More firms in the South East are planning to grow than cut back.
Research sponsored by British Gas shows almost twice as many small businesses have expansion plans as those not.
The survey looked at how much time was spent on planning by small businesses and how they felt about their immediate future. The report said 37 per cent of businesses in Sussex intended to recruit over the coming months while 34 per cent were considering redundancies.
Adam Taylor, British Gas business marketing man-ager, said: "Fine tuning your relationship with suppliers is a key way of saving both time and money.
"Small businesses have realised this, with 47 per cent improving internal processes for dealing with suppliers, and 33 per cent reducing the number of their suppliers."
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