In this assignment I am going to discuss the importance of the SME to the modern UK economy. I will examine innovative and non-innovative SMEs to illustrate my points.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Entrepreneurship, (C03EN1)

Module Assignment

Autumn Term 2003

Word Count:- 1270 words

Tuesday 18th November 2003

In this assignment I am going to discuss the importance of the SME to the modern UK economy. I will examine innovative and non-innovative SMEs to illustrate my points.

The importance of SMEs is clear in the modern UK economy. They provide ideas, products/service, jobs and also contribute to the wealth of our economy. SMEs account for approximately £1 trillion of the UK turnover [Small Business Service]. The Small Business Service collated statistics about enterprises based on the number of firms registered to pay VAT. In 2002, 25.2million people were employed in firms with less that 250 employees.[Based on number of employees, SME Statistics 2002] and those firms' combined turnover was £988,985 million [Based on turnover, SME Statistics 2002]. For firms that generally employ less than 250 people each that is an astonishing statistic. That turnover figure alone shows just how important a role SMEs have in our economy. However, when you look at the other side of the coin and see that, when combined, SMEs account for nearly 99% of the total number of businesses trading in the UK,