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The Results
PPH reveals findings from an extensive survey of 1300 small businesses – the
backbone of our world economy – revealing their concerns, proposals and prospects.
CONTENTS
Small businesses continued to prove
1 Introduction themselves resilient and adaptable to the
2/3 The Digital
Economy tough economic conditions this year. We
4/5 Social Media and
the Cloud
begin 2011 with an insight into the minds of
6/7 Employment and thousands of small businesses through our
Prospects
8/9 Banks and
most extensive survey to date.
Funding
10/12 Government This survey is unlike any other we have ever published.
13 Public Sector Work First it comes at the end of a crucial year with question
14 Environment marks hanging over the global economy, the recovery,
the changing geopolitical landscape, and - in the UK -
15/16 Appendix the change in government.
Thirdly, this survey was more open than any other we’ve conducted For the
first time we incorporated questions from the Press and other stakeholders of
the small business economy into our questionnaire. We are also sharing our
findings more widely and openly.
About PeoplePerHour.com
Having your voice heard is central to what PeoplePerHour.com is all about. It’s
a corner-stone of our mission. Every day we get emails from our users thanking
PeoplePerHour.com was us for making their business dream a reality. They also appreciate how we
established in 2007 as have created an ecosystem where they can collaborate, share experiences,
a marketplace for small learn and have their voice heard.
businesses to outsource
work to freelancers. The
site started with a focus More importantly, every day we realise how pivotal the role of the small
on Admin and Secretarial businesses is to our global economy. We are proud and honoured to be part
jobs and following its of this community ourselves and to be in the position to help make the small
success quickly grew to business economy a better and more productive place for us all.
cover over 30 categories
including IT, Web and
Programming, Marketing Wishing all of you a great and prosperous year ahead.
and Sales, Accounting
and Legal and more.
PeoplePerHour.com is
the pioneer and the
leader of small business
outsourcing in the
UK. The site has over
120,000 registered
users and has had
over 48,000 projects
outsourced in the last 18
months. Xenios Thrasyvoulou, CEO, PeoplePerHour.com
1
The Digital Economy
11%
17%
2
The Digital Economy
32% 51%
Yes
No
Don’t know / not sure
17%
Other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Response (%)
3
Social Media and the Cloud
22%
Yes
No
No, but planning to
18%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Response (%)
Yes
No
If so, what do you think is the main
benefit of using Twitter?
47%
42%
6% 5%
Yes
No
Don’t know what it is
50%
41%
Not convinced my
data will be secure
0 10 20 30 40 50
Response (%)
Yes No
5
Employment and Prospects
27% 32%
10%
32%
Have you had to make any
employees redundant?
Yes
No
Not applicable
0 10 20 30 40 50
What changes if any are you Response (%)
planning in your I.T hiring within
the next two years?
56%
27%
12%
4%
6
Employment and Prospects
16%
26%
Yes, full-time
Yes, part-time
18%
Not yet
Not sure
Not applicable
19%
Are you planning on employing more
21%
freelancers in the next year?
Yes
No
Not sure
Has the cost of employment
gone up or down for your Not applicable
business in the past two years?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Response (%)
28% 33%
Up
Down
Hasn’t really changed
Not applicable
12%
28% What key roles are you intending
to fill in the next three months?
28%
21% 20%
15%
9% 6%
£10,000 - £50,000
£50,000 - £100,000
£100,000 - £500,000
> £500,000
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Response (%)
12% 16%
52%
48%
36% 48%
If you didn’t accept the
bank’s terms, why not?
Unfavourable interest rates
They demanded a personal
guarantee we were unwilling
Yes No
to make
We found we could get
a better deal by seeking
private / angel investors
16%
8
Banks and Funding
52%
36%
12%
No change
Not applicable
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Response (%)
9
Government
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Response (%)
5%
7% 32%
What do you think the government
should do to encourage UK
enterprise and small business?
13%
Funding - increase pressure on financial
institutions to lend to small businesses
Give more public sector contracts to
small businesses
Deregulation - reduce the ‘red tape’
Reduce corporation tax
Reduce national insurance contributions
Increase the capital gains tax threshold 17%
27%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Response (%)
10
Government
41%
24% 25%
10%
8%
22%
What do you think about the
amount of ‘red tape’ which you
have to process currently?
It’s about right 29%
It’s currently manageable, but it seems
to be increasing
It’s too much and too time consuming
There’s so much of it, it’s actually
hindering my ability to work on my
business
41%
Yes
No
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Response (%)
11
Government
37% 63%
36%
Yes No
12
Public Sector Work
Yes, maybe
Yes, definitely
No
Not applicable
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Response (%)
14%
40%
25%
38%
33%
16%
13%
13
Environment
62%
16%
52%
Yes No No, but
planning to
21%
Yes
No
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Response (%)
71% 29%
14
Appendix
0 5 10 15 20 25
Response (%)
55% 45%
15
Appendix
<50K 58%
50K-100K 20%
100K-250K 8%
250K-1m 6%
1m-5m 3%
20%
>5m 4%
16
For further information
about this report and its
findings please contact:
Sami McCabe on
+44 (0) 20 7099 6975