Contemporary Business Environment: Challenges, Impacts and UK SMEs

This essay examines the contemporary business environment for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, focusing on the key challenges that impact both the internal and external surroundings of these firms, particularly in the context of the past two years. It discusses challenges related to leadership, tradition, action planning, strategy, employee management, and standing out in a competitive market. The essay also investigates the role of the UK government in supporting SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic, including financial assistance and policy adjustments. It highlights the importance of SMEs to the UK economy and the measures taken to help them endure the economic crisis, such as providing funds, deferring taxes, and offering subsidized interest rates. The analysis concludes that while SMEs face significant disruptions, government support plays a crucial role in their survival and sustainability.

Contemporary
Business Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Demonstrate the key challenges impacts the internal environment of the company.............3
Action plan of interaction with the outside environment during pandemic period................5
Investigate the role of UK government in supporting the SMEs during the pandemic.........6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary business surroundings displays the growing trend of vital and competitive
market in the economy. These alterations may supposed to takes place due to fast and rapid
updates in tools and techniques used in the business which involves the rapid changes in the
concepts of accounting control with the intention to increase the motions. Hence it is essential for
many firms to develop and control the useful and logical values to forecast business or consume
accounting methods to effectively provide support to business related planning, assist them in
directing and better decision-making (Thrassou and et. al., 2020). In given report, discussions
covers the business environment of SMEs in the UK that involves the evaluation of key
challenges which impacts the external and internal surroundings of the firm and their methods of
communication within past 2 years. Additionally, it highlights the role of UK legislation in
providing support to medium and small sized enterprise during the days of COVID-19. This
report will follow the format of essay.
TASK 1
Demonstrate the key challenges impacts the internal environment of the company
The SME plays a big role in business environment. In UK, some of the SMEs are tends to
operate for long period of time and some of them are particularly relevant due to the current
political roughness. Because of this some challenges also seems to generate which impacts the
company or firms but since many years these issues are observed to be enhanced too rapidly due
to the pandemic situation. In the following some challenges are described in relation of the small
and medium-sized businesses:
Leadership: The small and medium scale business do not requires a skilled and knowledgable
leader to control and regulate the business firms that is why the average skilled people regulate
its own business on SMEs and develop the profile as entrepreneur. But there is a much
possibility of generating most challenges during operating the business and leading the
employees due to lack of experience and knowledge in the dedicated field. This problem has
faced by every leader during the pandemic whether they have the knowledge or lack of it as
during pandemic situation; health of population get affected and fluctuated down the economic
status of the country (Tatuev and et. al., 2019). But this pandemic also revealed the quality and

capacity of every participating entrepreneur and have demonstrated about the techniques used by
them is correct or not.
Tradition: Every SMEs requires to follow the right tradition or path to operate the business
smoothly and business owners can assist in completing the business targets. It is essential for the
firms to design a clear aims that helps to bring the value in management system. These values
generally involves four concepts which are; provide best services to the customers, respect,
honesty and timely innovation. All of the four values are the key to run the enterprise in a well
manner. In the pandemic business seems to hit badly but companies needed to assure that values
must be regulated and must operate in the direction of creating a lively tradition (Abuselidze and
Slobodianyk, 2019).
Action plan: SMEs leader must have appropriate knowledge to deal and run entire organisation
because lack of knowledge can affect the planning. Recently, innovation seems to perform a
major role in the enterprises which helps the company in making effective plans. These
innovated tools does not take much to getting the ideas and prefer to spend their time in thinking
about to get the business on new heights in a specific period of time and plans to achieve the
accomplishment.
Strategy: The strategic planning always assist the SMEs to achieve a pre-determined goal by
executing the proper planning, ideas and strategy. After achieving the objectives in every 3
months, entrepreneurs orders to prepare a report to maintain the record of marginal gains which
tends to acquire by meeting every target (Yang and et. al., 2018).
Implementing an “A” group: This is the most appropriate and useful challenge in every SMEs
as they tends to search for the employee with good knowledge and who can plans to grow and
expand the business. These functional areas includes sales and business operations, production,
account management. In order to run the business smoothly, it is essential to maintain and
manage the daily operations which can be done by the owners and directors of the business.
Standing out the business concern: In current time, due to broad market of the economy it
become challenging for the company to detect the competitive edge. This practice takes a lot of
time, resources and cost but also important for the SMEs to assure and examine everything that
can be stand out. It is important to maintain quality, price, convenience and customer services to
make a position in the marketplace (Moon and Chan, 2022).

