I don’t think anyone will deny that the business environment is tough at the moment. Our immediate experience is that the two areas that have suffered over the last 4 years have been retailers and anyone working in the construction industry. Retailers are finding it difficult because people are less inclined to spend their money (or are finding it harder to get credit), and construction has been squeezed as housebuilding stymies with the lack of lending and the subsequent fallout. Of course, it’s probably true to say that the credit crunch and the recession have affected most businesses – in many cases with brutal results.
However, we have also seen many businesses that haven’t been affected as much, which is probably a testimony to the robustness of their business model. It’s sometimes a case of “recession? What recession?”. It can be quite inspiring to see successful business continuing to grow, and highlights the importance of being dynamic and responding to external opportunities and threats.
We love to hear success stories, so as the title asks – how is your business doing? Let us know.