Impact of COVID-19 on Small and Medium Businesses in the UK

How were small and medium
businesses in the UK affected
during the pandemic May
2020February 2021

Table of Contents
Background Information..............................................................................................................3
Report aim....................................................................................................................................3
Topic area....................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review........................................................................................................................3
Literature comparison..................................................................................................................5
Methodology................................................................................................................................5
Research question........................................................................................................................5
Research Methodology................................................................................................................5
Project timeline..........................................................................................................................13
Discussion of the findings and results.......................................................................................13
Conclusions................................................................................................................................14
Evaluation of the success of the chosen Research Method.......................................................14
Reflection...................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................16

Background Information
The topic which has been selected for this research report is How the small and medium
businesses in the UK affected during the pandemic May 2020- February 2021. Therefore, the
analysis of this particular topic is essential for the purpose of ensuring that the overall
understanding of the way in which the pandemic has created an impact on the businesses is
analyzed. This will be quite helpful in ensuring that the right approaches are undertaken so that
the research can reach the appropriate conclusions which can be useful for the future (Açikgöz
and Günay, 2020).
Report aim
The main aim of this report is to identify the ways in which the small and medium
businesses in the UK were affected during the pandemic from May 2020 till February 2021.
Topic area
The pandemic has forced the business to close down and reduced their earnings. As the
pandemic affected lives of various people and affected various areas of economy. A bad hit was
also on the small and medium businesses of UK during the pandemic. Many of the small and
medium businesses get dependent upon the UK government for their living and earnings. Also
this pandemic has forced many small and medium businesses to get shut down as they were not
able to even cover their costs. All these tough times have forced people to change the ways of
living and operating the businesses. From their traditional methods of operating the small and
medium businesses have to shift to more advanced and technology driven systems (Altig and
et.al., 2020).
Literature Review
How the COVID-19 crisis is affecting UK small and medium-size enterprises. Sharma, R.,
Mladenov, Z. and Albonico, M (2020)
According to Sharma, R., Mladenov, Z. and Albonico, M (2020) The small and medium
enterprises of UK comprises larger part in the UK economy and due to the pandemic, small and
medium businesses are greatly affected and a decline in the revenues has seen in the same. The
small and medium businesses were seen to do default on loans and also were facing problems in

retaining the employees. As per the survey it was found that the major small and medium
business that were negatively impacted were hospitality sector, logistic, construction and
agriculture as they were encountered with lower revenues. While the small and medium
businesses that were impacted little less were scientific, education etc. Also, the UK government
have launches a programme names Furlough program in which some small and medium
businesses have planned or are planning to take advantage under this program.
Coronavirus (COVID-19): SME policy responses. (2020 )
As per the article it was found that around 37% of the firms have made or considering
redundancies in May 2020. around 35% of the firms are scared that their businesses will not
reopen and some also fears that they have to close their businesses temporarily. As per the
survey there are certain small and medium businesses that were impacted majorly such as
construction, retail, accommodation, food services etc. also the earning of the employees in
small and medium businesses were impacted negatively as compared to the large businesses.
Due to the pandemic there was a widening of liquidity gap in the small and medium businesses.
Brown,R (2020)
According to the article the small and medium businesses in Scotland have been heavily
impacted by the pandemic in financial and economic terms. The capital investment in into the
small and medium businesses have been fallen immensely and also these businesses saw a
liquidity problems due to which the SMEs were not able to pay their debts. The savings and
financial resources are at verge of emptiness and also some businesses are at the stake of shutting
down. Internal sources are very important for running the small and medium businesses and due
to pandemic there have been crisis for the same. The major hit of pandemic was on retailers or
the restaurants but the delivery companies are showing good process as people in UK are
preferring to order online.
How UK SMEs can weather the impact of Covid-19. (2020)
From the article it is found out that as the UK's small and medium businesses were
overcoming the impact of Brexit, the businesses got again hit by the pandemic and the sales of
small and medium businesses started declining. There were many issues that the small and