While advertising and travel are top of the list of budget cuts for UK SMEs, IT spending looks set to hold up.
Travel and advertising look set to top the list of small business spending cuts, if a survey released today by Opus Energy is to be believed. The survey, conducted by YouGov, found that 37% of SMEs plan to reduce expenditure on travel and 40% on advertising.
This looks set to be bad news for the smaller marketing and advertising agencies who traditionally serve the SME sector and suggests the recessionary stereotype of slashes in ad spend slashes is more than just cliche.
Interestingly many small businesses (25%) were determined that spending on IT would not be cut back over the next year or so.
Perhaps unsurprisingly staff bonuses in medium-sized enterprises are also under threat, with 33% saying this would be the first area to be reined in.
Although bonuses may not be safe, day-to-day morale lifters like tea, biscuits and minor staff perks were one of the least likely areas to disappear as more and more firms look for financial savings as the recession bites.
[Picture credit: The Shane H licenced from Flickr]
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