Eight in Ten Small Businesses Taking Positive Steps to Strengthen Their Enterprises in 2024
Posted on in Business News
Eight in ten small business owners (81%) are planning to develop their companies in 2024, according to new research from Novuna Business Finance. The research shows that over a third (33%) are focusing on new initiatives to increase income, whilst a fifth (20%) are looking to reduce their fixed costs.
With around nine in ten small businesses (89%) saying that they still feel the pressures from the cost-of-living crisis, there is an emphasis on increasing business income and sales this year across all sectors. Small businesses in the media and marketing sector were the most likely to say they are looking at new ways to improve their income and sales (52%), followed by small businesses in retail (42%) and IT and telecoms (40%).
Nationally, the top five initiatives small business owners are focusing on to secure growth include:
- Increasing new business income/ sales – 33%
- Reducing fixed costs – 20%
- Diversifying the business, offering new service lines/ products – 18%
- Planning ahead with business budgeting – 18%
- Building up financial reserves – 17%
Across the UK, small businesses in the North East of England are the most likely to be prioritising particular strategies to strengthen their enterprise (89%), followed by small businesses in London (86%), and the South East (84%).
Rather than recruiting new employees, one in four (25%) hospitality and leisure businesses and over a fifth (23%) of manufacturing businesses are spending time investing in the people who already work at the company in the year ahead.
Top strategies used by small businesses to become stronger in 2024:
- Increasing new business income/ sales – 33%
- Reducing fixed costs – 20%
- Diversifying the business, offering new service lines/ products – 18%
- Planning ahead with business budgeting – 18%
- Building up financial reserves – 17%
- Advertising online to increase awareness or sales 14%
- Spending time investing in the people that already work at the company – 13%
- Invest more money in marketing the business to raise awareness of our brand and services – 11%
- Expanding into new geographical markets – 10%
- Not applicable – my business is not planning to prioritise anything in particular to make our business stronger – 19%