smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

The bulk of British businesses are yet to return to pre-credit crunch levels of profitability.

RSM Tenon’s Business Barometer found that 70 per cent  of entrepreneurs are still waiting for their business to return to the levels seen before the financial crisis erupted in 2007.
 
Three years on and one in ten entrepreneurs (9 per cent) believe it will take at least another three years for their businesses to return to normal levels. Twenty-seven per cent predict it will take one to two years and one-fifth think two to three years is a more realistic timeframe for business levels to be restored.
 
Business-owners will be cheered to hear that RSM Tenon expects another 20,000 business failures this year. The professional services firm questioned more than 300 entrepreneurs throughout the UK, finding that the risk of a double dip recession has sparked 43 per cent of entrepreneurs to review their business.
 
Entrepreneurs are still suffering despite the recession officially coming to an end – 22 per cent see a lack of cashflow as a serious threat to their business over the next 12 months.
 
Carl Jackson, head of recovery of RSM Tenon, says: ‘Margins remain tight for businesses, with many owners still unable to secure the additional funding they need.  Further failures are inevitable in this climate and we can expect to see 2010 corporate insolvency levels match the record totals that we have seen in the last two years.’