The Business Bulletin
SME Survey What are your predictions for sales over the next 12 months?
Small to medium sized enterprises/
were expecting no growth or a decline
businesses (SMEs/SMBs) contribute
in sales. 9.8% were uncertain which
significantly to UK plc. In 2019, there
is understandable as they may not
were 5.82 million small businesses
undertake sales forecasting and their
in the UK1. These accounted for 60%
industry sector maybe unpredictable;
of the employment and around half
particularly if impacted directly by the
of the turnover in the UK private
pandemic.
sector2. On that basis, then the future economy heavily rests on the success of SMEs in the marketplace. The Bank Of England is forecasting a 7.25% growth in 2021 (source: Financial Times) which is encouraging given the COVID-19 pandemic and the completion of Brexit.
Delving a little deeper to find out
To take part in the next survey – it looks at what outsourced services you use (if any) as a business owner – visit here: https://forms. gle/8hDdByTqFvQMTqFK7. The
what the main contributors would be
results will be shared in the next
to this growth, figure 2 shows the top 5
edition of this magazine.
reasons that businesses were expecting an increase in revenue. It is good to see, that despite the challenges a lot of business owners have experienced during the pandemic, they are still
Therefore, this survey looks at how
Get involved
Sources
looking at investing in marketing
some of those small businesses (61
and are optimistic about the market
1.Department for Business,
responses) are expecting to perform in
conditions they are facing.
Energy and Industrial Strategy
terms of sales over the next year. And there is good news (as can be
Overall, this is a very positive picture giving the confidence that SMEs will
seen in figure 1), with the vast majority
bounce back and impact the growth
of those surveyed (85.2%) predicting
of the economy this year and for years
sales growth going forward. Only 5%
to come.
Figure 1
50 | Issue 10 – Sales and Marketing
2.Federation Of Small Businesses
Figure2
