Smaller businesses 'innovate' in tough economic times

Thursday, May 6th 2010

Export growth in the UK may be down to smaller companies looking for new markets following the recession.

Chris Gorman, media and PR assistant for the Forum of Private Business, said the weak pound has also helped with this.

"In tough times, smaller businesses have to be especially innovative in order to survive as they don't have huge financial resources to fall back on like big companies do," he explained.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to have a large influence and Mr Gorman says they could be "key" when looking for ways to respond to job losses from larger organisations.

His comments follow a report from the Confederation of British Industry, which found demand for goods made by British SMEs is improving abroad as well as in the UK.

The rise in export orders was larger than expected and 14 per cent of firms said they feel more positive about the general prospects for their business than they did three months ago.