The SME Heroes Barometer reveals that more than half of SMEs believe they will achieve growth between 10% and 30%

National SMEs are increasingly optimistic regarding the success of their businesses. The second edition of the SME Heroes Barometer saw the participation of over 230 Portuguese SME companies from a wide range of activity sectors.

Managers' growth prospects are quite encouraging for the next 3 years, reflecting a sentiment of confidence in the near future: the SME Heroes Barometer reveals that 51.1% of SMEs believe they will achieve growth between 10% and 30% and almost 9% foresee reaching 40% to 50%.

However, it is important to note that over 75% of Portuguese SMEs point to rising costs as the main adversity to their company's activity, followed by the lack of government support (39.7%), difficulty in retaining key employees (38.4%) and treasury management (34.2%).

Therefore, it is not surprising that almost two-thirds (63.3%) consider that government support policies for SMEs are fundamental to boosting the growth and success of their activity in the coming year and that 93.7% state that establishing business partnerships, including between SMEs, is important for resilience and competitiveness.

Bernardo Maciel, CEO of Yunit Consulting, states that “In a world where the war in Ukraine, the rise in raw material costs, or the inflation rate have recently added new challenges to companies, we wanted, once again, to gauge the sentiment of Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises regarding the prospects for the near future, identify the main barriers that are most constraining companies' activity, and understand which resources they consider most important to boost their growth and success. We believe that 2023 is the year in which we must take on the mission of serving and making our companies great, with courage and boldness to make a difference for organisations and people”.

Regarding digital transformation, more than half of the surveyed SMEs consider that the adoption of a digital transformation strategy has a direct impact on the company's competitive advantage and 37.6% state that digitalisation is already quite present in their value chain. As a result of the transformations brought about by the pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine conflict, the need for risk reassessment has changed for the majority of Portuguese SMEs (60.8%). For 85.2% of SMEs, the assessment and management of their company's risk is something important, similar to the business continuity plan (or contingency), taking into account the events of recent years.

More than 62% of the respondent companies point to the organisation and improvement of current procedures as one of the aspects with the most room for improvement in their performance and 88% indicate that specialised consulting services can contribute to increasing their performance or to taking advantage of new business opportunities.

The 2nd edition of the SME Heroes Barometer, which aimed to gauge the sentiment of Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises, their degree of confidence and prospects for the near future, and identify the axes that sustain their resilience, surveyed 237 companies, from north to south of the country and islands, from the most varied sectors of activity.

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