In our recent SMB Pulse survey, we asked 500 U.S. business principals about their state of mind and priorities. In brief, the largest SMBs are faring best; and SMBs are focused on customer and employee retention, maintaining cash flow, finding new customers, and data security.
2023 Revenue Outlook
Growth expectations increase sharply with company size. Only one in three businesses with fewer than 20 employees (very small businesses, or VSBs) expect their revenue to increase 10% or more this year, compared to more than half of companies with 20 to 99 employees (small businesses, or SBs) and two in three companies with 100 to 500 employees (midsized businesses, or MBs).
Revenue Outlook Trends, 2019-2023
SMBs are the least optimistic they’ve been since the pandemic.
Business Optimism
Overall, SMBs are most positive about their profitability, revenue and cash flow and less so about purchasing, capital expenditures, expansion and hiring. SBs and MBs are more optimistic than VSBs about every aspect of their 2023 outlook.
Business Priorities
SMBs are most focused on customer and employee retention, maintaining good cash flow, finding new customers, and data security.
However, priorities vary by company size. VSBs put a premium on customer retention, with 80% rating it as very important. Maintaining cash flow and finding new customers are close behind.
SBs prioritize retaining good employees, with 91% rating it very important. Retaining customers and maintaining cash flow are their second-highest priorities, tied at 89%.
MBs are most concerned with keeping their data and applications secure. Finding new customers ranked second, closely followed by retaining good employees.
Want to better understand the priorities of your target SMBs? Bredin can develop in-depth, actionable custom research, or agile omnibus research, to provide valuable insights to improve your go-to-market and product strategies. We also develop high-value data-driven content.
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