The UHY Hacker Young survey says that courier and haulage companies are the most likely to fail in the UK while restaurants and bars are three times more likely to go bust than other UK businesses. Fifteen and a half percent of businesses in the hospitality and catering sector fail every year 17.3 percent of courier and haulage businesses follow the same fate. Poor market research and financial planning are to blame for failure, yet the hospitality and catering sector has seen their costs rise significantly as a result of inflation-busting increases in the minimum wage and the rising price of fuel – factors which could not have been foreseen by many.

Peter Kubik, partner at UHY Hacker Young, says: “'As Gordon Ramsay’s and Jamie Oliver’s experience has shown, even celebrity chefs can struggle to turn success into immediate positive cashflow. For an entrepreneur who has less patient backers, it can be very tough indeed.”

Meanwhile the Microsoft survey asked how businesses currently track their projects. Only 57 percent of small businesses use a spreadsheet tool and approximately 25 percent of employees rely on a piece of paper to manage projects like marketing campaigns, events and product development. “The results highlight how formal approaches to project management can fall by the wayside as small businesses often have a million other things to worry about. However, there are benefits to be had and it’s not just things like building construction or developing a product that require careful project management; even a simple direct mail marketing campaign will have milestones, dependencies and multiple actions to keep track of,” says Tim Kimber, Office Live product manager at Microsoft UK

Projects should involve staff multi-tasking, sharing information and keeping track of all of its various facets for a business to be successful. However, the survey says that almost a quarter of small businesses fail to do this, which could mean that aspects such as budgeting for a project are likely to spiraling out of control.