Small Business Matters

Strike set to continue

So the postal strikes are set to continue, and hopes for a trouble-free two months in the run up to Christmas don’t look promising!

The walk-outs across the country have being going on since June now, that’s nearly five months of disruption, and it is fast becoming one of the most frustrating times – especially for the smaller companies, who rely solely on Royal Mail to deliver their letters, parcels and goods to customers.

Whereas bigger players, for example Argos and Ebay, have the flexibility to sidestep Royal Mail so their customers don’t feel the effects, small businesses are left troubled by the ongoing disputes, which may have a crippling affect on trade, especially with one of the busiest periods approaching. According to a poll conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses, strikes could cost every UK small businesses up to £5,000.

It’s no surprise then, that according to a survey from the British Chambers of Commerce, 75 percent of small businesses are looking elsewhere for a more reliable service. Richard Tyler, Enterprise Editor at the Daily Telegraph is encouraging businesses to walk away and consider alternative postal providers:

“the best punishment for any organisation that abuses its position is for its customers to walk away. Complain first, yes. If they don’t change their behaviour, that’s it!”

Finger on the [Business] Pulse

The 2009 Business Pulse research launched at this year’s Small Business Week (19 – 23 October) has uncovered some interesting statistics and trends from Small Business Britain.

One point that stood out to us was that 48% of small business owners said that advice is essential to advancing their business. The fact that many small business owners are calling out for access to better advice and resources is something that we have blogged about previously and that we feel very strongly about. Initiatives like Small Business Week are a good chance to shout about these issues, and to make sure that small businesses are getting the support they need.

The small business owners surveyed were also largely optimistic about the future. 62% said that they expected to see a significant growth in profit within the next 18 months, primarily through increased marketing spend and investment in technology. Interestingly, it was the businesses who want to be at the forefront of technology who were also the ones who said that they have been least impacted by the recession and were most optimistic about the upturn.

Would you like to work for a small business?

If not, you should! But don’t just take our word for it. According to the Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) recent report ‘Small Businesses, Big Employers’, SMEs offer high-quality jobs. They are more flexible than larger companies, and can respond to the individual needs of employees. We found a similar result through our Intuit UK customer research, where one in five of our respondents had offered flexible working and of those 82% said it had been successful.

The FSB also strongly echo our belief that small firms make a very important contribution to the economy. In fact, they employ 59% of the private sector workforce, and 84% of all new jobs created between 2002 and 2007 across the EU were created by SMEs. And despite the difficulties posed by the current recession, small businesses still want to take on more staff.

In its report, the FSB suggests proposals to make it easier for small businesses to recruit, retain and train their staff and play their part in stimulating economic recovery. One of their interesting suggestions is that the Government should halt all new business regulation for the period of the economic downturn and recovery to let business owners concentrate on survival.

A choice of banks for small businesses

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has recently stated that recent mergers, recapitalisation and schemes to stimulate lending could create a bank monopoly and end up ‘stifling choices of finance for small firms’. Our recent customer survey has shown that small businesses are forced to become increasingly resourceful in order to secure funding in the current tough economic climate, as traditional lines of credit from banks have all but dried up. The fact that 250,000 small businesses are still struggling to access affordable loans does not come as a surprise, especially as last month it was reported that small businesses were turning to risky personal loans instead.