Small Business Survey Scotland: 2024-2025

Access to external finance

• 75 per cent of SME employers in Scotland were using external finance at the time of the 2024-25 survey

Figure 4: The most common forms of external finance used by SME employers were credit cards (35 per cent of SME employers), bank overdraft facility (32 per cent) and leasing or hire purchase (25 per cent).

Types of external finance currently used (2024-25). Multiple answers allowed across this question

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2024-2025 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Figure 4 data, see table ‘H3’.

• 15 per cent of SME employers tried to obtain external finance in the previous 12 months
• Of those that tried to obtain external finance, 15 per cent of SME employers were seeking finance for the first time
• 71 per cent of SME employers that applied for finance did so for working capital or cash flow reasons
• 12 per cent of SME employers in Scotland said they needed finance in the last 12 months

Figure 5: The most common forms of external finance applied for were bank overdraft facilities (43 per cent of SME employers that applied for finance) and loans from banks, building societies and other financial institutions (25 per cent).

Types of external finance sought (2024-25). Multiple answers allowed across this question

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2024-2025 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Figure 5 data, see table ‘H5’.

• 69 per cent of SME employers who sought external finance obtained the entire amount they were looking for 17 per cent who received only some and 12 per cent who received none
• 81 per cent who sought external finance for cashflow purposes received all the money desired
• 12 per cent of SME employers were discouraged borrowers (i.e. they had a need for external finance in the last 12 months, but they did not apply for it)

Table 2: SME employers that needed finance in the last 12 months but did not apply for or did not obtain the finance they applied for were unable to use the finance for working capital or cashflow (68 per cent) and invest in new or significantly improved goods or services (41 per cent)

Multiple answers allowed across this question

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2024-2025 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Table 2 data, see table ‘H97a’.