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Staff retention is the biggest challenge for small business - survey

Published: 05:58 20 May 2021 EDT

MBH Corporation PLC -

Staff retention and late payment of invoices are the biggest challenges for small business, according to a survey of 288 SME owners.

The poll found 35% ranked holding on to good staff against competition from big firms as their biggest issue, while 33% said late invoice payments were their biggest obstacle, both more than double the 16% who cited access to finance as their biggest challenge.

Staff issues rank as major obstacles, the research shows, with 25% saying recruiting good people is a major challenge in running a business while 12% said not having anyone to discuss ideas with is their biggest challenge.

The research was commissioned by investment holding company MBH Corporation PLC (FRA:M8H, OTCMKTS:MBHCF).

MBH Corporation’s research shows business owners are however generally optimistic about the future with the recent Budget from Chancellor Rishi Sunak boosting confidence.

Around two out of five (36%) of SMEs questioned say the Budget was positive for them and the businesses they run with just 11% claiming it was negative. More than half (53%) say the Budget was neutral in terms of their business.

Most SMEs now believe their businesses will recover to pre-pandemic levels by next year if not earlier.

Around 30% expect their businesses to be back where they were by the end of the year while another 21% expects to have fully recovered by 2022.

Nearly one in four (24%) say they are currently either performing better than pre-COVID 19 or are already back to where they were.

Callum Laing, CEO of MBH Corporation PLC (FRA:M8H, OTCQX:MBHCF, ETR:M8H) said: “SMEs are much more sensitive to the impact of good staff than bigger firms, so it is no surprise to see that retention and recruitment are such major issues for business owners.

“It is an issue that we are well aware of and almost all the businesses in our group use their allocation of public stock to retain and attract staff which helps them in levelling the playing field with big corporates.”

Through acquisition MBH Corporation has 25 companies in its group, with stock plans to incentivise the companies to accelerate their growth trajectory using the resources of the plc including expertise, skill transfer, cross-selling and, where appropriate, zero cost funding for new growth projects.

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