Putting the employees first: The business organisation requires to complete their practices on
the basis of the demand of their customers and this will only achieved by the company when they
put their well experienced and trained candidates.
System and Processes: Recently the consumers prefers the online shopping for the convenience
and companies allows them to access the feature of feedback. But small scale businesses are not
able to facilitate such features to the customers due to less demands and popularity ion the
market. Organisations can introduce the features of tracking the order, online or offline
payments, use good processes and deliver tested systems; it may help the customer in evaluating
the time of delivery, quality and type of product to be delivered, etc. Due to this consumer also
gain satisfaction, give right response, provide true feedback and purchase more products
(Asongu and Odhiambo, 2019).
Fruitfulness: It depends on consistency and quality of the product and services which determine
whether the company deserved to get a fruit full result or not. It might be challenging as it is the
awareness of the operation carried to investigate quality of each and every product and reduce
the waste.
Measuring performance: It is a challenging factor fro small and medium scale business as it
helps to detect the error and control the implementing practices in the organisation to check
whether they are good or not.
Action plan of interaction with the outside environment during pandemic period
SMEs plays an important role in promoting economic growth of the nation and poor
action plan activity considered to be most inadequate success in profile of SMEs. At such
moment it become an important task to address the area of effective strategic management. The
strategies of small and medium scale enterprises decided to manage in an informal manner and
different trends are approached to focus on short term assignments (Lawton and et. al., 2020).
These action plan are controlled by manager and owners of the company. So it indicates the
importance of critical evaluation of strategic plan to determine the sustainability of business.
Integral performance of practice of these organisations are examined either deliberately or
visibly/invisibly. During the pandemic situation; national economy and business enterprises are
highly impacted because of the existence of global challenge which effects health of the
population badly. UK is a well-developed country but it also face many challenges due to the
pandemic situation hence, many small and medium scale enterprises implement many effective

strategies to run business smoothly. These strategies includes to ensure the subsequent planning
for the survival of organisation. Significant level of investigation has been conducted among the
teaching enterprises, telecommunication company, expansion of firms were conducted speedily
based on accurate and better leadership from the management group. All these points are
implemented to set the ability of underlying growth in the New space plants that have a structural
ability within the ecosystem that helps the company to perform their operations smoothly
without facing any issue (O'Hara and Toussaint, 2021). The government of UK and financial
institution of country supports the 88% SMEs at the time of pandemic and many of the average
enterprises bring modifications to their business model by adopting implementation of digital
working as well they tends to provide their employees a temporary leaves based on their needs.
Investigate the role of UK government in supporting the SMEs during the pandemic
Economy of UK is immensely influenced by small and medium scale businesses. During
the COVID-19; bad economic condition of country highlights a major impact on organisations.
Small and medium-sized businesses contributed almost 50% of the total gross domestic products
(GDP) and a higher percentage of the revenue in the total revenue of UK. Pandemic period
affected the small and medium sized enterprise with a great extent as during the period of
COVID-19 economy of UK experienced a remarkable downfall (Christa and Kristinae, 2021).
Due to this many organisations in the country suffered many challenges and difficulties like non-
repayment of the loans that enhanced the number of defaulting on loans. Due to this very crisis,
small and medium sized organisations of UK, majorly suffered with many issuances and
difficulties such as non-repayments of the loans which causes an incline in the quality of
defaulting on loans. Shortage of funds, small and medium sized organisations thought their
abilities whether they are able to hold on their employees for future (Hawas, 2019). In addition,
doubting whether the crisis have impacted their whole supply of chain. The supply chain have
discontinued due to this situation and this is alarming the small and medium-sized organisation if
they will be efficient enough to reset the whole supply chain again after the pandemic is
overcome. Due this, the small and medium-sized organisations are solicitous over the ongoing
growth projects that is required to be either stop or work with least potencies.
To encourage all the small and medium-sized organisations of the UK is critical, still the
national government provided some sort of relief. The organisations having more than 10
employees and net worth revenue of £2 million. In addition, the UK government is benefited

with this. The annual taxes on deferral system and reducing the business tax rates for the COVID
crisis and the pandemic period. The amounts in the cash effluences for the small and medium-
sized firms for that period (Nikitina and Lapiņa, 2019). They will be able to pull off overall
funds. The small enterprises also suffers with their survival during the crisis period so that they
could make it sustainability within the nation to provide them effective financial assistances in
debts form with subsidised interest rates. In addition, this will efficiently aid to mange their
financial needs for business and the business can be sustained for longer period of time until the
pandemic gets over. The varied variables are being evaluated to make commitments to this
idleness such as the structural evaluation haziness, need for trustworthy and exchanging
responses. Nevertheless, lacking to address customer dormancy and make an impactive business
market in the nation (Ștefănescu, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be conferred that organisation focussing on small and
medium enterprises in UK. This mainly suffers major challenges that frames an influence on the
internal and external organisational working space in comparison to the past two decades. This
aspects majorly disrupts the internal and external activity of the firm that highly frames an
impact on the working of the business. On the contrary, this assesses the activity of the UK
government which essentially assist the small and medium-enterprises endure a lot. In addition,
due to the pandemic and the crisis, the small and medium-sized enterprises have suffered a lot
during this period of time. They have enough funds to render their employees in the enterprises.
UK nation assist them and supply funds for their organisational business and their endurance.

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