Small Business Survey Scotland: 2024-2025

Business practices

Innovation

• 15 per cent of SME employers in Cohort B introduced new or significantly improved goods in the last three years
• 21 per cent of SME employers in Cohort B introduced new or significantly improved services in the last three years
• 17 per cent of SME employers in Cohort B introduced new or significantly improved processes in the last three years
• Overall, 40 per cent of SME employers engaged in at least one type of innovation – either goods, services or process innovation (broadly in line with last year’s figure)

Training

• 51 per cent of SME employers offered training (either formal training or informal, on the job training) in the previous 12 months (broadly in line with last year’s figure)
• 30 per cent of SME employers offered both formal and informal training – broadly in line with last year’s figure
• 13 per cent of SME employers engaged with Modern Apprenticeship programmes

Place-based engagement

• 69 per cent of SME employers in Scotland considered themselves to be actively involved in their local community

External support

• 26 per cent of SME employers used external information or advice on matters affecting their business in the previous 12 months

Table 1: The most common sources of advice for SME employers that received information or advice in the last 12 months were accountant (37 per cent), consultant/general business adviser (31 per cent) and business networks/trade associations (21 per cent). Only a small minority sought advice from government sources (5 per cent or less)

Source of external information or advice given to SME employers in the last 12 months. Multiple answers allowed across this question

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2024-2025 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Table 1 data, see table ‘K7’.

Figure 3: The most popular reason for using external information/advice was to help with financial advice e.g. accounting for general running of business, which was reported by 21 per cent of firms that received information or advice in the last 12 months.

Reasons for using information or advice (2024-25). Multiple answers allowed across this question

Source: Small Business Survey Scotland 2024-2025 from DBT and Scottish Government. For Figure 3 data, see table ‘K5’.

Living wage

• 83 per cent of SME employers paid all their employees aged 18 or over (excluding volunteers, apprentices, and interns) at least £12.00 – the Real Living Wage at the start of the survey period. This was down from 89 per cent the previous year. (Note: Real Living Wage increased from £12.00 to £12.60 during the survey period)

Small Business Bonus Scheme

• 39 per cent of SMEs that had separate businesses premises received rates relief from the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS)
• Of the SMEs in Scotland that received SBBS relief, a majority (57 per cent) received between 91 per cent to 100 per cent relief