Your skills

Of the respondents 67% identified industry expertise as the single most valuable business skill they have. One small business owner summed it up as follows: 'Our expertise makes our clients trust us and return year after year for more'.

When asked what skill was lacking, 44% cited marketing.

‘Marketing is all about clinching the deal and ensuring your company seems bigger and better resourced than it actually is’.

So how would businesses in our survey go about adding marketing to the skills in their armoury?

Some 53% of businesses in our survey would learn the skill themselves while 22% would hire specialist staff on a temporary basis.

Barclays can help businesses in a number of ways including offering our award-winning¹  seminar programme , a free marketing consultation, Business Skills training and software packages. In addition, if you would like free advice on how best to market your business, look no further than our next hub ‘Marketing and Attracting Customers’. This will provide a clear guide to marketing on a shoestring and includes advice and AV from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

What¿s the best source of information and support for small businesses? When asked this question, many of the respondents to our survey discounted the official help available, preferring instead the informal network of contacts with other small business owners.

In fact the result was overwhelming with over 50% of respondents stating that they go to fellow small business owners for help and advice. Print media is used by 43% of respondents, however it is only the most trusted by 9%. The least trusted source of information is ¿messages from the government¿ with only 1% choosing this as the information source they trusted most.