Small Business enterprice - Essay Example

The Contribution of the Small Business Sector to the UK Economy The present world has witnessed increasing influence of the small and medium enterprises towards the development of the economies. Though the definition of such companies vary from country to country and from industry to industry but predominantly, the companies that have work force within the limit of 250 is considered to be small and medium enterprise. The growth and prosperity of the small and medium enterprises have been more felt in the developed nations as it is perceived that the success of such organizations contributed towards the success of the developed economies.

In the United Kingdom, the small and medium enterprises are the significant provider of jobs to the populace and it is upon the potential of such small enterprises, even the national government banks. In the country, such companies are not just perceived to be the job creators but wealth creators. Such organizations get optimum support of the government so that those could well prosper in to their ventures (Ariyo, 2008).According to the data of 2002, in the United Kingdom 94.7% of all the registered business had employee strength of less than 10 and another 4.

4% in between 10 to 49. The small enterprises provided more than 43% of the total jobs in the country. Another 11.9% workforce was employed by the medium enterprises (employee strength in between 50 to 249). The small and medium enterprises also had significant share in the total turnover as it contributed almost 52% of the entire turnover leaving other 48% to the large corporations (that had employee strength of 250 or more).The industry of United Kingdom have always identified small and medium enterprises as the major source of growth and prosperity as it always generated significant share of employment.

Way back in 1930, the industry of small and medium enterprises contributed with more than 35% of total employment. It experienced steep decrease till the sixth decade of the last century and remained almost stagnant for the next ten years at around 20%. Since 1970, the industry has again taken sharp rise and there has been no looking back. It is estimated that in the year of 2000, the sector provided more than 45% of employment to the population of the United Kingdom. According to the Enterprise Directorate Analytical Unit of 2007 (provided by Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform), the small and medium enterprises comprised 99% of the UK economy.

The report also focused on the fact that 14.23 million of the workforce (out of total workforce of 30 million) works with SMEs. The sector of the economy also contributes approximately 1.48 trillion GBP towards the gross domestic product of the nation (Buzzle, n.d.).With the increasing interference of the factors like technology, deregulation, labor supply and globalization in to the business fraternity, the trend of the market has been observed to be shifting towards the small and medium enterprises from that of the large organizations (Audretsch, Et Al, 2000).

Such trends are more prevalent in the market of the United Kingdom as it is fundamentally ruled by the small and medium enterprises. ReferencesAriyo, D., 2008. Small Firms are the Backbone of the Nigerian Economy. Africa Economic Analysis. [Online] Available at: http://www.africaeconomicanalysis.org/articles/gen/smallhtm.html [Accessed 02 January 2010].Audretsch, D. B., Carree, M. A., Van Stel, A. J. & Thurik, A. R., 2000. Impeded Industrial Restructuring: The Growth Penalty. Indiana University.

[Online] Available at: http://www.spea.indiana.edu/ids/pdfholder/ISSN-01-2.pdf [Accessed 02 January 2010].Buzzle, No Date. SME Value and Contribution to the UK Economy. Business & Finance. [Online] Available at: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/sme-value-and-contribution-to-the-uk-economy.html [Accessed 02 January 2010].