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Newspage Small Business and Charity Sentiment Index Dec 22

ended 05. January 2023

Newspage Small Business and Charity Sentiment Index Dec 2022

Welcome to the inaugural Newspage Sentiment Index, which we’ll be conducting at the end of each month moving forward. We’d love it if you could respond to the quick 5 question survey >> here <<. Once you’ve done that, please respond with any thoughts you have in relation to any of the questions in the alert below. We will issue the survey results and your responses to the local, national and relevant trade media later this week.

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not confident at all, and 10 being extremely confident, how confident are you feeling right now?

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not confident at all, and 10 being extremely confident, how confident are you that you will be trading in one year’s time?

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not confident at all, and 10 being extremely confident, how confident are you about your current cash flow situation?

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not confident at all, and 10 being extremely confident, how confident are you that you will be able to cover your costs (e.g. rent, salary or salaries, heating bills, loan repayments) in January?

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not confident at all, and 10 being extremely confident, how confident are you that your revenues will be the same, or higher, in January relative to December?

13 responses from the Newspage community

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Samuel Mather-HolgateVerified
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
Unless you are an insolvency practitioner, I don't expect any small business to be confident about the outlook for their company over the next 12 months. It's good to see inflation falling back, and this should be back at target by the summer, but the Bank of England seem wedded to the idea of higher rates for longer. With a year of sky-high inflation and a much higher tax burden on people, rates at this level will kill off demand and businesses at the same time. The government has shown its hand and the cards tell you how anti-business the Tories have become with huge hikes in corporation tax, scrapping the dividend allowance and freezing most allowances when inflation is double digits.
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Debbie PorterVerified
Managing Director at Destination Digital Marketing
It would be foolhardy for any business to feel 100% confident in this economic climate. The UK is expected to be in recession for the whole of 2023, and a third of the world economy will also be joining this grim party by the time the year is through. We're going to have to weather a 'relatively shallow but protracted' recession that will cause all kinds of pain for the working poor, the unemployed, small businesses and large corporations alike. As a small business owner, I'm putting in every effort to navigate these choppy waters, but it's tough when you keep losing sight of your destination as each new pitch and roll brings new and unexpected challenges. Careful planning and a large pinch of good luck are going to be what get us through.
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Dr Marianne TrentVerified
Clinical Psychologist at Good Thinking Psychology
2023, a time where the only thing for certain seems to be uncertainty! It's fair to say that it's a strange time to be a human, let alone be trying to run a small business in addition to all of the other spinning plates! People cutting their cloth accordingly to flex for the cost of living crisis seems likely to affect the bottom line of small businesses with greater impact than bigger organisations. The financial uncertainty posed by 2023 might well be an extra worry line to cultivate for small business owners.
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Nicola Bulbeck0
Chair of the Trustees at Happy Landings Animal Rescue
Despite a constant round of cost-cutting and reorganisations in order to stay afloat, it continues to be a very challenging time for us as a small local charity, we've had to accept that it remains unlikely that we will get any support from the government and unfortunately, we do not hold the same level of reserves as many of the larger charities, so with the rising costs it will continue to be a very tough year. We are incredibly grateful to our local community who remain our biggest supporters and our focus this year will be to continue to build relationships and partnerships within our local community and businesses., in order to support our fundraising objectives to enable us to continue our vital support, despite everything we have committed to being there for those that need us at this very difficult time.
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Scott Taylor-Barr0
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
Sailing into uncharted waters is my best description of my feelings currently. With strikes, inflation and bank base rate rises all swirling about, plus a government that doesn't appear to be confidently getting a handle on any of it at present, I'm certainly more apprehensive at the start of 2023 than I'd have liked.
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Lucy Scott0
Director at Lil's Parlour CIC
Lil's Parlour CIC is entering 2023 in the most precarious financial situation we have ever been in. December was our poorest performing month of 2022, ironic when it's supposed to be the month that keeps your business afloat into the New Year. December was busy, busy with our free grotto, busy serving hundreds of cakes and treats to local people but I suspect people were holding on to their pennies and voluntary contributions were much lower than the 2022 average. This is the risk I take with our pay as you can model. I have the basics covered for January but looking any further than that right now is frightening. I will keep fighting because I believe making a difference is not meant to be easy.
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Jen DavidVerified
Owner at Jen David
I hope that I've cushioned CV Shed adequately by securing some on-going contracts with businesses, so that if my services for individual clients drop off due to the cost of living crisis I still have the business clients to see me through. That said, I can't guarantee that those businesses won't need to reduce their spend, too, so my focus this year will be on attracting more long-term clients.
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Oliver Savill0
Director at AssessmentDay
We seem to be a bellwether for the jobs market because our sales are tied to how desperate candidates are to practice for their reasoning tests.

Currently, our January 2023 sales are forecast to be 20% higher than December 2022 as we see more candidates on the market and fewer jobs available. This is in contrast to most of 2022 where we saw lots of jobs but not enough candidates to fill those roles.
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Shirley Leader0
Owner at Velvet & Rose
As a fashion boutique we are hoping that people will support us further this year. We've made plans to adapt to the change in consumer buying habits and hope that these will pay off this coming season. Almost trading for 5 years, we feel that January is always entered with some trepidation. Will we sell last season's stock? Will customers still support us? Will they like what we buy? We hope so!
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Holly Hinton0
Founder at Web Goddess
Whilst I am confident that my business is buoyant there is no doubt that as a small business, we are sailing into an economic storm.
Cash flow is the most important issue as I need to ensure my staff are paid and my priority is widening our services to bring in more work and increase revenue to cover skyrocketing costs.
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Gillian FergusonVerified
Owner at Twisted Empire Bakes
You know what? I’m actually feeling confident, it might be misplaced and this comment might not age well but I’ve decided to take control, take up space and not allow circumstance to be the death of my business.
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Michael OszmannVerified
Director at Health Travel
We are fortunate to be working in a resilient and growing niche - luxury wellness travel. We had strong trading results last year and are expecting growth this year. That said we are not immune to the situation of rising costs. That is one of our main concerns along with the continual disruption due to strikes. Fear of not being able to get to the airport, or that there will be huge queues at the airport can have a significant impact on buyer confidence in the travel market.
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Robert Bolohan0
Co-Founder at Lotuly
I'm not going to lie December was a total fail in terms of turnover, so this worries me a lot but January it's looking a bit more bright. We still can't celebrate anything but we are trying our best to stay afloat. Chances are in 1 year we might be doing something different in terms of business, who knows we are looking to pivot into building luxurious campervans and so far so good as the demand is higher than compared to our translation services but not all is lost. Cash flow is not that bad because we charge upfront but not getting enough new clients will hit our cash flow negatively at some point in the next two weeks. The rent and salaries are always a struggle some months you have to balance it out to make sure you have enough for both. It looks like we made more in this first week of January in terms of revenue vs whole December.