Positive view

It is a tough economy and when the going gets tough, the tough get going. We operate in a market economy which means choice for consumers and businesses, where the buyer has more power and the ability to make more choices. As a result of this, the popular and smart businesses are surviving and those less fortunate that still hark after a world where you do not need to deliver excellent products and services through lean processes are failing. And what is so wrong with that?

Over the last six months, my fellow SME leaders have been getting more positive about the prospects for their own business, whilst at the same time being rather more realistic about the UK economy than the official statistics. What they are saying is simple, yes we are bouncing along the bottom, but we have been for five years now, we are used to it and we know how to survive and operate successfully in this market. When the UK entered a double-dip recession in 2012, I was surprised as I felt that the economic climate in the UK was not as bad as it was being conveyed. Indeed, the current climate is in fact just a new normal that most managing directors have now adapted to.

SMEs do, of course, need to be aware of the economic climate and news that the UK economy may be on the road to recovery is certainly a good thing.

However, for SMEs the economy should be something they need to react to as a peripheral matter; their key focus should be on doing a better job than their competitors.

Whilst it would be nice to have the funding to create more growth, that’s not going to happen until the banking system is fixed, so until then good businesses will just make do and mend and get on with making what money they can by relentless focus on what they do now with what is available.

Bob Bradley, Chairman, MD2MD, Freeland