UPS Surveys Landscape For US Small Businesses

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UPS Surveys Landscape For US Small Businesses

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

A survey of small businesses in the US recently conducted by delivery and freight firm UPS has presented some interesting findings for the nation's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), micro-businesses and entrepreneurs.

The poll found that although 85% of the small business owners questioned cited the economy as their primary concern, those involved in exporting and other types of international trade were confident that such opportunities would continue to arise, regardless of the state of the economy, with 78% expressing confidence for the future of their business in this area.

UPS suggested that this bullishness could be because most of the small- and medium-sized businesses surveyed (61%) that had expanded into foreign markets felt that they had done so with "a sound plan" in place.

A number of those polled also expressed an interest in expanding their operations further, on a global basis. Respondents indicated they would most prefer to expand their business in the future to Europe (36%), followed by Asia (22%) and North America (22%).

On arguably a more domestic note, the delivery firm also examined the use of social media (such as Twitter and Facebook) by small businesses in the United States.

The Business Monitor poll suggested that "despite the entrepreneurial nature of small and medium business owners, they may not be making the most of social media".

According to the findings, approximately a quarter (24%) of those questioned stated that they had received sales leads from social media, far behind word of mouth (84%), the company's website (74%), networking events (50%) and sponsorships or advertising (41%).