The UK's small business owners remain confident over their future prospects despite the current economic conditions.
That's the conclusion of the Entrepreneurship UK: 2008 report by Deloitte, which found that 45% of entrepreneurs are confidently predicting growth of over 20% in the next year.
Over half of those questioned admitted they had been adversely affected by the credit crunch, with this seen mainly in a decrease in demand for products and services and a tightening of lending policies by financial providers.
The main barrier to achieving strong business growth was seen as a shortage of quality staff, with over 25% now making recruitment and training their greatest single financial investment in the next 12 years.
But a further 17% said their business was sufficiently robust to experience no impact from the deteriorating economic environment whatsoever.
"While we may be facing challenging economic times, we are seeing entrepreneurial businesses employ a range of strategies to remain highly competitive and deliver on their confident expectations," said Tony Cohen, head of entrepreneurial business at Deloitte.
"Increasing focus on new product and service development, undergoing a phase of internal consolidation before growth and outward expansion, and entering new offshore markets, albeit primarily within the more established economies of Western Europe and North America, are all regarded as being key to future revenue growth," he added.
According to the research, technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) businesses are the most positive companies, expecting an average of 26% growth in the next year and 111% in the medium term.
The least optimistic sector - out of the eight industries surveyed - was consumer business but even there revenue growth was predicted to increase by 18% in the short-term and 48% over the forthcoming three years.
"In spite of the numerous challenges to entrepreneurial businesses, such as the credit crunch and a lack of quality talent, the relentless thirst for growth and aspiration to yet higher performance is telling within the [small business] sector," added Cohen.
