Optimism boost for Scotland’s small firms

Scotland’ s small businesses expect revenue growth to accelerate in the coming year, according to research pub - lished yesterday.

The SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) Growth Tracker, commissioned by Amazon UK and Enterprise Nation, showed the con fidence index score for small businesses had increased from -8 in the first quarter to -5 in Q 2.

According to the study, SMES in Scotland expect revenues to rise by 1.7 per cent over the coming year, after seeing a 0.7 per cent rise over the past 12 months.

This contrasted with a current downward trend for the UK in general, where confidence levels deteriorated from -6 in Q1 to -8 currently.

Expectations on economic outlook are also lower elsewherein the country, as the SM Es surveyed nationally predicted grow th of just 0.4 per cent for the coming year.

DougGurr, UK country manager at Amazon, said: “Scotland’ s SM Es are currently among the UK’S most positive when it comes to revenue expectations and business conditions over the next 12 months,”

“This optimism bodes well for the broader economy with a likely knock-on effect for job creation, investment and growth.

“So the more that can be done to boost Scotland’s SME business confidence and support their plans, the greater the benefits for Scotland’ s economy.”

The quarterly report assesses growth prospects and economic views based on a survey of more than 1,000 UK SMES.