Findings in the Sage Small Business Tracker Q3 2024
Each quarter, Smart Data Foundry, Sage and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) collaborate to produce the UK Small Business Tracker.
The Tracker provides a real-time view of how small businesses in the UK are faring in the current economic climate, analysing anonymised Sage Accounting and Payroll data from over 130,000 UK SMBs with an annual revenue of £0 - £200,000. The data is drawn from businesses across the UK.
Why track SMB performance?
Small and medium businesses are the foundation of the UK’s business landscape. Making up 99% of UK businesses, they contribute significantly to economic growth and job creation.
This also means that SMBs are are a bellweather of the UK's economic performance. Their agility and responsiveness allow them to act as early signals of changes to the economic environment, making understanding their performance essential for grasping wider emerging economic trends.
Findings from the Sage Q3 Small Business Tracker
The Q3 report highlights that revenue and profit continue to grow, with SMBs reducing debt and increasing their cash balances:
- Revenue: Grew by 3.5% in the year to Q3
- Profitability: Rise by 8.3%
- Productivity: Declined by 1.8% on an annual basis.
- Growing Cities: Liverpool the strongest revenue growing city at 29.9%
- Cash & Debt: Cash balances rose by 3.7% and debt fell by 9.1%.
Read the full Q3 report here.
Read the reports for Q1 2024 and Q2 2024.
Insights from Smart Data Foundry
Smart Data Foundry's vision is to unlock the insights hidden in private sector financial data, helping to foster dialogue, research and policy which leads to improved economic wellbeing.
We collaborate with partners like Sage to deliver clear, data-driven insights that help decision makers across sectors make informed choices, better navigate challenges and explore solutions for positive change.
