Small business growth restricted by lack of leadership, says FSB report

The potential growth of small businesses is being hampered by a lack of leadership and management skills, according to a report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

The report, “Leading the way: boosting leadership and management in small firms”, found that whilst over 55 per cent of small business owners update their business knowledge and skills every year, there is still a lack of management training.

Barriers

The report showed that only a small percentage (25 per cent) had received management training over the past 12 months, whilst 26 per cent have received no training in this area at all.

There is also a lack of smaller businesses offering training for employees, with just 19 per cent providing external management training for their staff.

A number of barriers to providing training were identified, with cost and availability being found to be the main reason. Over 40 per cent of companies said that the cost of training is a major challenge, whilst 34 per cent said that the availability of training was an issue.

Support

FSB Development Manager, Natalie Gasson, commented on the research, stating that it demonstrates how investing more in management skills could “significantly benefit” start-ups and scale-ups and help them to realise their growth ambitions.

She added that there needs to be “far better support” for small businesses that wish to improve their management and leadership capabilities.

“If we get this right, we stand a real chance of creating more world beating businesses as well as boosting productivity in the wider economy,” she said.