According to recent research, just over one third of small businesses plan to increase overseas sales over the next 12 months, generating an additional £15bn in export revenue for the UK.
The survey from Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks found an optimistic attitude to international growth, boosted by the UK’s improving economy and despite the strengthening pound.
Despite this bullish attitude, only 39 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK exported goods or services during the last year, with these sales accounting for around 21 per cent of turnover.
However, these firms expect this proportion to rise to 24 per cent over the next year, equivalent to around £15bn in sales. Meanwhile the firms that currently don’t export cited risk and red tape as the primary barriers to doing so.
Manufacturing businesses are the most optimistic about their exporting prospects, with two thirds expecting to start or increase overseas sales over the coming year.
IT and media companies are also starting to look at international opportunities, with almost half the firms polled in this sector predicting improved overseas sales. Meanwhile, on a regional basis, firms in London and the North East are the most likely to start or increase exporting in the year ahead, the survey found.
Exporting is definitely on the business agenda, with the latest official annual export figures showing that total UK export sales, including goods and services, reached £501bn in 2013, with goods exports totalling £304bn and services exports totalling £197bn.
In the Budget this March Chancellor George Osborne doubled the amount of credit available to support overseas sales to £3bn, with the aim of UK export values reaching £1 trillion by 2020.