Do you turn to your contractor accountant for business advice? If the answer is yes, you are not alone.

Sage, the business management software provider, recently conducted a survey that showed that 38% of SMEs look first to their accountant for business advice. This is an increase of 5% since the previous study was conducted.

Previously, quite a lot of SMEs sought advice from management consultants, lawyers and banks but in the past 2 years those figures have dropped dramatically. For example, 24% of SMEs contacted their bank for business advice in 2008. This figure has now dropped to just 4%.

And contractor accountants aren’t just seeing an increase in requests for business advice. A survey carried out by the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority showed that 67% of small businesses with between 2 and 49 staff members will turn to accountants for advice on pensions ahead of the reforms due to come into force in 2012.

The 2012 workplace pension reforms will be the first time that many small firms have been under an obligation to provide pensions for their employees and make pension contributions.
These results have obviously delighted accountants and 62% of them now expect their business to expand over the coming 3 years.

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