UK Business Barometer

back to list of analyses

The October UK Business Adviser Barometer survey questionnaire received 140 responses.

The October UK Business Adviser Barometer survey questionnaire received 140 responses. This Survey was asking for views on crime and security, monitoring client satisfaction, disability discrimination legislation, competition from accountants, regional variations in start up levels, regular custom, client base, clients using multiple sources of advice, resultant confusion, meetings and scheduling regular exercise. The report on regional variations in start-up levels will be published later.

The October Survey included two questions relating to crime and vandalism. The sister survey of Businesses, the UKBB, also asked about crime. 28% of UKBAB respondents and 31% of UKBB respondents say that crime and security are highly significant or significant issues for business, while 38% of UKBAB respondents and 44% of UKBB respondents say that they are insignificant or not very significant.

Around 20% of both UKBAB and UKBB respondents believe that crime against businesses has increased significantly over the past five years, while 61% of UKBAB and 76% of UKBB respondents think it has increased slightly or stayed broadly the same. 16% of BAB respondents returned 'don't know'.

Over three quarters of Business Advisers responding work within an environment in which the level of client satisfaction is monitored:

The Disability Discrimination act will apply to all employers from October 2004 when the 15 employee threshold is abolished. This will affect many more of the clients of the respondents to the UKBAB, and 49% of responding Advisers feel that their clients are aware of their obligations, but not in detail, while 11% of respondents believe that their clients are completely unaware.

25% of respondents find competition from accountants is affecting their business either significantly or to a medium extent, while a further 36% is feeling a slight effect from this.

The October Survey included two questions about ongoing clients. 6% of Advisers have over 75% of clients who have been with them for more than two years, while 38% of advisers have between 25% and 75% of clients for more than two years. A further 28% have between 10% and 25% of longer term clients. In total, 72% of respondents have a client base which includes 10% or more of clients that they have been advising for over two years. The client base in terms of size of business turnover tends towards the smaller end, with 43% of respondents mainly dealing with clients with turnovers less than £250,000 and 24% mainly dealing with clients with turnovers in the range £250,00 to £1 million. However, 2% deal mainly with firms with turnovers in excess of £5 million.

16% of Advisers find that over 70% of their clients will also take advice from third parties, and 25% think that between 40% and 70% do so. 50% of respondents believe that less than 40% of their clients look elsewhere for advice.

There can be problems where outside advice is also sought, and although none find it happens very often, 11% of Advisers find this is often the case, with clients being confused or receiving conflicting advice. 50% of respondents find this situation happens occasionally, 33% very rarely and 2% never find this.

In percentage terms it seems that UKBB respondents exercise slightly more than UKBAB respondents on average! 40% of UKBB versus 35% of UKBAB exercise more than once a week, although only 13% of UKBB versus 17% of UKBAB exercise weekly. Of the remainder, 43% of UKBB versus 40% of UKBAB exercise occasionally or rarely and 8% of UKBAB respondents admit that they never take exercise.

Meetings can be a source of intense irritation and frustration if not run properly, and respondents chose their top three out of the list of potential 'sandbaggers'. UKBB respondents also chose and the results were very similar between the two Surveys. The results have been placed in order of unpopularity, with the most unpopular first - wafflers, receiving 21% of the vote. A close second and third were internal politics and pointless updates, with 18% and 17% respectively.

Views expressed are those of individual panellists and may not represent those of the IBA or the University of Nottingham.

I've done business counselling/training in both the North of England (5years) and latterly the South East (3 years). N: although there's more funding available, in general terms people are more risk averse, less aspirational, have lower expectations & less willing to take advice from professional sources (i.e higher fear of failure based on perception and opinion rather than fact, and tangible level of distrust of Govt funded providers/initiatives). Also there's a larger black market economy than in the SE, which means the number of registered start-ups don't reflect a true picture of start-up rate! SE: higher income level needed, less funding available means person more likely to be a self-starter. Higher prospect for trade than NE due to higher local/regional population. Higher aspirations. Generally a more solvent client base (house equity/savings). Reason for higher starts in SW is due to relocation by SE professionals, looking for better quality of life. Please take my comments as observational, rather than judgemental!

A detailed study of micro businesses would be of interest

in respect of the competition with accountants At BusinessLink NWL we have set up a working relationship whereby we part fund accountant's support to high growth starts up to 3yrs. Max £1000 per new business.

The question about meetings seems really 'narrow' - there are many more obvious reasons for the ineffectiveness of meetings, such as bad chairmanship, lack of pre-meeting briefing (what is going to be discussed), notes of previous meetings etc

Always relevant, unquestionably accurate. A well worth while ten minute break in a busy day.

I am a volunteer business advisor for an Enterprise Agency and former, but active, Chairman of a Business Club. Many former clients are members and friends. None would have turnovers in excess of £250k,but I remain in contact with 25% of the 1500 clients I have counselled.

Many business advisers' biggest hurdle is finding clients who can benefit from their services - because they are not well known - and having a website does not help much! but the biggest problem is competition from free govt. providers!