FSB

TAKE FIVE TO STOP FRAUD

The Take Five campaign is ramping up its efforts to help make SMEs more fraud-aware, to stem millions of pounds of losses to this insidious form of crime every year.

FSB is supporting the campaign urging people to stop, challenge, and protect themselves from fraudsters’ attempts to scam them out of their hard-earned cash.

As many businesses continue to have people working from home, fraudsters will try to take advantage of opportunities to steal money where firms might be working outside of their normal processes. Criminals often attempt to impersonate a chief executive, senior manager, or supplier to try and convince staff to make an urgent payment or to change the existing bank account details held on file.

These scams result in the victim transferring money to a criminal – UK Finance figures showed that in the first half of 2021, businesses saw £59.2 million lost to these frauds, an increase of 35%. In a survey conducted for the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign, 80% of SMEs said they had received an unsolicited text or email request for money and personal information and 64% had received unsolicited phone calls.

The survey also found that although 62% of SMEs claim to be more aware of fraud since the start of the pandemic, a concerning one in six (16%) did not challenge an unsolicited phone call requesting money or personal information. Have you ever wondered how we get our data and why Government and stakeholders are so keen to hear from us at FSB? The answer is simple, we listen to businesses. One of the ways in which we do that is with our online research community which is free to join for FSB members.

By commenting or responding to our Big Voice surveys, members give us the evidence that we need to shape the insights that influence policy decisions by governments and senior politicians in the UK.

It’s easy to get involved in the conversation and make your voice count. Simply sign up and wait for an email to take part in the next survey. You can even do it on your phone and make a difference on your lunch break or over a coffee.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

BUSINESS POSITIVITY FALLS SIGNIFICANTLY

FSB’S SOUTH WEST POLICY UNIT REPRESENTATIVE CRAIG CAREY-CLINCH

The emergence of the omicron variant and fears of further Covid restrictions contributed to small business confidence plunging in the south west at the end of 2021.

A survey of FSB members revealed a fall of nearly 30% since the previous report in the autumn.

Concerns of what would happen with omicron led to nervousness among both business and customers in the region and are likely to have been among the factors which markedly hit the confidence of the south west businesses polled and also saw the region become one of the least optimistic in the country for their 2022 prospects.

Although it is hoped the easing of Covid restrictions now on the way may help to restore some of the business sentiment, the FSB’s Cornwall based, regional policy representative, Craig Carey-Clinch, said the results of the 2021 Q4 survey were a stark reminder of the difficulties many small businesses throughout the south west face as we enter the New Year.

“What we hope this report will do is to serve as a reminder to stakeholders in and outside of Government that they must continue to support, incentivise and invest in our small business community as we enter 2022,” he said.

“The south west’s SMEs have had so many issues to deal with over the past two years and have fought on valiantly, but they can’t do it alone and we need help and understanding if we are to see those confidence levels rise once again.”

As well as confidence levels falling, the report also revealed fears over future profit levels and concern over the current economic conditions in the UK for trading. Businesses polled also reported that getting appropriately skilled staff and reduced customer demand were also among the biggest barriers to growth.

There were, however, some reasons to be more optimistic from the report. Nearly half of those polled said that their growth aspirations in the next 12 months were to grow either ‘rapidly’ or ‘moderately’ and in addition more businesses intended to increase their headcount than to decrease it in the current quarter.

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