UK small businesses have been advised to increase their spend on marketing and take a pay cut, new research has revealed.
The survey, published by the Small Enterprise Research Team (SERTeam) at the Open University found that many businesses believed that increasing marketing expenditure was one of the best tactics to staying afloat. Over half also said that they would expect to cut their own pay packets in the event of a severe downturn.
Professor Colin Gray, chairman of the SERTeam explained why these findings are timely for small businesses.
‘In the midst of this turbulent churn, there are thousands of small firms that have stood the test of time, surviving various cycles of downturns and upturns. This is not just a matter of luck,’ he said. ‘Our surveys reveal that resilient small business owners have adapted to managing the vagaries of business life and that they help carry the whole economy through the bad times, as they are now.’
This latest research supports the findings of a McGraw-Hill study of 600 companies in the 1980s. It found that sales of companies that continued advertising during 1980s recession rose 256% over those that didn't.
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