About the respondents
The UK Business Barometer surveys the people running small and medium size businesses. In the NJanuary survey 140 respondents were drawn with the following population characteristics:
| Sector |
| Production & Manufacturing |
Distribution |
Services |
Total |
| 25.7% |
7.9% |
66.4% |
100.0% |
| Turnover (£) |
| < 1 M |
1M-3M |
>3M |
Total |
| 71.4% |
17.9% |
10.7% |
100.0% |
| Number of Full-time Employees |
| 1-10 |
11-20 |
21-50 |
51-100 |
100+ |
Grand Total |
| 62.9% |
22.9% |
7.9% |
3.6% |
2.9% |
100.0% |
Survey Findings
86% of respondents to the January survey run businesses employing 20 or less full-time employees. In a small business, the owner manager or chief executive is likely to be more crucial to the day to day running of the business than in medium or larger organisations so that any absence of key staff could be very damaging. Insurance is one way of offsetting the risk but this is not taken up by two thirds of the respondents to the January UKBB survey.
In the corresponding survey of Business Advisers, the UKBAB, panellists were asked to say, from their own experience, what proportion of small firms has temporary incapacity/ critical illness insurance. 56% of UKBAB respondents said less than 10% take this type of cover, whilst 40% of respondents said between 10% and 30% of small businesses.
75% of UKBB respondents rate their business success to be highly or reasonably highly dependent on IT, and of these 78% have proper mechanisms in place against major IT systems failure. Of the 23% of respondents who rate their businesses as less dependent for success on IT, 72% have proper mechanisms in place against major IT systems failure.
Amongst the Business Advisers responding to the UKBAB, 34% believe that up to 10% of clients have proper mechanisms in place against major IT systems failure, while 37% think that 11% - 20% have proper mechanisms in place against major IT systems failure. The remaining 29% say that more than 20% of clients are prepared in this way.
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The need for consciously setting time aside for training will vary from firm to firm and be highly dependent on factors such as technological development in the sector. This is reflected in the dispersion of responses from UKBB respondents to the question on annual time out taken for self-training. In the question, the term 'training' was deliberately not defined and comments received from respondents indicate that the term was taken to include self-managed research and reading, as well as acquisition of skills to solve new problems as and when problems arise. 19% of respondents never take time out, while 52% take from one to five days per annum and 29% take more than five days.
This contrasts with the views of the Business Advisers responding to the UKBAB. While 19% of them think that owner managers never take time out, 77% of UKBAB respondents believe that 1 - 5 days annually is what owner-managers allow for training themselves. Only 4% think that this time is more than 5 days.
Time seems to be the greatest constraint in resisting training for the business people responding to the UKBB, with 44% choosing this. Costs and relevance were also pertinent, each being selected by 24% of respondents.
Advisers were asked the same question in the UKBAB, but time was selected by 78% of these respondents while 15% chose cost and 9% chose relevance.
There are a plethora of service companies offering to provide functions such as bookkeeping, recruitment and IT maintenance to all sizes of businesses. Take up of these outsourced services can vary by the size of firm - an analysis for each of book-keeping, payroll, IT maintenance and recruitment by number of full-time employees is shown
Book-keeping functions are outsourced by 23% of respondents, but amongst the smallest firms the rate is 31%.
Outsourcing payroll functions is more prevalent: 34% of all respondents do this, and this percentage increases to 45% and more in firms with over 20 employees.
IT maintenance is mainly provided externally, with 55% of responding firms outsourcing this, and breakdowns by size showing higher percentages for companies with 11 - 50 and over 100 employees. Many small businesses will not make any formal provision for IT maintenance, although they will outsource in the sense that they call in a local company or have equipment under warranty.
Outsourced recruitment is popular in larger companies: 40% - 50% of companies with more than 20 employees use outside firms for this. Smaller businesses do so less often and the overall percentage for all respondents is 16%.
Although there are no legal restrictions on setting up as a business adviser, for many purposes there are well known organisations and reputable sources for recommendations of who to consult and engage. There was no 'opt out' response available for this question in order to benefit from including the views of those who may not or would not ever use a business adviser. At one end of the spectrum 44% of UKBB respondents say that accredited qualifications influence their choice of business adviser either highly or reasonably highly, while at the other end, 14% say they are not at all influenced by accredited qualifications.
In considering openness and confidentiality in a relationship with a business adviser, only 51% of UKBB respondents would be highly or reasonably highly willing to reveal all aspects of their business operations, while 7% would not be willing at all. Business advisers responding to the UKBAB were asked how much their clients were willing to reveal all aspects of their businesses to them when clients are seeking advice. 72% of responding Advisers say that clients are highly or reasonably highly willing, and no advisers report complete refusal from their clients.
57% of respondents review their business costs every month, while 23% look at them twice a year, with 16% reviewing annually. Business advisers were asked in the UKBAB to what extent they encourage clients to review their costs regularly, and 76% of respondents said that they did this to a high or reasonably high extent.
Listed below are extracts from feedback received in Survey
BB92 January 2006.
Comments are listed under sector headings.
Views expressed are those of individual panellists and may not represent those
of the University.
Business Services
I interpreted the term 'training' very loosely to include a lot of self-managed research and reading to support my own development.
Production & Manufacturing
Business advice for general issues (employment law, finance etc) is easy to source, but our business finds advice specific to our industry very hard to get. We rely on helpful directors of other packaging companies for such advice. However they are not a source to be "abused" as a friendly co-operation with other packaging companies is vital for our survival.
Other
Q4 - training. When running a business you are always in training. Each new problem or challenge will require new skills before it can be solved, this will be on a need to know now basis. Unlike a profession where courses and training days are part of the job.
More & more spam & fraudulent e-mails. A real pain. Lots of people are trying to defraud everyone..
