Survey reveals sales, marketing & IT investment is up, showing confidence among UK small business

The outlook for UK small business looks positive, with 54% UK small business increasing this year’s budget from last year. The survey, commissioned by Iconnyx, a fast-growing provider of managed IT services to the business marketplace, was conducted among heads of 100 UK small businesses and revealed that for 79% of respondents the economic forecasts for 2012 had not affected their budget.

Major areas for increased investment include marketing (67%), sales (63%) and IT (50%), demonstrating an offensive strategy to economic uncertainty. Marketing activity for the year focused on online activities with respondents either agreeing or strongly agreeing that email marketing (63%), website development (58%) and social media (54%) were the priorities.

30% respondents said they would also consider outsourcing as a means to reduce 2012 overheads.

“It’s really positive to see the strategy of investment despite all the doom and gloom out there,” said Tim Walker, Managing Director. “It shows that smaller businesses are more resilient to current economic uncertainty, and the government should recognise and reward them as a major contributor to the future of UK growth.”

As part of the SME Insight education series, Iconnyx and The Supper Club – a group of some of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs – have developed a whitepaper guide offering businesses advice on how to forecast effectively and set an accurate budget, read the whitepaper in full by downloading it here.