In March, immediately after the Chancellors latest budget, we asked SMEs across the UK to share their outlook for the next 12 months.  The findings make for interesting reading – including:

  • 46% of businesses with less than £250k turnover are expecting reduced income over the next 12 months.
  • 67% of businesses with more than £5M turnover are projecting increased income.
  • Looking after existing clients, finding new clients and growth are the 3 biggest priorities for SMEs.

These findings, somewhat unsurprisingly, suggests that larger businesses are more insulated from the negative effects of the pandemic. Smaller firms, with less resources and less of a ‘safety net’, are feeling the effects more severely.

It is encouraging to see that 64% of businesses have reviewed their cashflow – a vital step to take at all times but even more so in these turbulent times.

A concern is the low number of businesses that are undertaking customer surveys.  Keeping close to your customers has never been more important.

You can see a full copy of the tracker polls results together with our observations in our SME Outlook Tracker Report below:

UK200GroupSMETrackerApril_SummaryReport

We have also produced a handy one-sided leaflet to highlight some of the key steps that SMEs can take to futureproof their business:

Copy of UK200 – Futureproof your business