Net helps businesses beat recession

PA 256/09 The internet is one innovation helping small business bosses deal with strategic decision-making and survive the current recession, according to results revealed by the latest UK Business Barometer and Business Adviser Barometer surveys. These unique parallel quarterly surveys of small business owners and business advisers produced by The University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI) show some of the tactics businesses are using to adapt to the pressures of trading during the Credit Crunch. They also track growth forecasts, perceptions of the availability of external debt financing and other key factors. In the new analyses, business people report a willingness to 'pull together' and collaborate with neighbouring firms to share costs and achieve efficiency gains. And they realise that to stay successful they must 'innovate or die'. Many are now focusing more closely on internal financial and credit management systems and procedures to spot weaknesses that may be costing them money. Other specific issues were polled as well.