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SMALL BUSINESS SERVICE NATIONAL OMNIBUS SURVEY SCOTLAND: AUTUMN 2002

CHAPTER SIX: SOURCES OF ADVICE

In this chapter we report the findings on use of external advice, in particular the use of public advisory and business support services. In the Scottish Enterprise area this is delivered primarily through the Small Business Gateway (SBG). In the area covered by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) it is delivered primarily through the Local Enterprise Companies (LECs). At the time of the survey this service was branded as Business Information Source (BIS) and respondents in HIE area were asked if they were aware of BIS. Some comparisons are made with use of Business Link in England and the corresponding agencies in Wales and Northern Ireland.

6.1 USE OF ADVICE

Respondents were asked about sources of advice that they had used in the past year. Nearly half (49%) of micro, small and medium-sized firms had not used any external advice at all (n=835 - 95% confidence limit within 3%) - similar to the rate for the UK as a whole. The most common source of advice used was accountants (25% of respondents), followed by Scottish Enterprise (8%; 2001 - 7%) solicitors (8%), and consultants (7%).

There was a strong relationship between use of advice and size of the business as twice as many medium businesses (69%) had used advice compared to just 38% of businesses with zero employees.

The chart below shows the use of advice by industry sector:

Figure 32 Use of advice by industry sector for micro, small and medium businesses (weighted, n=835)

Agriculture, manufacturing and the service sectors have the highest use of advice while construction firms have the lowest proportion of advice users. The main reasons for not using any advice were that the respondent felt they had no need of help at the moment (72%) and had enough expertise inside the business (15%). Only 1% of Scottish SMEs had not used advice because they did not know any was available.

48% of businesses aged twenty years and more had used advice in the past year, compared to 38% of businesses aged five years and less.

6.2 AWARENESS OF OTHER ADVICE

When asked about sources of advice that they were aware of in addition to the ones that they had used, 17% of businesses mentioned Scottish Enterprise/HIE and 4% mentioned Small Business Gateway (n=835 - 95% confidence limit within 3%).

52% of businesses are not aware of any other sources of advice.

The financial sector is the sector with greatest awareness of other sources of advice, as is shown in the chart below:

Figure 33 Awareness of advice by industry sector for micro, small and medium businesses (weighted, n=835)

Businesses with zero employees have a low level of awareness of other sources of advice (47%).

There is no relationship between awareness of other sources of advice and the age of the business.

6.3 SMALL BUSINESS GATEWAY/BUSINESS INFORMATION SOURCE

6.3.1 Awareness

Unprompted awareness is defined as those who mentioned that they had used SBG/BIS within the last year and those who, when asked if they were aware of an information and advice service for small business including a national contact centre and network of local operators, were aware of the service and the name without prompting.

Prompted awareness is defined as those who, when prompted with the name, had heard of SBG/BIS. The chart below shows the overall awareness of Small Business Gateway/Business Information Source:

Figure 34 Small Business Gateway/Business Information Source awareness for micro, small and medium businesses (weighted, n=835 - 95% confidence limit within ± 3%)

54% of micro, small and medium businesses in Scotland are aware of Small Business Gateway/Business Information Source. 57% of SMEs in the Scottish Enterprise area were aware of Small Business Gateway compared to 74% awareness of Business Link in England, 57% awareness of WDA Business Connect Gateway in Wales, and 51% awareness of Invest Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland. It should be noted, perhaps, that at the time of the study Business Link had just completed a major advertising campaign.

Awareness of SBG has increased since 2001, when 8% mentioned the services without prompting and another 36% were aware of them after prompting.

Despite its high level of use of external advice sources, the agricultural sector is the sector with lowest awareness of Small Business Gateway, as is shown in the chart overleaf (n=835 - 95% confidence limit within 3%):

Figure 35 Awareness of Small Business Gateway/BIS by industry sector for micro, small and medium businesses (weighted, n=835)

It can be seen that the financial and manufacturing sectors, which both have a high level of use and awareness of advice, have the highest proportions of unprompted awareness.

Unprompted awareness of the SBG/BIS is higher among younger businesses, compared to businesses older than twenty years (n=868 - 95% confidence limit within 3%). Prompted recognition among is also higher but to a lower extent.

Figure 36 Awareness of Small Business Gateway/BIS by age of the business for micro, small and medium businesses (weighted, n=868)

General awareness (prompted and unprompted together) increases slightly with the size of the business (n=1,002 - 95% confidence limit within 3%):

Figure 37 Small Business Gateway/BIS awareness by business size (weighted, n=1,002)

6.3.2 Satisfaction with Small Business Gateway

The 105 respondents to the survey that had used the Small Business Gateway were asked how satisfied they were with the efficiency of the service, the quality of the advice and the overall service that they received. ¹

Overall, 69% (2001 - 61%) of the businesses that have used SBG are satisfied (fairly or very). The level of satisfaction is shown overleaf:

¹ Respondents in the HIE area were asked about BIS. Whilst some respondents in HIE may have used their LEC or HIE for advice, very few said they had used the BIS product.

Figure 38 Overall satisfaction with Small Business Gateway for micro, small and medium businesses (weighted, n=88 - 95% confidence limit within ± 11%)

72% of Business Link users are satisfied with the service provided and 57% of the users of the WDA Business Connect Gateway in Wales say that they are satisfied with the service. The proportion satisfied (fairly or very) varies by industry sector, though comparison between sectors should be treated carefully due to the small number of respondents in some sectors (n=88 - 95% confidence limit within 11%). The highest level of satisfaction is in the agricultural and transport sectors, while fewer than half of the users in the hotels and restaurants sector are satisfied:

Figure 39 Satisfaction with Small Business Gateway for micro, small and medium businesses by sector (weighted, n=88)

A higher proportion of the largest businesses are satisfied with Small Business Gateway. Businesses owned by men have the highest proportion of satisfied users.

The chart overleaf shows the level of satisfaction with SBG for firms of different sizes (n=105 - 95% confidence limit within 10%):

Figure 40 Satisfaction with Small Business Gateway by business size (weighted, n=105)

75% of the businesses that had used SBG would recommend it to others, 19% would not recommend it and 6% do not know.

6.4 OTHER SERVICES

The number of respondents aware of and using other services is shown in the table below (the responses have not been weighted due to the small numbers):

Table 5 Awareness and use of other services (n=828)

It can be seen that in general there is a low level of awareness and use of the other services.

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