Small Business Week

We wanted to know how optimistic small businesses are at this time about the future. Amongst other questions, we asked them about their prospects over the next year, when they think the upturn will come, what expenditure they will prioritise to bring on growth, when do they expect to see profits rise again and what will success look like when the upturn comes?

The majority (64 per cent) considered that making a profit would be their main yardstick for success, with 61 per cent saying that they were confident or very confident about their prospects over the next year. 62 per cent said that they expected to see a significant growth in profit within 18 months. To facilitate growth, 54 per cent said this would come from marketing spend and 27 per cent said it would come from investment in technology.

75 per cent of respondents said that they considered we would see an upturn in the economy by the end of 2010. In fact, 35 per cent thought that this would come at the beginning of 2010, so there is a reasonable amount of optimism. The south-east is most optimistic with Wales being the most pessimistic of all the regions about how quickly the upturn will come about.

Larger businesses in our sample were the most optimistic, with the smallest businesses being the most pessimistic. In terms of sector, the insurance, financial services and technology, IT and telecoms businesses believe the upturn is around the corner, with construction, property and public-service people thinking that it's much further off.

The youngest businesses, which have been around for less than two years, are most confident about a downturn; those who have been around the longest, over five years are least confident that the upturn is almost with us.