Small firms looking to grow, says major survey | Business News | News - Expertise in Open Source Business Development

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Small firms looking to grow, says major survey

A comprehensive, independent survey of the UK’s small businesses has found that many are planning to develop and expand.

The 2006/07 Annual Small Business Survey, carried out by IFF Research, revealed 65 per cent of small businesses with employees had ambitions to grow for the coming years, a 9 per cent increase on the previous survey.

Almost half of those firms questioned said that they were coming up with new products and services, the highest level of development since the first survey in 2003.

Small businesses are also succeeding as employers.

One in five SMEs had taken on more employees in the 12 months prior to the survey, while only one in seven had reduced the size of their workforce. What’s more, some 60 per cent of SME employers had funded or arranged staff training or development during the same period. In 2005, that figure was 41 per cent.

Asked to nominate the biggest obstacle to success, 15 per cent of respondents cited competition, 14 per cent regulation, 12 per cent taxation, including VAT, PAYE, NI and business rates, and 10 per cent cashflow and the economy.

However, female entrepreneurs continue to struggle to make a significant impact, with just 14 per cent of businesses headed up by women or by management teams mostly comprising women.

Announcing the survey, Business Minister, Shriti Vadera said: “The positive findings – of businesses intending to grow and introducing innovation – are indicators of a healthy enterprise environment, but the survey also highlights continuing challenges.

“We recognise that regulation is a key business concern and this is why we are driving through one of the most ambitious programmes to ease the burden of regulation on business launched by any government.”

On the issue of the under-representation of women, the Minister added: “Getting more women into business is a challenge, not just for gender equality but for national economic success. We would have 700,000 more businesses if proportionally as many British women as American women started businesses.

“We will unveil an enterprise white paper next month to help unlock the talents of more people, make growing a business easier and narrow the productivity gap between Britain and the US.”

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