I’m sure you’ve read plenty about the Autumn Statement – no doubt your inbox has been flooded with updates too.
But what did you make of it, and more importantly how did it make you feel?
There have certainly been some pretty strong headlines and messages, and some were definitely contradictory. Just a few of the ones that caught my eye were:
- Workers’ pay growth prospects dreadful
- Government finances forecast to be £122bn worse off in the period until 2021 than forecast in March’s Budget
- A prolonged period of extreme uncertainty
- UK economy ‘resilient’ despite £122bn hit to finances
- Growth predictions had been cut as a result of the Brexit vote.
- Autumn Statement reveals devastating £58.7bn Brexit black hole as national debt is set to soar beyond 90%
- Some businesses should expect a visit from the taxman as government clamps down on tax evasion
- There were plenty of positives to be found in the statement, both for businesses and the Government’s new favourite social grouping, dubbed ‘Jams’
I’m not going to attempt any sort of analysis of the statement- there are people far more qualified than me to do that, but I’m really interested in the effect of the press coverage of these events and how they affect what we feel about the future of our businesses.
Who can forget the impact that ricocheted around the country when the financial world started collapsing in 2008? At the time I employed 12 people and I vividly remember emergency planning with my partner; axing all marketing costs, stopping all recruitment plans, putting our pensions on hold, and deciding we had to hunker down to see what happened. The problem is that the whole country did the same, and encouraged by the relentless Peston effect I’m convinced the recession that followed was far worse and longer than it needed to be. In hindsight we were dead wrong; we should have kept our head and carried on with our strategy. Demand for our services providing management accounts actually increased as companies wanted better financial control and we just weren’t geared up to cope with it.
Headlines messing with your mind
The headlines we read are deliberately emotive. And they can get inside our head more than we realise – with talk weak growth prospects, tremendous uncertainty, increasing wage pressure and black holes, and the more we read the more we can start to believe it.
Our minds are hard wired to look for evidence to support whatever we believe. So if you choose to believe that business will be difficult and uncertain, then you’ll find everything you need to confirm it wherever you look. You’ll find stories and anecdotes to reaffirm just how damn hard everything is.
So be very careful what you choose to let into your mind and believe to be true.
The thing is we’re all in business. Uncertainty is the name of the game. Of course we need to be conscious of economic conditions, and I do have some clients in the energy sector and care industry who are directly impact by government policy in their areas, but we need to make sure our strategies mean we can win no matter what is going on out there.
Part of this of course is being financially strong. Having a financial strategy, making sure all your taxes are put away, building cash buffers and having up to the minute financial information that acts as a sensitive alarm system in your business.
I believe we have a duty and responsibility as business leaders and job creators. As small businesses we’re the largest part of the UK economy and provide the vast majority of jobs in this country, so we have to stay strong and positive regardless of economic headlines and create our own trading conditions.