5%Government grant

3%Small business loan

12%Investment from another business

Has cloud technology positively affected your company’s

productivity?

79%Yes 21%

No difference

76%

Yes

23%

No difference

How do you create new prospects?

Customer referrals

Personal networking

Email marketing

Social media

Traditional marketing (direct mail, telemarketing, leaflet drops etc)

Search engine

Other

26%

26%

11%

10%

9%

8%

10%

Starting up your businessClear Books got in touch with our small business customers, asking them about the motivation and challenges in running their business. We’ve put together the results of the 98 survey responses in this infographic, which we hope proves insightful and useful to anyone looking to start or grow a business.

What was the main reason for starting your business?

An infographic powered by

www.clearbooks.co.uk

Come and visit www.clearbooksplc.com to see our full range of cloud apps to support your business.

53%Desire to be own boss and control own destiny

20%Personal passion/

interest

3%A second career

3%Risk/reward

9%Noticed a gap in the

market

11%Work/life balance

1%Follow on from subject studied

74%Personal

funding/savings

2%Crowd funding

1%Venture capital

3%Private equity

How have you raised funding?

Which social media sites do you use to attract customers?

62% Linkedin

54%Twitter

51%Facebook

24%Google+

3%Youtube

2%Instagram

What technology/ applications/ resources could you not live without?

Smartphone

If you could only give one piece of advice to other entrepreneurs working to get their start up off the ground, what would it be?

What’s the biggest factor inhibiting your growth?

Time

Money

Marketing expertise

Expertise/skills

Competitors

Insufficient customer referrals

Other

47%

19%

7%

6%

6%

5%

10%

Has the cloud made

your work/life balance easier?

1%

No

How many hours a week do you work?

70+

60+

50+

40+

35+

under 35

6%

7%

18%

35%

21%

13%

Collaborate and share - in the

modern world it is the only way to

growStay focused and be persistent. Bad news comes often but doesn't last.

Take lots of advice from other people in the same business/

market

1st

Internet in general

Email

Clear Books

Tablet

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

I have less journeys to my

bank/accountant

I can work from anywhere, with total productivity - I just

have a bigger screen in the office

Being able to do those '2 minute' tasks on my iPhone or iPad when I'm not in the

office has been crucial

Work can be synchronised. Employees are more productive as they can access info quickly rather

than wait for emails etc.

No time wasted provisioning software, hardware, etc. One laptop + one internet connection = a whole rack of equipment pre-cloud.

I can react to things instantly whilst on the move with cloud access to my resources.