The web is having a significant and positive impact on the fortunes of businesses in Scotland according to a new study released.

The research by thebestof, a national network of local marketing websites, run by local people, that champion the best businesses in their area shows that small and medium sized businesases (SMEs) plan to grow their businesses by on average 38 per cent in the coming year. However the more web-savvy SMEs including businesses in Scotland have growth ambitions that are twice those of their conventional SME counterparts.

The study is based on telephone interviews with 500 small and medium sized businesses combined with an online survey completed by a further 2,583 SMEs. The businesses were drawn from across the UK and from a mix of sectors, and included 153 businesses in Scotland.

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The research which explores SMEs general approach to marketing, reveals that businesses in Scotland typically spend £3,000 marketing their businesses and 83 per cent of them plan to spend as much if not more on marketing in the coming year. However a significant group are focusing this spend on the web and this spend is delivering results. For instance the internet-enabled businesses in Scotland get 34 per cent of their enquiries from the web.

In general, the study paints a picture of an SME community in a bullish mood. One in five plan to launch a new product or service in the next 12 months and a further 13 per cent will expand into a new area. One in six will merge with or acquire another business and only 3 per cent plan to scale back their operations. Indeed when asked to score their future optimism, on a scale of 1 to 10 the average Scottish business score is a creditable 7.9.

(CD)