UK Business Barometer

back to list of analyses

The May survey sought views on stimulating business, the need for a new and fresh approach to business support, growing your customer base, purchasing online, the National Minimum Wage, the working time directive, the length of the working week, priority of family commitments, contingency planning, business and lifestyle: alterpreneur or entrepreneur? and cheque processing delays

177 Business Advisers responded to this Survey.

Survey Findings

UKBAB panellists have experience-based views about the conditions in which businesses flourish. Panellists were not offered 'a stable economy' as an option as this was rather taken as read! From the options that were offered, nearly a third of respondents viewed a low administration burden as most important option (29%), followed by good financial/taxation incentives for investment (25%) and then low interest rates (20%). R&D tax credits and tax incentives for training were the conditions least chosen as most important, both with a share of less than 2%.

A similar question was asked of panellists in the parallel UK Business Barometer May Survey (UKBB, 159 respondents), and in that Survey 37% of respondents placed good financial/taxation incentives for investment as the most important condition for stimulating business, while 28% thought that low interest rates are the most essential. The third most accepted choice was a low administration burden, 18%.

One of the three main objectives of the DTI/SBS Strategic Framework for Women's Enterprise, published in 2003, was that by 2006 20% of businesses should be run by women. In order to achieve this, a programme of measures involving business support and financing were set out. With 2006 now only months away, the May Survey asked the Adviser respondents whether they think a new and fresh approach to business support is needed to achieve this target. The finding was that views were spread across the response range with no clear majority. More than one individual comment was to the effect that gender should not be made an issue in business. One contributor expressed the view that increasing women ownership of businesses is nothing to do with business support - it is a much wider agenda.

Business Advisers, like other businesses, have a need for new customers. Responses to the May Survey question on growing the customer base clearly show that respondents have found personal contact to be the most effective way of achieving this. 46% of respondents find that word of mouth and personal recommendation by existing clients is most effective, while networking is most effective for 39%. The remaining 15% were divided between the alternatives, with 12% preferring postal marketing, telephone, exhibitions/events, a web site or a member organisation and 3% preferring other means.

There have been recent reports that online purchasing by consumers is growing much faster than store purchasing, and B2B sales websites are proliferating. It has been suggested that consumer web sales have grown far more rapidly than those to businesses. The responses to our questions, identical in both Surveys, by respondents to the UKBAB and to the UKBB tend to bear out this suggestion, since a higher percentage of respondents to each Survey make purchases for personal use than for business use to a high or moderately high extent.

39% of UKBAB and 36% of UKBB respondents make purchases for their businesses online to a high or relatively high extent, while 50% of UKBAB and 47% of UKBB respondents make personal purchases online to a high or relatively high extent.

The business advisers were asked to what extent the advent of the National Minimum Wage and its gradual increase prompted their clients to consider reducing staff hours, cutting jobs or reducing job recruitment. The UKBAB Survey finding was that 17% said that clients have, to a high or relatively high extent, considered reducing staff hours, cutting jobs or reducing job recruitment, while 27% said that clients have not considered doing so. 18% of UKBB respondents have, to a high or relatively high extent, considered reducing staff hours, cutting jobs or reducing job recruitment. Of this group, 86% came from the two smallest categories of employers: 55% are respondents employing 10 or less full-time staff, and 31% employ 11 - 20 full-timers. 21% of all respondents found this question was not applicable to them.

Another likely impact on staffing and costs is the expected ending to the optional opt-out from the working time directive. 21% of UKBAB respondents would have their businesses highly or relatively highly affected by this, and 38% of UKBB respondents would also have their businesses highly or relatively highly affected. However, 49% of UKBAB respondents and 37% of UKBB would not be affected at all.

Many respondents to the UKBAB work well above average hours themselves, with only 27% working less than 40 hours per week, 36% working more than 50 hours. Most respondents to the UKBB come out at slightly higher hours, with 23% working less than 40 hours per week and 38% working more than 50 hours.

In spite of the long hours regularly worked by many, the majority of respondents to the two Surveys are careful to achieve balance with family commitments /events. 64% of UKBAB respondents assert that they rarely or relatively rarely cancel or miss out on family commitments/events, and 61% of UKBB respondents say the same. However, 17% of UKBAB respondents confess to cancelling or missing these frequently or relatively frequently, as do 20% of UKBB respondents.

Economists at ABN Amro warn that the UK economy may be heading into recession and estimate that 500,000 Britons will lose their jobs in the retail, manufacturing and construction sectors by 2008. 42% of respondents to the UKBAB advise their clients about this kind of contingency planning, to a high or relatively high extent, while 19% of UKBB respondents have developed contingency plans to a high or relatively high extent, against this possibility.

A new term, Alterpreneur, has recently been defined. Recent research found that alterpreneurs, not entrepreneurs, are the bedrock of Britain's small business community. Alterpreneurs are seen to be motivated primarily by a comfortable work/life balance as opposed to the entrepreneurs' focus on growth and commercial success. The Business Adviser's Survey asked what proportion of Adviser's client base is motivated to be more alterpreneurial than entrepreneurial. While 27% of respondents said that over 50% of their clients are primarily motivated by lifestyle considerations, 24% said that less than 20% were so motivated.

The parallel UKBB Survey asked respondents where they would place themselves on a scale of 1 to 5 from alterpreneur to entrepreneur. 49% came out nearer the alterpreneur end of the scale, at position 1 or 2, while only 27% see themselves as more wholly entrepreneur, at positions 4 or 5.

20% of UKBAB respondents find that cheque processing delays are a problem to a high or relatively high extent, while 27% of UKBB respondents find the same thing.