Whenever there is a major government announcement about something that will impact on Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), national newspapers and TV / radio stations want to find out what SMEs think.

So they get on the phone. Not to hundreds of SMEs. But instead to spokespeople from the traditional business organisations. That is fine so far as it goes. But those 'spokepeople' aren't actually SMEs themselves. And they are guessing what their members think.

We want to let SMEs speak for themselves. So we are working with our partners at The SME Voice to carry out a survey of what SMEs think of the spending cuts announced by the Chancellor on Wednesday 20th October.

The survey went live as soon as possible after the Chancellor's announcement. We invited large numbers of SMEs to take part in the survey. As soon as we passed the 500 responses mark we sent out the initial results to the national media. But they keep coming back for updates because the results are so dramatic. Within 48 hours more than 1000 people had participated in the survey.

The Programme Director of The SME Hub is due to meet the Prime Minister on Friday and will give him full details of the survey results received up to midnight on Thursday. So let us know what you think about the spending cuts by taking part in the survey now.

PS. The SME Voice uses an 'avatar' called Serena to introduce its regular surveys. So Serena is helping The SME Hub too. What do you think of her? Please let us know!