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Nearly Half Run out of Money or Come Very Close in First Five Years
25 October 2011, London – Britain’s start-ups are running a financial gauntlet, often running low on cash with little visibility of their profitability, cash flow or debtors, according to research from financial software maker Intuit. The report coincides with the launch of QuickBooks 2012, the latest release of Intuit’s popular financial management software.
The research, based on a poll of 500 businesses less than five years old, shows that small businesses are critically vulnerable to outside factors. These include restricted access to credit, rising inflation and falling consumer spending. The report found many small businesses are:
- Walking a financial tightrope – 42 per cent set up on £1,000 or less; about one in 10 (11 per cent) ran out of cash whilst one-in-three (33 per cent) came “very close”
- Driving blind – Three-in-four (75 per cent) rely on manual records – either pen and paper (21 per cent) or spreadsheets (54 per cent) – offering limited insight into the state of their business.
- Feeling the pressure – Less than one-third (29 per cent) think they managed their finances “well” or “very well in the business’s early stages; 74 per cent found managing their finances stressful in this period.
- Optimistic despite the gloom – Half expect to grow their business in the next year, despite almost half (44 per cent) say that trading conditions are worse now than six months ago.
Challenged by Getting Paid, Cash Flow
Many small business owners said ‘getting paid’ and ‘cash flow’ are two of the top four challenges facing their business –40 per cent and 31 per cent of businesses surveyed respectively.
Financial management software, such as the new QuickBooks 2012, can make it easier for UK small business owners to solve these problems.
Pernille Bruun-Jensen, UK managing director for Intuit, said: “Managing your finances efficiently is as important as winning new clients when it comes to keeping a young business ticking over. Spend more money than you make and you’ll fail, regardless of how brilliant or busy the business is. Knowing what’s coming in and what’s going out remain the absolute fundamentals in running a successful venture.”
Bruun-Jensen added: “By getting started with spreadsheets or pen and paper records, many business owners find it very difficult to graduate their systems as their business grows. , thereby compounding the problems they face in managing their accounts. Often are unaware that there is a better way or are worried they need accounting knowledge to use financial management software. In launching QuickBooks 2012 today we aim to help make it easy for small businesses to manage their finances better and save time.”
QuickBooks is the No. 1-selling small business accounting software in the UK, according to GFK RT accounting software data for retail desktop units from September 2010 through August 2011. The new version is easier to set up and use with many improvements to help small business owners get up and running in fewer steps, stay on top of their finances with at-a-glance views of key business information and save time on every day accounting tasks.
Pricing and Availability
QuickBooks 2012 is now available from quickbooks.co.uk. QuickBooks 2012 is available in six versions:
- QuickBooks Simple Start – £99.00.
- QuickBooks Pro – £269.00.
- QuickBooks Premier – £499.00.
- QuickBooks Pro + Payroll – £41 per month.
- QuickBooks Premier + Payroll – £60 per month.
All are available for download from quickbooks.co.uk. Selected retailers, including Amazon, PC World and Staples, will have the product in November.
QuickBooks is ICAEW and HMRC Payroll Standard accredited.
ENDS
About the research
The survey data was gathered via an online survey administered by YouGovStone Ltd between August 23-30, 2011 to members of its online research panel of 300,000+ individuals. The sample targeted owners, founders and senior employees from UK companies less than five years old with 20 employees or less, and is representative across UK regions. The total sample size was 500. All figures, unless otherwise stated are from YouGovStone Ltd. The figures have not been weighted. YouGov is a member of the British Polling Council.
About Intuit UK
Intuit is a leading provider of financial management solutions for small businesses and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks® and QuickBooks Online, simplify small business management and payroll processing. Intuit UK is a subsidiary of Intuit Inc. For more information please visit: www.intuit.co.uk.
About QuickBooks
QuickBooks simplifies financial management, helping small business owners save time by organising their finances all in one place and making it easy to create invoices, track sales and expenses and automatically calculate and eFile VAT returns directly to HMRC. QuickBooks is the No. 1-selling small business accounting software in the UK, according to GFK RT accounting software data for retail desktop units from September 2010 through August 2011. QuickBooks is ICAEW and HMRC Payroll Standard accredited.
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