New insights from Oxford Innovation Space’s latest customer survey highlight the role targeted business support plays in helping businesses grow, adapt and move forward with confidence.

Drawing on feedback from over 200 businesses across the network, the results show a clear and consistent pattern: businesses that engage with support achieve stronger outcomes.

A clear link between engagement and satisfaction

Businesses that have used our business support services report an average satisfaction score of 8.6 out of 10, compared to 6.2 for those who have not engaged – a difference of over two points.  

This gap reinforces a simple but important point: engagement with the right support makes a measurable difference to how businesses experience and progress within our centres.

Supporting tangible business outcomes

The findings go beyond perception, pointing to clear, practical impact:

– 45% of businesses said support contributed to their growth and development

– 59% reported overcoming specific challenges and improving performance

– 369 new jobs were created across 80 businesses

Businesses highlighted outcomes including improved marketing approaches, clearer strategic direction, access to funding, and stronger internal capability.

“We had a cash flow hurdle to get over and ended up getting access to a £250,000 loan… this helped us keep growing.”

Others pointed to increased revenue, stronger pipelines, and more structured approaches to growth.

What businesses need as they grow

As businesses evolve, so do their priorities. The most in-demand areas of support are:

– Marketing

– 1:1 coaching and mentoring

– Business strategy

– Access to finance

– Sales

This reflects a shift from early-stage setup towards structured growth, commercialisation, and scaling.

A practical, responsive approach

Our business support is designed to be flexible and led by need – providing timely, relevant guidance rather than a one-size-fits-all offer.

Working closely with businesses, our teams act as a sounding board, offering challenge, insight and connections that help move things forward in a meaningful way.

Highlighting the experts behind the results

Behind these results is a national business support team with deep, practical expertise across the areas that matter most to growing SMEs. Embedded across Oxford Innovation Space centres, our teams work closely with businesses on marketing, sales, strategy, access to finance and leadership – acting as a trusted sounding board, challengers and connectors at critical points in their growth journey.

The survey results reinforce the value of this approach: businesses that actively engage with business support report significantly higher satisfaction, stronger performance and clearer progress than those that do not. This isn’t support as a ‘nice to have’ – it is a proven growth lever that enhances the value of being part of Oxford Innovation Space and helps ambitious businesses move forward with confidence.

Continuing to improve

The results will be used to shape ongoing improvements, including a review of tools and resources to ensure they remain aligned with what businesses need today.

They also reinforce a core principle: the combination of the right environment and the right support creates the conditions for businesses to grow.