Highlights
- 60% of SME owners expect growth in the next three months.
- Younger leaders more bullish than over-55s
- Key challenges pointed out as rising costs, inflation, and regulatory uncertainty.
Small businesses, like local shops and convenience stores, are demonstrating resilience and optimism about their prospects despite ongoing challenges in the wider economy, states a recent study.
According to a new research commissioned and analysed by Uswitch business savings experts, UK SME leaders are looking ahead with confidence with 60 per cent SME owners anticipate some level of growth in the next three months, while only 14 per cent expecting a decline in their turnover.
More than half of businesses (51 per cent) plan to look externally for capital, and younger entrepreneurs are overwhelmingly driving that demand for finance, with a whopping 74 per cent seeking external funding.
That combination of growth expectations plus a clear appetite for finance suggests many firms want to invest to scale, not simply hunker down in the next few months.
Small businesses in the UK are showing real intent to grow, and a striking generation gap is shaping how they plan to get there.
The data reveals a clear generational gap in sentiment and strategy, with 84 per cent of 18–24 year-olds expecting growth in their turnover in the next three months.
In contrast, small business owners over the age of 55 take a different view, with a quarter of this group (25 per cent) expecting an actual decline in their turnover in the next three months.
Their concerns are concrete. 53 per cent point to rising operational costs, 48 per cent to government policy or regulatory uncertainty, and 46 per cent to inflation and weaker consumer spending.
While larger businesses have been hit by weaker-than-expected domestic and export sales, leading to lower confidence in turnover and growth, the picture looks different for UK SMEs.
Across the full sample, business owners point to increased consumer demand (27 per cent) and improved access to finance (23 per cent) as the main drivers of their positive outlook.
However, the top two concerns about the UK economy are rising operational costs (32 per cent) and inflation (30 per cent).
Andy Elder, Uswitch business savings expert, says, “You can see two very different instincts in the data. On one hand, younger founders are ready to back their plans with finance and scale quickly; on the other, more established owners are tightening their finances and managing costs.
“If you run a small business today, the practical takeaway is simple: know where you sit. If demand is returning for you, make a plan to fund and protect growth. If costs are the problem, focus on pricing, efficiency and the areas where you can control spend.
"Either way, being deliberate about finance, whether you borrow or restructure, is what separates businesses that grow from those that merely survive.”