New Report Reveals Liverpool SMEs Are Optimistic About Future Growth

A New Report Of 750 UK Businesses Run By SumUp Reveals Liverpool SMEs Are Optimistic About Their Future Growth

The Beatles Statue and The Royal Liver Building on The Pier Head, the icon of the Liverpool City Region (Credit: The Liverpudlian/This image is an original piece of work by The Liverpudlian Team).

• A new report from SumUp, the leading global fintech company, reveals the current confidence levels of UK small business owners and decision makers.

• Insights include the confidence levels of small business owners as the UK economy recovers from the technical recession it entered in 2023.

• A third (33%) expect their business to experience significant growth over the next 12 months

Running a small business in the UK is no easy task, however, the lingering effects of the recent recession are now starting to shrink and 2024 is seeing inflation drop to its lowest level in two years.

With this in mind, SumUp surveyed 750 small UK business owners and decision makers within small UK businesses to see how confident they feel about the state of the current UK market, the challenges they are facing, and if their current confidence levels extend to future expectations.

The survey was conducted by TLF panel and was completed by 750 small business owners and decision makers in the UK with at least one brick and mortar store.

'As champions for small merchants, we conducted this survey to discover the confidence levels of small business owners and decision makers in the UK to better understand the challenges they face, gauge their optimism about their future, and identify areas where support for SMEs might be needed.' - Corin Camenisch, Product Marketing Lead at SumUp.

Confidence levels over the next 12 months:

Overall, SMEs based in Liverpool are very optimistic about the future of their business, especially as the UK economy recovers from the technical recession it entered in 2023.

While 30% of small business owners and decision makers are confident about the future, expecting to perform well and overcome challenges, a third (33%) said that they are very confident and believe their business will grow significantly over the next 12 months.

Furthermore, 11% of respondents said that they have some concerns, however, generally feel positive. Less than a quarter (22%) said that they felt uncertain about the future and neither expect their business to grow or decline significantly.

Only 3% of Liverpool SMEs said that they are worried about the future and expect there to be a lot of challenges to overcome.

Challenges that Liverpool SMEs are facing:

Although SMEs in Liverpool have positive confidence levels, they  still acknowledged the challenges that are influencing their business confidence levels.

Almost half (47%) of respondents said that the cost of bills and necessary investments including energy, rent, and new machinery is the main challenge they are facing, whilst 44% said that the economy and inflation rates on raw materials and stock is influencing their business confidence.

Furthermore, 22% said that it is getting more challenging to retain customers. Additional challenges that SMEs are facing include keeping up with competition (17%), smaller profit margins (17%), and finding and retaining employees (8%).

Only 8% of respondents said that they are not currently facing any challenges.

How SMEs are tackling challenges:

It appears that small business owners and decision makers are welcoming a number of changes in order to tackle challenges.

More than a quarter (27%) of respondents have made cost-saving plans in regards to a change of service providers including energy, gas, and Wi-Fi, along with making plans to change supply chain and professional services in order to save money.

Furthermore, while 21% have increased their pricing structure to help protect profit margins, 15% have lowered them in a bid to help customer retention. Additional changes that SMEs have made include expanding their product or service offering to expand into new markets and consumer groups (18%), invested in digital transformation to support and grow their business (12%), and reworked their business so that it is more eco-friendly, resulting in lower energy costs (6%).

One in six (15%) of those who said they are facing challenges admitted that they have made no attempts to tackle them.

'Overall, confidence levels of small business owners and decision makers across the UK are high. This positive outlook suggests that small merchants are prepared to navigate potential uncertainties and continue to thrive.' - Corin Camenisch, Product Marketing Lead at SumUp.

Corin Camenisch, Product Marketing Lead at SumUp, commented on the survey: 'As champions for small merchants, we conducted this survey to discover the confidence levels of small business owners and decision makers in the UK to better understand the challenges they face, gauge their optimism about their future, and identify areas where support for SMEs might be needed.'

Corin added: 'Overall, confidence levels of small business owners and decision makers across the UK are high. This positive outlook suggests that small merchants are prepared to navigate potential uncertainties and continue to thrive.'

She said: 'We have provided tips off the back of our findings for those just starting out in business, or who are looking to deal with unexpected market fluctuations on our full campaign page.'

For more information and business advice, please visit the full campaign page by SumUp.