smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Panasonic has launched the findings of a nationwide survey of small and medium-sized enterprise owners, to determine which strategies are employed to enable growth and provide company stability.

The study of over 800 business owners, carried out by research company YouGov, aimed to examine and understand why only three per cent of UK businesses ever grow to more than 100 employees.

The project concluded that the growth of a company was considerably harder to achieve than starting a business, as stated by 41 per cent of business owners. The greatest challenges to business growth were identified as lack of money for investment, excessive legislation and lack of time to dedicate to growth.

Focusing on the tactics that SMEs employ in developing strategies for growth, the respondents cited trusting their instincts, seizing every opportunity and determination to see initiatives through despite repeated trials, as most helpful in growing their business. Interestingly, company owners with six or more staff valued employee development and retention highly with 32 per cent of respondents answering in this way, whereas this option was considered key by only ten per cent of those with two to five staff.

Owners of smaller companies, it seems, place more value on developing their own abilities rather than those of employees, with 24 per cent of sole traders and 25 per cent of small enterprise owners citing their personal skill-set as important, compared with only 12 per cent of those with six-plus staff.

Panasonic teamed up with the associate professor of Entrepreneurship at the London Business School, professor Gerry George, who ‘played a key role in the development of the research and interpretation of the results’.

George comments, ‘It's a common misconception, but people often think of the start-up phase as most critical, only to discover that growing the business raises a whole different set of challenges they are not always prepared for. As seen in the research findings, organisational factors such as resource constraints and time, and personnel issues like hard work and building the right team can be major roadblocks to break-through growth.

‘To get from start-up to the next, more stable phase, UK small businesses need to channel their determination and leverage scarce resources, whether they ultimately want to be a large corporate or just have the satisfaction of seeing their ideas come to life.’