The Business Bulletin
SME Survey What impact does the current climate have on the turnover and profit for small businesses? Just before lockdown, a survey was
profits to grow, 14.9% to stay the
undertaken of small business owners
same, 10.6% were unsure and 12.8%
asking for information about their
thought their profits would shrink.
historic performance and the future outlook – at the time only Brexit was
Once again, this is not too bad
Get involved To take part in the next
– 76.6% of businesses not being
survey – What marketing
impacted by a profit loss. As all
channels work for you? –
businesses should focus on bottom
visit here: https://forms.gle/
was undertaken to explore what
line profits, this is encouraging given
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impact the pandemic had in the
all the uncertainty ahead. Even more
results will be shared in the
results. As the survey was anonymous, it
interesting, combining the surveys
next edition of this magazine.
was not possible to go back to exactly
that considered turnover performance
the same people who responded
over last 12 months, the outcome is
first time around. However the same
shown in Figure 1.
upon us. Six months later, a similar survey
demographic was approached.
Here is a summary of the findings. In the initial survey, 77.9% of those surveyed (68 respondents) expected their business to grow over the next 12 months. This is encouraging given that it was just Brexit was looming on the horizon at that time. For the latter survey (47 respondents - see Figure 2), this dropped to 51.1%. However, 25.5% expected their turnover to stay the same (22.1% in the original survey),
This implies, comparing this data from the results of the two surveys, that surprisingly less businesses are expected to shrink over the next 12 months than did in the previous year. One in five shrank historically, but only one in eight are expecting to going forward. And a similar percentage to the most recent survey (73.1% versus 76.6%), around three out of four businesses either growing their profit or staying the same.
situation facing small business has had an impact, it seems there is still light at the end of the tunnel. The next hurdle to face is a recession, however small businesses are in the best position to adapt to meet the challenges ahead. SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) account for 99.9% of the business population (5.9 million businesses) in the UK. Of that number, 4.5 million are businesses with no employees (source: ONS). This is a significant contribution to UK plc, so going forward, it is the
Whilst not a statistician and no
small business owner that can make
doubt holes can be found in the
a difference to the economy going
analysis, it is clear that the current
forward. Onwards and upwards.
14.9% were unsure and 8.5% thought Unsure 5.2%
their business would shrink. So this isn’t too drastic in outcome given the impact of Covid-19 and the
Unsure 14.9%
Shrink 21.7%
Shrink 8.5%
unknown outcome of Brexit; with less than 1 in 10 small business expecting a drop on turnover. A supplemental question, not asked in the first survey, asked about the impact on profit over the next 12 months. The results of this survey were 61.7% indicated that they expected
38 | Issue 1 – Finance
Grow 51.1%
Grow 54%
Same 25.5%
Same 19.1%
Turnover performance last 12 months
Turnover performance next 12 months
(115 respondents)
(47 respondents)
Figure 1
Figure 2
