A survey of attendees at the conference, conducted by Opinium ahead of the event, found that 63% of participants expect their business will be better in the next 12 months. Over a quarter ( 27%) expect their business to stay about the same in the next year, and 11% expect it to be a little worse.

Over half ( 55%) of surveyed leaders would rate the current financial state of their business as good – including 17% who would rate it as ‘very good’. Leaders of micro businesses were most polarised: 64% described their financial state as ‘good’ and 14% described it as ‘bad’.

When asked to consider their biggest challenge and barriers to business growth, smaller client budgets emerged as the top challenge for leaders ( 71% of respondents), followed by winning new business ( 52%) and rising market competition ( 48%).

Other challenges were lack of brand recognition ( 25%), increasing third-party costs ( 16%) and inefficient processes ( 12%).

MRS sent the online survey to all attendees ahead of the Agency Owners and Leaders conference, to explore views from agency owners on how their agencies are going. The survey had 75 responses.

Next year, MRS is launching a leaders forum to offer a network for insight agency business leaders (chief executives and managing directors) to discuss their strategic, operational and financial challenges, with the first set to take place in February.

Chairing the Agency Owners and Leaders Conference in London yesterday ( 21^st November) was James Endersby, chief executive at Opinium and chair at MRS. Speaking at the event, Endersby said: “It is lonely at the top. You often probably wonder how all the other agencies and businesses are doing, what’s keeping us up at night and what are our plans for 2025.

“While it has probably been a wild ride for all of you this year, currently we’re not doing too badly. Of course, positivity and optimism are key success traits in business leaders, but still, it is good to see from an agency perspective that we are in reasonable shape despite the rocky economic backdrop. There are some concerns around profitability, a huge drive and emphasis on clients and existing and new business development, and we’re pretty optimistic about the next 12 months.”

There are mixed feelings around the outlook for the sector more broadly, said Endersby.

The research found that the opinions of leaders are split, with nearly equal amounts feeling optimistic ( 31%), pessimistic ( 31%), and neither optimistic nor pessimistic ( 37%) about the current state of the UK market research sector.

Looking ahead to the next 12 months, clients are the key business priority, with four-fifths of participants ( 79%) continuing to focus on expanding their client base, and half ( 49%) on getting their existing clients to spend more with the business.

The research also found that support from peers is the most popular source of help for leaders ( 76%), followed by conferences for 55% and MRS or other professional bodies for 47%.