Green Shoots? Maybe we can work it out after all….

Hooray! I have at last found those elusive green shoots. There is a landscape gardener based in Guildford who is really busy at the moment. I know this is probably an example of the DIY syndrome which normally occurs in housing recessions i.e. if you can’t move to a new house you do up the old one (although B&Q, Homebase et al should be so lucky), but normally the gardener is one of the first cuts made by a cash strapped household, so maybe these are green shoots that really have taken root. It seems that Barack Obama thinks so as well.

I met the aforesaid landscape gardener at a breakfast seminar entitled “Preparing For The Next Upturn” organised by the Surrey Economic Partnership where the speaker was the ever ebullient Beermat man Mike Southon. His presentation compared the life cycle of an entrepreneurial business with the career of the Beatles, and mixed great music with amusing anecdotal snippets and a great deal of common sense advice. Mike kept the whole audience entertained for more than an hour and I think everybody left the seminar believing that they will get through the current economic downturn, and emerge well equipped to take advantage of the upturn.

Maybe we are having a hard day’s night at present but if we can work it out and help each other rather than let it be, perhaps we will see the economy getting better in the end.

Antony Doggwiler

Help from Top to Bottom

Real help for people and businesses is a phrase that is being bandied about an awful lot at the moment, particularly by the Government as it seeks to find ways to support the economy during the present downturn. This help currently includes the various funding schemes that have been put in place such as the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, business health checks courtesy of Businesslink, skills training for individuals and businesses, and many sources of advice to assist with personal debt, redundancy and getting back to work. Full marks for effort although clearly these are top down initiatives, and it will take time for this help to get through to those who need it and have some real impact on the economy.

However there are also some bottom up initiatives being launched, such as the one that I saw when I visited the Spelthorne offices of the Surrey Chamber of Commerce recently. Known as the Enterprise Zone (or EZone), it is a scheme intended to help new businesses through their start up period, and is designed to be a credible and more professional alternative to a home office. Along with a fully equipped office area with reception and secretarial support, there is also access to business services and advice, and perhaps more importantly the chance to share ideas and get peer support from like minded business people, who have decided for either economic or lifestyle reasons to strike out on their own. In short it is a practical, efficient and effective solution for new businesses looking to get going, and hopefully will quickly generate some benefits for all concerned as well as the economy as a whole. All in all a very good idea, which like all good ideas it just needs a little push, something I am more than happy to do.

Antony Doggwiler

A battle the optimists have to win

We received an e-mail this morning from the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce seeking member views on a new BBC documentary “Recession Britain”. The aim of the programme is focus on one firm that is struggling to survive the recession and how that struggle will impact on their supply chain, particularly the smaller firms that are part of it.

My immediate thought was why don't they follow it up with a programme on businesses that are actually doing well at the moment? There are more of these businesses around than people would think, and such a programme might provide encouragement for struggling and nervous businesses, rather than their proposed programme which will surely just exacerbate the situation.

People are more positive than is generally recognised in the media at present (witness today’s figures on consumer confidence which show an improvement since January), something that was reconfirmed at a breakfast seminar I attended organised by the accountants Smith and Williamson. Two well known names in the entrepreneurial world, Guy Rigby, Head Of Entrepreneurs at SandW and an old friend of Orchard, and Mike Southon, founder of the Beermat series of entrepreneur guides and regular FT columnist, combined in an entertaining double act to emphasise that there are always reasons to be optimistic as long as the basics of good management are adhered to.

Admittedly their optimism was tempered by a more pessimistic (or realistic? - take your pick) view from Mark Garnett, Director of Financial Services at SandW about the state of the British economy and its future prospects. OK we know it is not fun out there, and it seems that the BBC and other media take every opportunity to remind us of this. However we also all know deep down that the current economic battle is one that the optimists have to win.

Antony Doggwiler