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How's business for you?

ended 13. February 2025

Tomorrow morning at 07:00 we're getting the first official estimate of GDP for the fourth quarter of last year. This key economic figure will get a huge amount of pick-up across the media and we're looking for views from business owners in all sectors. Just answer any or all of the questions below. If you'd like to give Platinum a whirl, use the discount code — PLATINUM53 — to get three months of Platinum at half price. Just upgrade from the Settings section of your Newspage.

  • How were the final three months of 2024 for your business?
  • What impact did the Autumn Budget have on sentiment and activity in your sector?
  • What do you think of the Labour government's handling of the economy since it took power? 
  • How confident are you feeling about 2025?
  • Are you currently going for growth or battening down the hatches?

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Tony Redondo
Founder at Cosmos Currency Exchange
The last quarter of 2024 was a mixed bag. We saw some growth in certain areas like clients emigrating overseas and UK businesses using overseas remote workers. Otherwise, we saw a marked slowdown in work from our UK-based business clients as they shelved expansion plans and laid off staff. After months of speculation, the budget exceeded the worst fears of any of our clients. We’ve been underwhelmed by the Labour government’s handling of the economy. Policies seem disconnected from the real-world challenges that businesses face. We are cautiously optimistic about the rest of 2025 given the strength of the US economy but aware that external factors like global inflation and political instability could still play a big role. We’re growing in some areas but scaling back in others. We're busy building new relationships with emigration agents, insolvency practitioners, and debt collectors, all of which are likely to see growth in the current climate.
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Legend
Jenny Blyth
Small business owner at Storm in a Teacup Gifts
The final 3 months of 2024 were a breath of fresh air for us with sales on the on increase off the back of the July election.
Heading into January is always difficult but due to the unfortunate outcome of the American election in November we are left with more concerns about the shape of world economics.
I think there is currently a great deal of uncertainty across the globe and this is definitely reflected in the spending habits of people and the small business community as a whole. Whilst trying to remain optimistic about the next few months it's safe to say we are keeping our eyes firmly on those in power to determine if we need to batten down the hatches for another impending storm.
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Keith Budden
Managing Director at Ensurety
The final three months of 2024 were disappointing for our business, the general malaise in business confidence meant that potential customers were reluctant to commit and actually put pen to paper.

In common with many in the services sector, and especially something like GDPR which, let's be honest is one of those business tasks equating to the personal task of going to the dentist - i.e. you know it could well prevent pain in the future, but you're reluctant to go and reluctant to pay for it, I think it's fair to say the budget had a markedly negative impact on sentiment and activity, with many organisations waiting to see exactly how the April Employer NI increases would impact their business.

I think Labour's handling of the economy has been disappointing - scrapping the winter fuel allowance dented consumer confidence and the Budget dented business confidence, so for small business whether B2C or B2B, the effect has been depressing.