{"id":3584,"date":"2017-04-13T21:32:31","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T20:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3584"},"modified":"2017-04-14T11:51:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T10:51:28","slug":"small-business-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/small-business-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"SME success is essential &#8211; but does the UK have too many SMEs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Napoleon Bonaparte once famously described the UK as a &#8216;nation of shopkeepers&#8217;, and, while that description might not quite hold up some 200 years later, it&#8217;s certainly true that the UK is a nation of small to medium enterprises (SMEs).<\/p>\n<p>And the success of each SME is essential to the prosperity of the UK economy, including yours.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not an overall success story though, and the UK may actually have too many small businesses, here&#8217;s why&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>What is an SME?<\/h2>\n<p>A small to medium enterprise (SME) is generally defined as any business that has less than 250 employees &#8211; the UK currently has 5.4 million businesses that fall into this category, which accounts for an astonishing 99% of all businesses.<\/p>\n<p>This infographic from Boost Capital shows exactly why successful SMEs are integral to a thriving UK economy &#8211; but read on below to find out why the UK may actually be home to<em> too\u00a0many<\/em> small businesses&#8230;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.boostcapital.co.uk\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.boostcapital.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/GDP-Infographic-Final-edit-620w.png\" alt=\"Boost Capital SME Growth Infographic\" width=\"620\" height=\"4188\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The problem with small businesses<\/h2>\n<p>The results of a\u00a02014 study from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsagroup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">RSA Group<\/a>, the London-based general insurer, suggested the UK may have reached a tipping point when it comes to the number of small businesses, and that not enough of them are generating enough money to have a significant positive impact on the economy.<\/p>\n<p>The report, entitled\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.rsagroup.com\/assets\/download\/1535\">Growing Pains: How the UK became a nation of \u201cmicropreneurs\u201d<\/a>, reveals that \u201cUK businesses are becoming increasingly micro in size \u2013 reducing the overall potential for economic output and future growth, and increasing the economy\u2019s reliance on a relatively small number of larger businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s the problem &#8211;\u00a0The optimum size of company for maximum output is between 250 and 499 employees &#8211; these are considered large firms. And although\u00a0large firms make up less than 0.1% of the total private stock, they account for more than half of all turnover and more than 40% of private sector employment.<\/p>\n<p>So being a nation of small business owners is all well and good, but if those small businesses aren&#8217;t generating enough money or employing enough people, it could spell bad news for the economy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you think? Are there too many SMEs in the UK? If so, what can be done to solve the problem? We&#8217;d love you to share your thoughts with our business community.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1777 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/conference-call-banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"118\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Napoleon Bonaparte once famously described the UK as a &#8216;nation of shopkeepers&#8217;, and, while that description might not quite hold up some 200 years later, it&#8217;s certainly true that the<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/small-business-essential\/\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SME success is essential &#8211; but does the UK have too many SMEs?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,13],"tags":[29],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Does the UK have too many SMEs? | ConferenceCall.co.uk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UK currently houses 5.4 million small to medium enterprises (SMEs), accounting for 99% of all businesses - so are there simply too many SMEs?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/small-business-essential\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does the UK have too many SMEs? | ConferenceCall.co.uk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/small-business-essential\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ConferenceCall.co.uk blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Conference-Call-UK\/178511498997826\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-13T20:32:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-14T10:51:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/smb-coffee-shop.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Les Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LesRobertsMedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ConfCallUK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Les Roberts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/small-business-essential\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/small-business-essential\/\",\"name\":\"Does the UK have too many SMEs? 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