IRVINE, CA--(Marketwire - April 4, 2011) - Sage released today the findings of a recent survey among small and midsized Hispanic businesses in the U.S. Conducted by Sage's Simply Accounting business, which provides the only bilingual English-Spanish accounting software in the US market, the survey examined business management activities carried out by Hispanic businesses and assessed owners' level of 'financial literacy,' comfort level with financial management and compliance with government requirements. The release of findings from the survey coincides with Financial Literacy Month in the U.S.
"Financial literacy is a problem for many small businesses, regardless of their geography. In supporting the Hispanic small business community, we wanted to find out how small business owners manage -- and like to manage -- their companies so Sage can better assist them in controlling the overall financial health of their businesses," said Jamie Sutherland, vice president and general manager of Sage Simply Accounting. "Although the number of Hispanic small and midsized businesses in the U.S. is growing at a rate two to three times faster than the national average(i), our survey suggests that many of these Hispanic business owners believe they could still benefit from increasing their financial literacy, which would help them to better understand and manage their business costs and expenses."
Surprisingly, one-fifth of Hispanic small business owners surveyed admitted that they were unable to identify the most important cost that their business needs to get under control, even though they have a hands-on approach to business and personally handle most of the financial tasks of their business -- 51 percent take care of the accounting, 54 percent handle payroll, 72 percent invoice clients and pay bills, and 52 percent keep track of inventory.
However, most of the survey participants felt they could use more knowledge when it comes to managing certain aspects of their business. Seventy-five percent believed they need to know more about tax payments, while invoicing/billing (43%) and payroll (50%) were also areas that respondents wanted to be more knowledgeable about.
In addition, 71 percent felt they should know more about financial planning.
A major concern among most surveyed U.S Hispanic small business owners was income tax compliance (37%). Participants also responded they don't like dealing with tax compliance activities (33%) and would rather focus on their customers (83%).
Other highlights of the Sage Simply Accounting Hispanic Small Business Survey include:
- Cash flow was the number one aspect of financial management that Hispanic small businesses considered essential to their success. Fifty percent of participants consider cash flow the most important factor of their success, followed by cost management (43%).
- Most Hispanic small business owners are not aware that accounting software can help them stay on top of changes to government rules and regulations. Only 14 percent of participants rely on accounting software to stay atop of regulation changes.
- Hispanic businesses are still using time-consuming methods to handle their finances. In fact, 37 percent use spreadsheets to do their accounting.
- Surveyed Hispanic small business owners spent an average of 10.2 hours a week performing different financial tasks, but would prefer to spend 6.2 hours.
Sage Simply Accounting's Hispanic Small Business survey was conducted from September 23 to October 6, 2010. Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percent, 19 times out of 20.
About Sage Simply Accounting
Celebrating 25 years, Sage Simply Accounting software is the #1 choice of Canadian small businesses and accountants, used by more than 500,000 businesses(ii). Developed in Sage's global research and development center in Richmond, B.C., the fully bilingual Sage Simply Accounting -- English/French -- is known for its easy to learn, easy to use approach to accounting, while providing the most comprehensive features that small businesses require -- from start-up through to maturity. In October 2010, Sage Simply Accounting launched the only fully bilingual English/Spanish small business accounting solution in the United States. Sage Simply Accounting is supported by a highly trained team of customer service specialists in its Richmond, B.C., center, and by more than 10,000 consultant partners located in communities across Canada and the US, who help thousands of companies daily to manage their business more effectively with Sage Simply Accounting.
For more information about Sage Simply Accounting, please call 1-866-797-8395, or visit http://us.simplyaccounting.com or http://es.simplyaccounting.com. Follow Sage Simply Accounting on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageSimplyAccounting, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/SimplyBySage.
About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs 4,000 people and supports 3.2 million small and midsized business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 13,400 people and supports 6.3 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagenamerica.
© 2011 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, the Sage logos, and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc. or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
(i) U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 Survey of Business Owners and 2002 Survey of Business Owners
(ii) Based on independent surveys of 236 Canadian small businesses conducted November 2009 and 362 accountants who work with small business clients, conducted June 2010.
Contact Information:
Press Contact:
Yvonne Yuen
604-233-4127
yvonne.yuen@sage.com
Liz Narrillos Roux
949-502-7750, ext. 225
lizn@lf-pr.com