With it being National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Day, here are 10 facts that you might not know about SME’s in the UK.
- In 2018, there were 5.7 million SME’s in the UK.
- 1 million people are employed by UK SME businesses. This represents 60% of the entire UK employed population.
- In January 2016, SME’s in the UK had a combined turnover of £1.9 trillion. This represents 51% of the entire UK private sector business turnover.
- Over the past 3 years, 60% of SME businesses sought some form of external funding, yet46% of UK SMEs have experienced barriers when trying to access finance.
- 99.9% of businesses in Britain are SMEs and they generate 51% of all UK business turnover.
- Medium-size businesses with 50-249 employees generate the most profit by far at almost £200,000 per year.
- A monthly survey carried out between February 2016 and January 2018 revealed attracting customers to be the biggest challenge for UK SMEs, with 79% of the 537 businesses surveyed listing it as their biggest concern.
- SMEs in the UK lose more than £2bn every year due to late payments with roughly £14bn of payments still outstanding.
- SMEs account for at least 99.5% of the businesses in every main industry sector.
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises account on average for 60-70% of total employment.