Brexit and small/medium businesses

No I suspect you are right. Even if Article 50 were to be revoked tomorrow, I think a lot of damage has been done. Confidence is such a big part of business, isn't it?

I think the uncertainty is what troubles the small business community at the moment Mamie .

As we see our (bigger) customers getting twitchy (ie moving some of their operations out of the UK as a precaution ) it worries us that it only takes a few more to follow and we (and many others) will be left without a marketplace.

As it stands I'm not sure if there is anything any government could do to stop this from happening.

Thanks Gillybob. Very interesting and very worrying. It is all very well for people in favour of Brexit to talk about the long-term, but I think small businesses would not have the resources to survive that long.
An extended transition might make things slightly easier, but the uncertainty will be crippling.

Support and incentivise small businesses to invest in training employees

This is one of the key areas that I would like to see change. As it stands there is absolutely no incentive whatsoever for a small business to take on/train an apprentice (unless they are straight from school) It is far too expensive. We have one apprentice in his 20's and we have to pay Full living wage, full NI, £2000 per year to training company to tick boxes (larger companies can tick their own boxes) college fees (if appropriate) pension.....etc. the list goes on. Once they are fully trained (at the small businesses expense) they usually up and leave to fill a skill shortage in a large company who can pay better wages (and haven't gone to the expense of the training)

I would like to see "apprenticeship" schemes extended up to 30-35 year olds with incentives for small businesses to train someone up. After all we are all going to have to work much longer so will still have 30+ years to give.

Just reading the executive summary shows the problems that small businesses envisage.

I don't think we can even begin to understand the knock on effect that will ripple down from the top manufacturers right down to us bottom feeders.

Apologies, I appreciate that the thread has moved on significantly and I was busy all day yesterday. I really don't expect anyone to read it in full durhamjen.

It's amazing how much won't matter according to David Davis.

The report mainly concentrates on employing people from the EU and potential skill shortages etc. which will not effect us directly as we do not employ anyone from outside the UK (although we have done in the past). However many small businesses such as ours will undoubtedly experience a knock on effect as our (large manufacturer) customers suffer. For example one of our main customers relies heavily on an EU workforce of mainly unskilled workers. They are already taking steps to move part of their entire operation into mainland Europe. This will have a big effect on us as they will no longer need to purchase as much of our expertise in the UK.

Additionally we have been told by some of our specialist suppliers that we should stock up on certain parts we buy from Europe as they are expecting a very large price hike. As a small business we do not have the cashflow to "stockpile" parts (as many larger businesses are probably doing) which will make it very hard for us to compete once the prices rise.

That's a response to Elegran's questions, gillybob, all 48 pages of it.

Are you watching David Davis trying to wriggle again on parliament TV?

www.fsb.org.uk/docs/default-source/fsb-org-uk/a-skilful-exit---what-small-firms-want-from-brexit.pdf?sfvrsn=0

A report from the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses).

I agree, varian.
22 different nationalities on Nelson's Victory!

I happened to see this advertisement which talks about our global connections and says "we are not an island". I thought for a minute it was an advertisement for the European movement, following from the Remain campaign and the punchline would be "we are not an island, not just an island, we are part of the European Union"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-1UNaA92fg

It turns out to be an ad for HSBC (Hong Kong based bank), but I think it is the sort of ad the Remain campaign should have run two years ago.

Yes of course they will. The lower exchange rate is already having an impact on prices.

Even those businesses which do not trade with the EU will lose out if internal trade is affected, which it will be if the economy suffers generally.

According to the Telegraph today, Gove is the expert on business after Brexit.
He thinks it will be brilliant for future businesses; shame about the ones that are here now.
Has anything Gove said ever come true, does anyone know?

Surely the biggest factor for any business post-Brexit is the extent to which it depends on trade with the EU? Supply of components, standards and regulations, export markets (to name but a few) might all be affected to a greater or lesser extent.
I don't think there are many generalisations to be made here - every case will be different.

I don't know why you responded like that, primrose.
I was just wondering if your previous comment was from the personal or theoretical point of view. It could be read either way.
Are you talking about business owners you know or business owners in general?

I am an ex business owner. Not ashamed to say so.

24housing.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ddd12a1ee3330a83986ae5fc5&id=b3827a0011&e=23ddde61eb

Good news for anyone working for Carillion. The building work is out there.

Not saying anyone on the thread is vitriolic by the way - it's just anyone can read it and I'm not feeding their hate.

I'm not talking about anything personal here Jen! I've learnt that the hard way. I'm not stupid enough to give vitriolic posters any information about me that they can weaponise and use to try and undermine my opinions.

Is that not what your M Sc is about, Primrose, business change?

Jura, I don't have a clue is the honest answer. London estate agents are already struggling in some areas where prices have fallen by 10%. I don't know if that's Brexit or stamp duty changes, or if a fall in price is necessarily a bad thing.
People could stay where they are and extend their properties, so small builders might do well.

Change is always more complicated than we think and I'm sure some businesses will do very well and others will not. But that has happened anyway - there's always winners and losers. I do think that business owners are very adaptable though. They are all people who have seen an opportunity and invested their time and money to build a business. Whatever happens with Brexit, they'll still have that same attitude.

I've always thought that lumping SMEs together was meaningless.
Companies with fewer than 250 staff and a balance sheet or turnover of £50 million or less does not seem medium to most people.
Small means fewer than 50 staff and a balance sheet or turnover of less than £10 million.