Over the last few years, we've moved from one crisis to another the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the rising cost of living, says Michelle Ovens, director of Small Business Saturday UK, an organisation that champions UK small businesses. Small businesses have also had to navigate Brexit, she adds. These profound, historic events have ushered in colossal change, far beyond the standard levels of uncertainty that small businesses are used to. Incredible pressure has been piled on top of entrepreneurs and they've needed to constantly adapt to deal with shifting market conditions, levels of customer demand and changing trends. While entrepreneurs are naturally optimistic, there is an understandable sense of exhaustion, she adds.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than one-third (35%) of UK small business owners and decision makers said that running a small business had become harder over the past year, in part due to rising costs. Despite these challenging economic circumstances, SMEs are still taking a positive outlook for the year ahead, according to the research.
[
add
]
[
|
|
...
]