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February 2006

MOST SME’s DOOMED TO STAY SMALL AND FAIL

Hillier Hopkins LLP, local Chartered Accountants and Tax Advisers, are at the forefront of a new initiative established by the UK200Group to help small and medium firms with strategic development and planning.

Colin Howe, Managing Partner of Hillier Hopkins, is a member of the UK200Group’s new Business Strategy Panel, a think tank of leading professional advisers. He has the view that most SME’s are doomed to stay small, unprofitable and ultimately to fail, with little hope of surviving increasingly strong international competition or the responsiveness and customer service levels of the UK’s major corporates unless they can put their strategy right.

Colin explains, “It is a huge frustration for Hillier Hopkins, dedicated to supporting their clients and passionate about the small business sector to witness SMEs who will not spend the time or money needed to develop successful strateg ies. E xperience has shown us that genuinely dynamic small businesses can succeed in growing strategically. “

Businesses have used strategic planning to generate successful outcomes, be that through sustainability, more profitability, or growth, since commerce began. The large companies and some of the well-known and very successful small businesses do it extremely well. The UK200Group Business Strategy Panel do not believe most SME have woken up to the opportunities or the new competitive threats they face.

“As a consequence, most new small businesses go to the wall within their first five years, which is a huge waste of talent and energy, and damages the competitive edge for UK PLC. DTI statistics issued in August 2005 show there were an estimated 4.3 million business enterprises in the UK at the start of 2004, 99.3% had 0 – 49 employees and 0.6% were medium sized 50 – 249 employees and 0.1% with 250 or more employees, therefore a vibrant small business sector is absolutely essential. At their best SME’s are ambitious, fast moving, entrepreneurial, and inventive and lead our economy forward.

UK200Group’s Business Strategy P anel will bring a clear choice of strategic advisers for SME’s, under the ethos of quality assurance and professionalism - the brand UK200 Group. The p anel provides a national source with a proven track record from the industry that business people most often turn to for help, in a fragmented and confusing advice market.

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