Last week I asked how optimistic you were feeling. Here’s some of the responses.
Last week I asked how optimistic you were feeling. Here’s some of the responses.
Alan Beaumont, managing director of gardening supplies business Greenfingers Cash and Carry says, ‘I could not agree more that hope and fear are mixed in pretty equal proportions, but there is a big difference to a year ago, when there was fear and more fear.’
He continues, ‘A year on and we have all accepted that things won’t change anytime soon. This is the norm now. Life goes on. What I see is that the majority of our customer base now understand their market better than they did and have some strategies in place, firstly to survive and secondly to focus some positive direction in their businesses.’
Beaumont is practising what he preaches, planning a £2.5 million investment in a new facility this year. His product is a discretionary spend, but he believes that consumers too are adapting to the new normal. ‘Money isn’t flowing down the streets but they still have desires to satisfy and if they have the money will spend in order to satisfy those desires.’
Perhaps it’s in the nature of entrepreneurs to be optimistic – it’s their optimism that keeps everyone else afloat. Martin McDonald, CEO of branding specialist Big on Results, is particularly bullish, but that doesn’t mean he expects the 12 months to be easy.
‘I feel very optimistic about 2012. If you have been through previous recessions then you know great opportunities come from keeping your eyes and ears open and simply working harder. You have to get up earlier and go to bed later.’
Like Beaumont, McDonald believes now is not the time to put off investment decisions, and he doesn’t mince his words. ‘I also have advice for the rabbit-in-the-recession-headlights decision-ditherers too: why not stop dicking around with your investors’ money and try actually making faster, better decisions?’
He adds, ‘I believe that doing good business always has been and always will be a numbers game, so just do it (whatever it is you do) more often and much better!’
Now there’s a decent new year’s resolution.
