Nearly half of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) worldwide aim to expand this year, according to a new survey by Peninsula Group. Of the 79,000 businesses surveyed in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK, 47.2 per cent said growth is their main goal for 2025, up from 44.7 per cent at this time last year.
Still, not all employers share that outlook. Almost one-quarter of respondents, 23.3 per cent, said survival is their top priority for 2025, up from 20 per cent last year. The UK and Ireland reported the largest jump in businesses focused on staying afloat, with the UK moving from 18.8 per cent to 26 per cent and Ireland increasing from 18.8 per cent to 25.6 per cent.
“While there are certainly challenging times ahead, and it would be remiss of us to gloss over the pressures that businesses are under, it’s good to see both opportunity and optimism remaining high,” said Alan Price, chief operations officer at Peninsula Group. “However, global differences are clearly shown in our survey results, with the UK and Ireland entering the year ahead with key concerns around rising costs, legislative changes and business survival.”
Rising costs, legislative changes and labour shortages
Employers around the globe named rising costs as their top concern, cited by 64 per cent of respondents. Legislative changes ranked second at 44 per cent, and labour shortages landed third at 24.3 per cent. Those results mark a shift from last year, when 84.2 per cent of employers put rising costs first, followed by labour shortages at 45.6 per cent and retention at 41.5 per cent.
The Canadian perspective
In Canada, 77.5 per cent of respondents pointed to rising costs as their main concern. Employers in Canada also highlighted staffing issues, with more than 40 per cent citing labour shortages and retention as top worries.
Price said the majority of small businesses surveyed have not adopted new working patterns. “It’s interesting to see that the majority of small businesses have made no change to their working patterns over the last 12 months,” he said.
Flexible working hours
The survey also found that 28 per cent of employees globally have flexible working hours as standard, while one in seven employers worldwide has made hybrid working a permanent policy. In the UK, that figure sits at one in five, compared to one in 10 in Australia. Meanwhile, 62 per cent of Canadian employees and 61 per cent of Irish employees are most likely to be at the workplace full-time.
According to Price, survey respondents in Canada appear more confident about the months ahead. “Based on our analysis of the survey results, Canada comes out on top as the best place to build a business in 2025, while employers in the UK and Ireland feeling least optimistic about the outlook for the year ahead,” he said.
