One Point of Extra Productivity Across UK Small Businesses Would Add £94 Billion a Year, Says Government Taskforce

In 2025 a government taskforce did the sums and worked out that if every small business in the UK got just one per cent more productive, the economy would be £94 billion better off. This includes practices like yours.

Page updated: 13 Aug 2026

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

Wellbeing practices are part of that vast SME engine the government keeps modelling, whether they think of themselves that way or not.

Original Research	Government report modelling the economic upside if small businesses got a bit better at using digital tools and AI
Source	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sme-digital-adoption-taskforce-final-report/sme-digital-adoption-taskforce-final-report
Overview	The Department for Business & Trade's taskforce set out recommendations to nudge SMEs toward digital and AI adoption by 2035, and used this GDP figure to make the case for bothering.
Year	2025
Publisher	Government, Department for Business & Trade (UK Government)
Relevance to Wellbeing	This is macro-level economic modelling rather than practice-specific data, so treat it as background reasoning rather than a stat to quote directly about your clinic or studio.
Our Verdict	Too early to tell Real government modelling, but it's about the whole SME economy, not anything measured in a single wellbeing business.
Our Summary	It's an official government report, not a guess dressed up as one. It puts a solid number on why sorting out your digital admin isn't wasted time. The £94bn figure is a modelled scenario, not something anyone has actually watched happen. None of the underlying work was done on coaches, therapists or clinics specifically.
Our Geo View	UK-specific: the £94bn figure and the roughly 5.5 million SME count both refer to the UK economy, so the number won't map directly onto other countries.

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 quietly eating the cost of a clunky booking system is taxing their own margin, and the government has now put a number on what fixing that sort of thing is worth nationally.
Therapy: this matters because therapists still taking bookings by voicemail are the unglamorous end of the productivity gap this report is trying to close.
Training: this matters because trainers running paper sign-in sheets and spreadsheet invoices are exactly the kind of small operation this report has in mind.
Alternative Healing: this matters because healers relying on word of mouth and a Facebook page are part of the same SME pool the government wants nudged online.
Clinical: this matters because clinics juggling paper records and manual scheduling are sitting on the exact inefficiency this report puts a price tag on.
Retreat/Centre: this matters because a retreat centre still doing bookings by email chain is leaving money on the table the government has just quantified.

Where this came from

A government taskforce reckons a modest productivity bump across small businesses would be worth tens of billions to the economy.

Department for Business & Trade, UK Government, published 2025. Full primary source, freely available, not paywalled.

Credibility flags: government-authored final report, methodology is macroeconomic modelling based on aggregate SME data, sample size not applicable as this isn't a survey of individual businesses.

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.

48%

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

Marked down on how solid the method is, since this is a modelled projection rather than a direct study of any actual business, marked up on recency because it's fresh out this year, and kept modest on practice fit since the whole thing is pitched at the SME economy in general rather than wellbeing specifically.

It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

Put a line in your welcome email about smoother booking meaning clients get seen faster, not just that it looks tidier.
Say it plainly next time a client asks why you moved to online booking: efficient admin means more time actually spent on them.
Brief your team that "digital adoption" isn't jargon for other people's businesses, it covers your diary and invoicing too.
Mention modernising your systems as sound business sense, not just good vibes.
Skip quoting the £94bn figure to clients directly, it's about the whole economy, not your practice.

Who this is most useful for

Practice type	Relevance	Recommended action
Coaching	Medium	Use it as background reasoning for investing in better systems, not as a headline stat.
Therapy	Low	Skip citing it directly, focus client-facing messaging on outcomes instead.
Training	Medium	Reference the general case for digital tools when explaining new booking software.
Alternative Healing	Low	Leave it out of client communications, it's too abstract for this audience.
Clinical Practices	Medium	Useful context when justifying investment in patient management systems.
Retreats/Centres	Medium	Handy backdrop when explaining a new booking or CRM system to guests.

Best before

Best before: this is a final taskforce report, not a recurring survey, so there's no annual refresh to wait for. Worth checking back on Sunlight Creations's Wellbeing Research Check in a year or so to see whether any follow-up data shows adoption actually moving.