Businesses in Ely overwhelmingly optimistic over their financial future
Sponsored feature | By Price Bailey
83 per cent of businesses in Ely feel confident about the future according to research conducted by East Anglian accountancy practice, Price Bailey, with 81 per cent believing their financial position will improve over the next 12 months.
Price Bailey surveyed 37 local business leaders at the East Cambs Business Boost event at Littleport Leisure Centre in November, as part of the ‘Inside the Minds of Business Leaders’ business research carried out earlier this year, which surveyed over 400 business leaders from across East Anglia and London.
The East Cambs Business Boost event had a high-profile line up of speakers. These included renowned speaker Jem Hills, Google Digital Garage and top of the billing, entrepreneur Levi Roots, who rose to fame after his appearance on Dragons’ Den, which has led to his brand, Reggae Reggae sauce, becoming a household name.
William Wilson, partner at Price Bailey, who sponsored and chaired the event for Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce, said: “We’re continuing to gather local business insight to help offer better advice to our clients. The Business Boost event attracts a wide range of business leaders from around the area. By surveying these leaders and adding the results to our overall findings, we can see that local businesses continue to have a buoyant outlook on growth despite persistent economic uncertainty.
“If there’s one thing we see all business advisers, funders and investors agree on; it’s the importance of putting together a strategic business plan, which gives them the confidence to realise their growth plans.”
The barometer of changing business opinion
Earlier this year Price Bailey studied 400 businesses across East Anglia and London, presenting the findings at several events across the region where they also conducted live polling of the audience. The Cambridge event was held on May 14 at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Hinxton.
William said: “We wanted to take the opportunity to speak with local business leaders, six months on from our Cambridge event, to gain insights into the challenges and opportunities for businesses in and around Ely and Cambridge.”
Among the headline figures in the report, the research showed that businesses surveyed at the East Cambs Business Boost tend to be motivated more financially, with 62 per cent stating that success should be measured financially as opposed to using non-financial measures of success.
This figure shows a significant difference when compared with just 18 per cent of Cambridge delegates at ITM event in May and higher than even London-based businesses, where 47 per cent of those surveyed agreed with this statement.
William went on to say: “Initial results may have been surprising, with the tide swell of opinion seemingly shifting towards non-financial measures for success such as staff and customer satisfaction.
“These results are not to say that businesses around Ely are any less sympathetic to things like work-life balance.
“However, with the continued uncertainty of Brexit, businesses, particularly small businesses, are perhaps having to keep a much closer eye on their bottom line when assessing performance.
“Despite Brexit, it is refreshing to see an optimistic outlook for the future with a massive 81 per cent expecting their financial performance to improve over the next 12 months and 83 per cent of businesses feeling more confident about the future.”
Price Bailey will continue their research by surveying local business leaders at a variety of events across the region over the next 12 months. A copy of the Inside the Minds of Business Leaders research is available to download from pricebailey.co.uk/leaders.
