According to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), there are around 4.7m small and medium-sized businesses in the UK. According to the last published annual SME survey from BIS, in 2008 these SMEs employed around 13.5m people, roughly 60% of all UK workers, and they had a turnover of about £1.44bn, more than half of all the money made in this country.

SMEs are, without doubt, an important part of the UK economy. They are responsible for significant tax receipts and income generation. Paul Samuel, director of the finance division at PDS Resourcing, also believes that in the past couple of years they have played a vital role in keeping people in work.