we have turned the corner and are beginning to return to a period of prosperity, said Geoff Greer, executive general manager at nabbusiness.

Profitability outlook across all-sized SMEs improved considerably, from an index of -27 to 1.

It’s clear that the recent improvement in consumer confidence and actions taken by federal and state governments has aided the economy and in turn had a flow-on benefit to SMEs, particularly medium sized businesses, Greer said.

For small SMEs, the outlook is positive in the health, transport, finance and wholesale industries. For medium sized business the outlook is strong in the property, accommodation and transport sector and for larger SMEs, the outlook is best in property, finance, transport and health.

South Australian and Western Australian SMEs recorded the best business conditions for the quarter, closely followed by NSW – all performing above the national average. Victoria dropped from above average last quarter to below average this quarter. Queensland was also well below the national average.