Imports

Public transport is followed in importance by access to global markets, measured in terms of imports. Household income also ranks highly, with scale ups clearly benefiting when consumers have greater spending capacity.

In accordance with the economic analysis, 62% of business leaders say they believe scale up companies need to trade with markets outside the UK to secure success, while a similar proportion (63%) say companies in this phase of the business life-cycle need to expand their operations to markets outside the UK in order to grow.

Don’t Panic – the Good News is

Luckily for us, it isn’t time to leave the country just yet – a separate survey of business leaders found that 60% still believe the UK is a good place to be a scale up business – even with a few core challenges. The strong relationship identified in the CEBR analysis between scale up numbers and access to global markets is echoed in the survey findings, with the majority of scale up business leaders looking overseas to expand.

This research points out the challenge’s businesses face in scaling up, but what is being done to help overcome this? Commenting on the analysis, Rob Cameron, CEO, Barclaycard Payment Solutions, said: “As the payments partner to many successful businesses, we see that when companies move from start up to scale up and beyond, their needs and priorities change. For example, those looking to expand through overseas trade may find they need to comply with different regulations or accept international payments, and for those with growing transaction volumes, it may be time to upgrade to a more reliable, secure and customer-friendly payments system.”