Drawing on its large customer base of over 170,000 small to medium sized enterprises, Simply Business will be asking SME owners to help build a comprehensive picture of their industry. The Trends Survey will cover topics including marketing spend, investment in cloud computing, projected revenue, funding sources, headcount changes, sales and finance plus other priorities and predictions for the next twelve months.

Findings will be published on the Simply Business website in October 2011. The survey is open to all small to medium size businesses and data will be collected anonymously to protect contributors.

Jason Stockwood, CEO at Simply Business said:

“We’re keen to build an accurate picture of the current state of the UK economy from a small business owner’s perspective. We feel it is vital that small business owners are given a voice – particularly when you consider that SMEs account for 99.9 per cent of the total enterprises in the UK and provide over 59 per cent of the jobs in the private sector*. They really are the backbone of the UK economy.”

Any UK business owner who would like to take part can complete the survey online in less than 10 minutes. All respondents will be entered into a draw to win a Kindle and Kindle Book gift certificate.

Notes to Editors

*Taken from the Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions 2010 issued by the department for Business Innovation and Skills, published by the ONS.
 

About Simply Business

Simply Business is the UK’s largest business insurance broker.
Launched in 2005, the full service insurance specialist identified a need to improve insurance offerings for the UK’s millions of small businesses whose needs were neglected by established insurance and broking companies. Where the traditional broking model was slow-moving and inflexible, Simply Business developed an agile and online brokerage service which was able to deliver bespoke policies tailored to their individual and often very specific requirements. Its online offering is supported by a dedicated, UK based team of insurance specialists who provide a tailored and personal service more commonly associated with broker relationships.
Today, Simply Business insures over 170,000 small business customers, more than any other UK broker. It has been a Sunday Times Tech Track 100 company for the past three years, with offices in London and Northampton, and employs over 140 people. Simply Business revenues have grown 44% a year from £4.2 million in 2006, to £12.5 million in 2009.