ALMOST 90 per cent of UK SMEs do not have a targeted strategy fordeveloping new business, according to a survey conducted by OutlookResearch.
The survey, sponsored by business-to-business websiteehook.co.uk, also found that - of the 500 SMEs questioned - 71 percent do not have a formal marketing budget aimed at sourcing newbusiness.
Over two thirds of the survey's SME respondents spend less thanGBP 5,000 per year on new business generation and 59 per cent saidthey lack sufficient time to find new business.
SMEs also shy away from venturing online, the survey said. Lessthan one third of those questioned have a website, but of these, 50per cent were intending to set one up in the near future. Aroundnine out of 10 of those who were intending to launch a websiteexpected it to make a contribution to new business generation.
Mark Malley, founder and managing director of ehook, said: "Forcompanies in the UK to truly flourish they need to balance resourcesand maximise sales through generation of new business leads. Theinternet provides a great medium for doing this, but due to high setup costs the internet can be a daunting prospect for UK SMEs. Thissurvey illustrates some of the problems facing these companies.
"Even with Government initiatives such as 'UK online' supportingUK companies through the announcement that they aim to have 1.5million trading online by the end of 2002, companies are stillfinding it hard to develop new business in a cost/time effectiveway."
The company, which provides business leads via 8,000 servicesuppliers signed up across 73 different categories, said it hastraded over GBP 2.5 million worth of business since its launch inNovember 2000.
But most of the SMEs in the survey said that they do not havetheir own website. Of those who did, only 2 per cent said it wastheir most effective method for new business generation. They addedthat word of mouth was the most widely used method to secure newclients.
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