A new Funding Bay survey has revealed that almost 20,000 UK businesses think extra funding will be integral to their growth over the next 12 months.
Recently, we surveyed around 200,000 UK SMEs, asking them how they planned to grow their businesses over the next 12 months. Of those surveyed, 9%, approximately 18,000 businesses – said that additional funding was a part of their strategy for 2021 and 2022.
Read on to learn more about some of the other results.
Businesses adapt post-pandemic
It’s no secret that economic confidence has started to improve in the months since lockdown measures started to ease in April 2021. With the grand reopening of the hospitality sector and a return to work for many home-bound employees, the British economy has been recovering over the last six months.
According to research by EY, firms remain positive about the economy and the landscape for investment. The Big Four giant expects investment to grow by 7% in 2021 (a return to pre-pandemic levels) and then by more than 10% in 2022.
In the same research, EY notes that while this will vary from sector to sector, a fall in both business and consumer spending, as well as government aid for SMEs, spells out a positive appetite for an economic rebound.
The results of the survey
The survey we conducted at Funding Bay spoke with over 200,000 small to medium businesses in the UK, asking them one simple question: how do they plan to grow their business in the next 12 months?
While 41% noted that improving existing and new products and services was a natural step forward, investment made up the second and fourth most popular responses.
After that, some 38% (around 76,000) noted that investment in marketing and strategy was a key component of their plans, while 9% (around 18,000) said extra funding for various areas would be important.
What does this mean for UK SMEs?
Firstly, it shows that SMEs broadly expect the next 12 months to be economically positive, and think that the year after the pandemic will see a return to something resembling a business norm.
This subsequently indicates a greater willingness to kick off new projects, invest in marketing and sales, hire and train new staff, and look to scale as a business. In turn, this means there will naturally be a desire for more funding.
When we combine this with information from EY suggesting that lenders have a good appetite for risk and are prepared to match pre-pandemic investment levels, it seems like a prosperous environment for UK business after all.
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