Optimistic small business survey – but is it out of date ?
The excellent small business website, simplybusiness.co.uk has published a survey of small business which makes for optimistic reading, which is welcome in the current gloom and doom atmosphere. However, when reading this, we couldn’t help but ask ourselves “was this survey undertaken a few months ago ?”. This of course is not the fault of the company doing the survey and is perhaps simply indicative of how fast things are changing, and unfortunately deteriorating in the UK and world financial system.
So, we would take the following findings with a large pinch of salt, but who knows, things may improve. Certainly, a glass half full approach, tempered with some realism, is often better than the half empty way of thinking. After all, as the saying goes “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
Anyway, here are the headline findings of the survey of over 350 small businesses :-
- 62% of Small businesses expected their turnover to rise in 2012
- 27% plan to create new employment in the next year
- 65% consider that getting new business is the key for their business in the next year
- Nearly 75% said they do not believe the economy will improve in the next year
- 79% reported stable or increased revenue increased in the last year
Does the above represent irrational optimism or does it instead point to the Great British resilience and fighting spirit. Only time will tell, but what do you think ?
