One in ten micro-businesses say they need funding, and most of them never get it, one claim suggests

A claim doing the rounds in 2025 says one in ten of Britain's smallest businesses need outside funding to grow, and that fewer than a third of those ever get it; this includes practices like yours if you're eyeing a second treatment room or another pair of hands.

Page updated: 13 Aug 2026

Whole-practice growth for wellness practices. Rooted in Wiltshire, UK, working worldwide.

Small practices weighing up expansion, an extra room, a bigger studio, another practitioner, may find the sums are less about ambition and more about who agrees to lend the money.

Original Research	A claim that Britain's smallest firms want borrowing more than bigger ones do, and get it less often
Source	https://www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/our-work/publications/
Overview	The link goes to the Enterprise Research Centre's publications listing, which doesn't itself display the figure being quoted as this year's headline finding.
Year	2025
Publisher	Academic, Enterprise Research Centre
Relevance to Wellbeing	Directly relevant to any small practice weighing up a loan for expansion, though the figure itself is general-business, not wellbeing-specific.
Our Verdict	Too early to tell The headline figure floats about online with no named survey attached to it, so treat it as a rumour with good posture rather than a fact.
Our Summary	It rings true enough; most small operators recognise the gap between wanting money and getting it. Nobody has named the survey, the sample or the year it was actually collected, so the figure could be older than the label suggests. The general shape of the claim (smaller firms borrow less than they say they need) does turn up in properly sourced ERC and British Business Bank work. There's no practice-specific breakdown, so wellness businesses are lumped in with every corner shop and courier firm in Britain.
Our Geo View	Specific to the UK. Access to finance, lenders and schemes differ elsewhere, so this doesn't travel.

Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow

Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

Coaching: this matters because a coach outgrowing the spare room can't assume the bank will say yes just because the diary is full.
Therapy: this matters because renting a second consulting room usually needs a loan, and loans need a business case, not a waiting list.
Training: this matters because a trainer buying kit or venue time on credit should expect harder questions than the certificate ever asked.
Alternative Healing: this matters because scaling up from one room to a studio often reveals that enthusiasm isn't collateral.
Clinical: this matters because clinics needing new equipment or extra staff sit closer to this finance gap than most, since kit costs more than goodwill.
Retreat/Centre: this matters because a centre planning to expand a site is exactly the kind of small business this claim is, probably, talking about.

Where this came from

A claim doing the rounds says Britain's smallest firms want borrowing more than bigger firms do, and get it less.

Enterprise Research Centre, attributed to a 2025 report called The State of Small Business Britain 2025: Navigating Uncertainty. The linked page is a publications index and doesn't show the figure itself.

Methodology: not disclosed on the linked page. Sample size: not disclosed. Publisher type: academic research centre, though this particular number carries no visible citation.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

40%

Practice fit, 25How new, 100How solid, 0

Marked down hard on how solid the method is, since there's no attribution behind the figure at all, but kept in the mix for practice fit given how live funding questions are for small practices, and rated current on recency because the label says 2025.

It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

Put a short note on your expansion or growth page saying you're happy to talk through the business case, not just the treatment list.
Say plainly on enquiry calls that any new investment, extra rooms, more practitioners, is scoped and funded, not just hoped for.
Brief whoever does your books to keep a one-page summary ready in case a lender asks before you're ready for them.
Avoid quoting this particular ten per cent figure anywhere client-facing, since it can't be traced to a named source.

Who this is most useful for

Practice type	Relevance	Recommended action
Coaching	Medium	Have a simple growth budget ready before pitching for space or staff.
Therapy	Medium	Cost out a second room properly before assuming a loan will cover it.
Training	Medium	Separate the equipment wish-list from what you can actually finance.
Alternative Healing	Low	Keep growth modest until turnover, not hope, funds it.
Clinical	High	Start the finance conversation before ordering new kit.
Retreat/Centre	High	Build a funding case alongside any site expansion plan.

Best before

Best before: worth checking against the Enterprise Research Centre's next State of Small Business Britain release, or verified properly against a named source before quoting it again.