It seems that the economic recovery after the pandemic is beginning to be a reality. Spanish SMEs are increasingly optimistic about the success of their businesses and expect the creation of a total of 235,000 jobs in 2023according to the international report Small Businesses, Big Opportunities by Sage, a world expert in business management and accounting solutions in the cloud.
The study, which analyzes Spanish SMEs to find out how they face current health and economic challenges and their future prospects, concludes that 73% of SMEs are confident in the success of their business, compared to 65% globally. The main reason, according to 46% of those surveyed, is due to a higher level of satisfaction with your staffsince the confidence of Spanish employers in their respective templates reaches 70%, 6% above the world average.
Regarding income, 32% of Spanish SMEs expect that they will grow from 11% to 20% in 2022 and that they will generate a total of 24,000 million dollars a year, which represents a 1.9% contribution to GDP , according to the report prepared by Sage.
New challenges
More than a third of companies have not yet recovered pre-pandemic business levels and are also facing the prospect of new challenges that have emerged in recent months.
31% of the participants in the study carried out by Sage have identified the rising costs and inflation as the main challenges faced by SMEs, and 45% consider that this situation will worsen in 2022, which will significantly affect their growth prospects.
Therefore, the companies surveyed agree on the importance of having the support of governments and financial institutions to be able to face these challenges and gradually break down barriers. Specifically, 37% of Spanish SMEs identify government support as the most important resource to contribute to their growth. Funding, including bank loans and grants (26%), and increased administrative support (24%), are also key factors for success.
However, 42% of the Spanish SMEs surveyed consider that the Government is not taking sufficient measures to help them mitigate the risks they will face during the next year, and 56% state that they have not received any type of economic aid in the last year.
Sustainability at the heart of strategies
Sustainability has become a key element for Spanish SMEs when developing their strategies, according to 55% of companies.
Specifically, 88% of Spanish SMEs plan to carry out specific actions such as the waste reduction or material recyclingto be more sustainable, according to the report prepared by Sage.
Furthermore, around 81% of national SMEs surveyed feel pressure to reduce their environmental impact. This pressure comes from customers (25%), the government (24%), their employees (20%) and the supply chain (16%).
José Luis Martín Zabala, vice president of Sage partners in Iberia, has highlighted that “Sustainability is an aspect that is here to stay in all areas, but especially among SMEs, which must include it as one of the main axes of their strategies. In this context, technology companies such as Sage are supporting and helping SMEs through the integration of sustainability in our services”.
Increased investment in digitization
The pandemic has shown the need to carry out a digital adoption in all areas of society and also in business. Specifically, 64% of SMEs have increased their permanent dependence on technology to digitize their processes and thus adapt to the situation, according to the study carried out by Sage.
Likewise, small and medium-sized national companies have begun to include technology in their investment plans. Among those who expect to increase their investment in technology, according to 56% of respondents, they expect the investment figure to increase by up to 20% in 2022.
The main objectives for which SMEs plan to invest in the development of technologies are, first of all, to improve their relationship with customers (38%), to improve time management (37%) and to diversify the offer ( 32%).
