The latest Lloyds Bank Business and Charity Index reveals that 43 per cent of East of England SMEs lack the basic digital skills that could drive growth.
By embracing digital skills, UK businesses could generate an additional £85billion in turnover according to the report. Yet only 14 per cent of businesses in the East of England are gaining a transactional benefit from trading online domestically, significantly below the UK average of 21 per cent. This figure falls further when it comes to targeting international markets, with just six per cent of East of England businesses using online channels to trade overseas. Small and medium sized business owners can leverage the power of online tools such as digital marketing with the help of digital agencies like iTonic. This could enable them to see a diversification of customer base and significant growth in their sales as they can potentially present themselves to a larger audience on the Internet. In turn, such strategies can boost revenue generation and enable faster business growth.
The report also found that only six per cent of businesses in the East of England use digital channels to search and discover growth opportunities for their business, such as how to make the most of opportunities to invest through secondary capital markets.
Worryingly 43 per cent of SMEs in the East of England have no interest in developing their cyber security capability.
For those businesses embracing advanced technologies (including cloud IT, online Sage200 cloud accounting and digital training tools), there is the opportunity to generate more than £100,000 in extra annual turnover compared to those who have none. This is because they can streamline, automate, and simplify many of their more tedious parts of their business. With this in mind, businesses may want to start using microsoft 100 exam questions and answers to help train employees in things like Microsoft 365.
But the benefits can go beyond finances too, with 2.5million businesses saving time through digital, more than twice as many compared to 2014. Small businesses and charities with advanced digital capabilities are able to save a day a week according to the report.
