Business Leader reports on findings from a study by Hitachi Capital Business Finance: “SMEs in the retail sector (89%) were those most likely perceive significant barriers to growth. Just under half blamed market uncertainty (47%) as a key obstacle to growth, whilst a quarter pointed towards rising rents on the high street as a problem for their long-term growth (24%).
The legal sector has seen the sharpest rise in the percentage of small business owners that identify barriers to growth (up from 61% to 79% over 12-months) – with market uncertainty (26%) and red tape (21%) cited as the biggest challenges.

Small businesses in the construction sector were those most likely to say that the cost of skilled labour was holding their business back (20%).
In the manufacturing sector, concern over barriers to growth has risen from 78% to 87%. Here, volatile cash flow was mentioned as a significant issue (22%, compared to a national average of 13%).”

Read more: Business Leader

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