Nearly 60% of small business owners are undecided on 2023 forecasts

The first quarter of 2023 was fairly stable for most entrepreneurs compared to the previous quarter. 41% retained the number of clients and scope of work.

About 20% even recorded an increase in the number of clients, 27% – an increase in the volume of work. About 30% of the companies reported a slight reduction in the number of clients and 26% in the scope of work. For comparison, in the summer of 2022, 34% of respondents reported a reduction in workload.

However, declining revenue has become one of the most common problems faced by small businesses. 26% of those surveyed spoke about it. The same number were forced to change offices due to high rents.

The most common problem was the forced reduction of marketing and public relations budgets – 35%. Managers also saved money by giving employees bonuses (31%), sending them on vacation (11%), cutting some staff (8%), or transferring employees for two-thirds of salary (5.5%).

All of these results were only half expected for business: 61% of respondents said that first-quarter results were 50% in line with their forecasts. Another 23% said their forecasts were in line with their quarterly results and 16% said they were not.

The study was conducted among more than 1.2 thousand representatives of small and medium-sized companies over the age of 25, 47% of the respondents were managers, 53% were employees. The study regions are all of Russia, cities with a population of more than 100 thousand people.