Nexus Business Barometer
Recently, we conducted a survey to help us understand more about the future of business in Yorkshire and the challenges that startups in the region are currently facing. The findings have been compiled to create a brand new report – the Business Barometer.
Business Barometer
In this new report, we’ve worked with over 100 Yorkshire-based businesses owners, founders and leaders, to understand the current attitudes amongst start-up businesses and the role of innovation on the new business journey. We’ve placed a ‘no filter’ magnifying glass on the challenges and pressures placed on organisations across the region and provided practical advice to help them overcome them.
Ultimately this report is designed to highlight challenges and present solutions, helping local startups to accelerate growth, de-risk innovation and maximise commercial returns.
We are confident that the businesses reading this report today, will become the pioneers of tomorrow. After all, the best way to predict the future is to help create it.
Read more about our key findings and download the full report below.
Key Report Insights
“We work very closely with a variety of growing businesses and what’s very clear is that innovation and community are the absolute differentiators.
In this study, we have placed a spotlight on the voices of startups across the region to understand to what extent innovation, funding and the importance of community place on a company’s future.”
Despite a challenging year, 71% of startups in Yorkshire are confident about growth in the next 12 months.
With 96% of these confident startups believing innovation is business critical, we can see that growth potential is closely linked to a company’s ability to innovate.
We set out to identify the biggest challenges businesses will face when innovating in a post-COVID climate. Startups identified the top five barriers as:
- Lack of funding
- Customer acquisition and retention of existing customers
- Finding the time to invest in innovation
- Gaining access to relevant skills and talent
- Limited access to external support
A Case for Success – Itecho Health
The COVID-19 crisis accelerated plans for an innovative “virtual clinic” platform, Ascelus, created by Nexus members Itecho Health, to relieve pressure on the NHS.
Throughout this period, they worked with a team of eight medical students from the University of Leeds’ School of Medicine on a six-week elective period to help the team fast-track its plans.
