A raft of recent surveys suggest a business landscape carpeted in the green shoots of recovery, with SMEs feeling bullish for the year ahead. Bibby Financial Services found two thirds of the 1,000 businesses it surveyed across the UK anticipate growth this year, while the number considered to be in ‘critical distress’ fell for the third quarter in a row.
Begbies Traynor’s latest Business Factor Index, meanwhile, found that while SMEs were not experiencing an enormous upsurge in business, they were nevertheless showing greater activity levels and expressed confidence moving forward. Furthermore, the latest IPA Bellwether study, a quarterly survey of the UK’s top brand marketers, reported last week that 2014 would see the biggest marketing budgets since 2008 – good news for print.
The industry too is showing confidence, according to the likes of Close Brothers Asset Finance and Compass Business Finance, who are seeing a distinct uptick in businesses seeking finance to re-equip and diversify.
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