They may be growing at a slower rate than small or medium-sized businesses, but micro businesses, typically non-employing companies, have reported a spike in sales.
The surge in monthly takings occurred during the second quarter this year, according to one of the largest surveys of firms facing the UK’s commercial and industrial sectors.
Although creative-led businesses were not categorised by The Small Business Trust, which carried out the survey, sales for micro businesses serving nine sectors “picked up strongly.”
Wavering levels of employment, however, combined with patchy investment means micro businesses are losing out to small firms in terms of sales performance as well as growth.
But one-man companies are competing for foreign clients: in the survey, 34% of small businesses said they traded abroad, just two per cent ahead of micro-firms doing the same.
Among the small businesses polled, nearly half reported a leap in sales, a quarter invested more, and just over a fifth cited growth from employment.
The Small Business Trust said the conditions for smaller outfits were, overall, better in the second quarter this year than they were in the previous quarter and at the end of 2006.
The survey, which found Finance companies to be leading the buoyancy, is taken regularly to explore barriers to growth facing company owners running smaller businesses.
For micro businesses, such as freelance consultancies, it found that taxation is “clearly the most pressing concern.”
The survey added that finance issues, such as banks, are now a higher priority, evidenced, in part, by late payment and debt being the second largest restriction on growth.
Meanwhile, one respondent from the survey’s small business sample, which rated employment law as the biggest burden, said: “Constant changes in regulations create an environment of never really knowing whether you are up-to-date and complying.”
Elsewhere, female-led businesses emerged out of the second quarter with “steady growth”, but lagged behind the performance of male-led and mixed-gender businesses.
Employment and investment in companies owned by women have fallen, and they are marginally less likely to be trading internationally than their male counterparts.
Almost half of female-led businesses reported higher sales while just over a third had lower sales, but their outlook “on all measures” for the current quarter is optimistic.
Sep 3, 2007
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