The financial crisis seems to be stuck in a loop with doom and gloom, interspersed with hype and unrealistic recovery plans, to be followed by more doom and gloom.
The crisis has been rolling on now for years, and probably impacts just about every person on the planet in some shape and form, but is the constant turmoil having any effect on your business?
Talking to different business owners, you get the feeling that the financial crisis is only hurting medium and larger firms, as just about everyone I speak to says business is either picking up or booming.
Now is it a case that everyone is telling porkies, has their head in the sand, or are micro (in the UK, non VAT registered) and small businesses actually flourishing in these troubled times?
From our own experience, we saw our sales come crashing down in late 2008, and then in November 2010 things picked up and have been steadily growing ever since.
Is it we are benefiting from the increase of new businesses, as jobless people try their hand at self employment, or is there almost a separate small business market, that is shielded from larger market forces?
New businesses still need a website, hosting, marketing, insurance, an accountant, paperclips etc. But you may not replace your car as often or hold off moving house.
What does anyone else think?
I think business are becoming more like the home life personal finance, business saying lets try and see if we can pay for it outright or taking greater control of cashflow (like homeowners) making every penny work for them. But my question is are all these new business people actually business people? It's not as easy as it looks. tomsk
I think generally things are tough out there, I tend to speak to plumbers merchants to gain an accurate guide to the market they have nothing to gain from telling me anything other than the truth. If I speak to plumbers then 50% if not more of what is said seems to whiz through one ear and out of the other, although if I visit the uk plumbing forum then there are only one or two that say they are inundated with work with others saying their just ticking over maybe doing 3 or 4 day weeks and their just covering their day's money. There are lots of factors for this, migration influx, fast track plumbing courses and of course the economy. The chances are if you've been made redundant your probably do a diy job rather than call a plumber, likewise if your job is in the balance your hardly likely to be thinking about having a new bathroom suite of heating system installed. I'm quite fortunate in as much as I work for letting agents in Central London whose clients seemed to be mainly bankers, embassy staff and Arabs, what more could a plumber want? So they keep me busy, but I am at their beck and call. And they will call you at 3 in the morning to say they have no hot water and they expect you to go. Of course for me to show my mug at this time, is reflected in the final invoice. Any other customers that call is a bonus as I don't really need anymore work, however saying that I never depend on one customer alone. I think if most people that run businesses were honest, the majority would say their not business minded, most have never attended any kind of business studies of any kind and even those that do still seem to go to the wall. For me a lot depends on luck, it dosent matter how much you've spent on advertising, websites or attending whatever business seminar. If the phone dosen't ring you have no business  Thanks, Barney
“I think if most people that run businesses were honest, the majority would say their not business minded, most have never attended any kind of business studies of any kind and even those that do still seem to go to the wall. For me a lot depends on luck, it dosent matter how much you've spent on advertising, websites or attending whatever business seminar. If the phone dosen't ring you have no business ”Great and honest post Barney! I think luck does play a part although I'm not 100% convinced that not attending any business studies or having an academic business background is necessarily a bad thing. I think it takes a certain kind of person to make the transition from a safe paid job to self employment, and this can't be taught, it's down to your personality and outlook on life. I think those that survive are the ones that learn to become business minded the fastest, with an element of luck, plus the ability to adapt products and services to try and seek out what little market there is. It must be incredible pressure though to see self employment as the only alternative if you can't get a job, rather than being a genuine choice. I would guess the failure rate of these businesses would be higher than average 
I think that in the line of businesses, they are the ones who are getting affected the most. But it still depends on the type of market really. As some people shy away from those brands which really dig them deep. Say, for technology stuff, you would not see that happening but for other stuff like clothing and other essentials, the lay or more open to going cheaper than expensive.
The UK economy deteriorated in the third quarter and is showing signs of stagnation, according to the British Chambers of Commerce. The BCC says cashflow remains a real concern for many of the 6,700 businesses it surveyed. Its director general, John Longworth, said recession could be avoided, but only through making "tough choices". BBC News - UK economy deteriorating, says BCC Hmmm, good news keeps coming... Cashflow does seem to be a key area, as Tomsk said, people are taking much tighter control of cashflow.
Not all small businesses but depends upon the category of business. There are some businesses that are surviving in this poor condition such as food and clothing related business. The business that is related with human needs, can survive most often.
“Not all small businesses but depends upon the category of business.” This is a crisis of overproduction. To stay afloat, we need to offer a fundamentally new products.
Typically very small businesses have cost structures that give us an advantage in surviving bad times. We've much lower fixed costs than our larger peers and are more able to flex variable costs in line with sales. That said, no-one I speak to seems to be hoping for much more than to survive. Linda CareersPartnershipUK
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