Well, you would have hoped so, but it's good to have evidence. According to a major new survey by the Federation of Small Businesses, there is a direct relationship between training and business performance.

The FSB study "Lifting the Barriers to Growth in UK Small Businesses" received over 18,000 responses, and provides unequivocal evidence that businesses can increase their turnover by offering training. The highest uptake of training was reported in firms where turnover had increased considerably in the past year (73%), whereas turnover had gone down where there was little or no training.

Altogether, 63.5% of bosses reported that there had been some form of training in their business in the past 12 months. Younger businesses and those with higher turnovers were the most likely to have offered training. Time constraints (26%) and cost (18%) remained the most inhibiting factors.

Owner-managers were generally confident in their own abilities and did not see the benefits of management training - only 1.5% of respondents had taken part in these types of courses. Interestingly respondents who had been in business for less than 3 years had the greatest confidence in their own management skills and this confidence fell as experience of business ownership increased.