Survey reveals rising SME confidence

Confidence among small and medium sized businesses in Ireland is rising, with an increasing number of executives expecting revenues to increase in 2010, a new survey said today.

An annual business survey from mobile network operator O2 found that senior executives in SMEs are more confident about their prospects for the year than they were last year.

Compared to last year, more than double the number of business executives are more confident about their prospects for 2010, rising from 12 per cent to 26 per cent.

The survey, which spoke to 300 owners or director level executives in organisations with between 1 and 250 employees, also found a steep decline in those who who had a more pessimistic outlook, declining from 59 per cent last year to 26 per cent at the beginning of 2010.

Over a third of those surveyed - 34 per cent - said they expected revenues to rise in 2010. This compares to only 24 per cent in 2009.

Some 42 per cent said they expected revenues to remain static, and only a quarter predicted a drop in sales, compared to 36 per cent last year.

"The study finds that while companies continue to face serious challenges in terms of sales, cash flow and competition, there appears to be the start of a recovery in confidence levels," said Alan Brown, Telefónica O2 Ireland's business sales director.

Mr Brown said the growing in confidence could be due to the belief by 57 per cent of those involved in the study that the global recession has bottomed out.In contrast, only 23 per cent think the Irish recession has hit its lowest point, while 62 per cent believe there is more to come.

"Irish SMEs have proven themselves to be very resilient," he said. "The survey suggests that owner managers believe that if they can get through last year when the Irish and global economies were in severe decline then 2010 has to be better as the world economy recovers."

Most employers - 67 per cent - expect that the level of employees will remain the same, while 15 per cent think staff numbers will fall. Some 17 per cent predict a rise in employment.