On Friday 22nd February Moody’s downgraded the UK economy from AAA to AA1. The reasons Moody’s gave for the downgrade were that they consider the UK to have a weak economy and is suffering from sluggish growth. The likely effects of the downgrade are: The pound will drop, which means our imports will cost more. […]
Economic update Feb 2013: what does it mean for your business strategy?
To assist in the planning of your business finance strategy, we have produced this report summarising recent data produced in January/February 2013 by four respected commentators on the UK economy: The Office for National Statistics, BDO, the CBI and Markit/CIPS. ONS Index of Construction December 2012 The estimated total volume of construction output in […]
Business strategy 101 – Business funding update – February 2013
The Bank of England’s ‘Trends in Lending’ report, published on 21st January shows business funding options remain hard to come by for SMEs. The underlying message from the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 is that Finance for the SME sector remains elusive and, as a consequence, demand is subdued. Let’s take a […]
Turnaround strategy: How do your business problems compare to these?
Planning a turnaround strategy can feel like a lonely task. There are so many options to consider and a wide range of actions you need to take just to get your house in order before you can even start making any changes. We’ve talked about them in our eBook, Guide to Company Turnaround and Finance […]
Bank Bailouts: Is the business funding crisis an unintended consequence?
Recently, I was with some friends and business colleagues when we met another contact of mine who was unknown to the wider group. All were in business in some form or another and I was shocked by the reaction. When my contact told the group he was a banker, there was actually some booing. It […]
Business strategy 101: What if things don’t change?
We are constantly being promised by the politicians that ‘things’ will get better. Growth in the economy is just around the corner with all the goodies that this entails – stronger businesses, less unemployment, better jobs, higher wages, better healthcare, improved care for the elderly, better education etc. etc. I would just make the point that […]
Business funding update: will things be better in 2013?
For many of our clients and readers, access to business finance remains one of their biggest concerns going into 2013. As we have mentioned in previous blogs, the paradox of banks not lending and SMEs not borrowing leads to an increasingly downward spiral of funding. The government is trying to do something about it with […]
Starbucks, Amazon and Google: Who’s in the wrong?
This is a great story. The government has suddenly decided to come down hard on company’s not paying tax – shock horror. Have any laws been broken? The amazing thing here is that nobody has broken the law (allegedly). We have some offshoring and some transfer pricing, and some nice tax havens, but these companies […]
Autumn Statement 2012 – No room to move?
The Chancellor finds himself in a very difficult position, not just because he is scrabbling around to create an environment in which the economy can grow, but more importantly – in my opinion – he actually has very little power to make meaningful and sustainable changes. In the ultimate democracies (one of which we thankfully […]
Economic update: what does it mean for your business strategy?
This post will be the first of what I hope will become a regular series that looks at the latest economic data. It will attempt to interpret the various indicators and put them into some perspective so that you can read the tea leaves about how to plan and implement your business strategy. Today, we’re […]