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Survival strategies

ended 31. August 2022

With the UK economy predicted to enter 5 consecutive quarters of negative growth by the Bank of England, and inflation tipped to enter the high teens, what strategies are you putting in place to ensure you survive the turbulent year or two ahead?

18 responses from the Newspage community

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Suzanne Noble
Co-Director at Startup School for Seniors
We're diversifying our trading income by launching a paid-for programme of our course, Startup School for Seniors, alongside our government-funded support. We know that government budgets will be very tight and, as a result, we need to find alternative ways of sustaining our business. We advise our learners to do the same by considering the multiple ways they can earn money.
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Lucinda O'Reilly
Director at The International Trade Consultancy
The majority of my clients are SME manufacturers who are being hammered by energy prices and the increased cost of raw materials and transport. Unsurprisingly, enquiries for my services have dropped significantly so to make up the shortfall I've taken a part time job that allows me to focus on the business during the week but provides guaranteed income each month. It's hard work but I'm not prepared to give up on my business that I've poured so much time, energy and passion into building. I know demand will return and I just need to keep going.
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Fanny Snaith
Owner at Fanny Snaith - Certified Money Coach
I will be using a multi-stragegy approach to counter and conquer the predicted turbulence ahead. I will be looking at my spending weekly rather than monthly. This way I can make decisions earlier on what and what not to buy. I have cancelled all the subscriptions I don't use or value fully. I will continue to save and invest even if it is a pound a week. This keeps my mind upbeat. As a home worker, I have bought a blanket hoodie to wear in the office: who cares what I look like! I have increased my prices but also created lower cost products for those who need my help but are not yet able to work with me one-to-one. I am also focusing on positive news. Focusing on negative headlines creates fear and that will not help me in anyway at all.
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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
Turn off, turn off and turn off once again. At work we have labels everywhere, reminding staff to turn off equipment they aren't using. Businesses don't have the luxury of a price cap so it's even more important we aren't wasting electricity. Of course, I take that practice home with me too. We have also just started reviewing our suppliers. We are at the beginning of a process of analysing all of our costs and looking for alternatives or to cancel some all together. This is good practice at anytime, but it's vital during a period of high inflation. I would recommend this at home, too. That could be as simple as pulling off a recent bank statement and looking at your direct debits. What's going out to who, and do you really need it? You'd be amazed how much you could save.
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Imran Hussain
Director at Harmony Financial Services
I think along with everyone belts will have the be tightened, and extra holes punched in as I intend to be available to my clients as and when required as this is a challenging time for everyone and how we treat people will be remember when we do come out of this madness.
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Rob Peters
Principal at Simple Fast Mortgage
As someone who started a business at the start of the last recession, I firmly beleive that good business will do prevail regardless of the wider economic pressures. People will always need advice, goods and services, and we will be here when they need us. We focus on what we can control, and that's primarily our attitudes, as well as ensuring we provide top notch customer service, and expert value driven advice.
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Edward Checkley
Managing Director at Advias
We are putting service at the heart of our operation, investing in cutting out needless manual processes and enhancing the broker and client experience. Fundamentally this will cut costs and improve our offering, win/win! Advias is a specialist in complex large mortgages, we are here to problem solve and work with non-standard incomes of the self-employed and higher earners. By offering a more personalised approach, leveraged by technology, we are confident of achieving growth during this uncertain period whilst providing our clients with creative solutions.
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Rhys Schofield
Brand Director at Peak Mortgages and Protection
We have to be alert to new opportunities and ways to help people when everything is more expensive. We're now seeing a lot of clients get a nasty shock at remortgage time with rates going through the roof but we can help with perhaps advising to extend a mortgage term or even suggest some capital raising to install renewables that sometimes could even mean eliminating their utility bill cost. I believe this will be a real growth area for our business. We could sit there moping about or we could help our clients come up with real solutions.
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Adam Bamford
COO at Colleague Box
Rather than sit and wait to see what happens we are attacking our industry with new services, improved products and increased investment ... if we are going to go down we aren't doing it without a fight. First up is our onsite bespoke gifting trailer 'Tilly' which is merging our core service of postal gifting with a range of onsite gifting options so that we have a raft of options for everyone rather than just those still working from home. This has been c£30k investment for our small business ... in for penny. Next is our appearance. We are taking our gifts to the beauticians to take them from pretty to premium. All our gifts will come with beautiful sleeves as standard rather than it being an optional extra ... more box for your buck. Last but not least by a country mile is our Christmas gifting range. More choice, more range and even more value for our customer base with build your own gift options from £12.99 through to £39.99 ... all thriller no filler. We are primed and ready to fight.
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Keith Budden
Managing Director at Ensurety
Recognising the need to diversify, and also recognising that businesses will be looking to save money where they can, we are investing in our new venture Save With CDC, bringing companies, charities and other organisations savings on all the business purchases they make every day. Sign up at for details of when we go live. https://www.savewithcdc.co.uk
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Esme Marshwitch
Owner at The Glassy Witch
I have had the loft reinstated and boarded out, and am in the process of creating felt liners for all the curtains, to retain heat come the winter. We've already switched over to using a portable induction hob and air cooker/fryer instead of using the gas hob and oven, and we're growing a lot more of our own vegetables and fruit. As much debt as possible is being paid off, even if it makes things uncomfortable for now, because it will make it less unpleasant later. I am lucky I can do this. Too many people out there do not have the resources available to take these steps in the first place, and they are really going to suffer. We will need centralised points for people to go for heating and basic hot food as much as company before long. It will require community action for us all to get through, since the government cannot see what is happening at a local level. Even if they could, they have shown themselves incompetent at best, but more likely just totally uncaring.
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Carl Roberts
Chartered Financial Planning and Managing Director at RTS Financial Planning
A good way to mitigate the volatility of your investments and retirement income is to hold enough cash to cover your next 3-5 years spending (depending how safe you want to be). This avoids you have to make withdrawals from your investments if they have fallen significantly in value. The average UK stock bear market (a fall of 20% from peak) has lasted 1.5 years over the last 100 years. The worst lasted around 3.5 years so this strategy will cover the worst of scenarios. You can then go make to making investment withdrawals once markets recover.
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Josie Robinson
Digital Communications & Marketing Coordinator at Boxall Brown & Jones
As a business we have been through this before and experience counts. We have taken care to ensure a diverse income stream across the property sector so are not reliant on one particular client. We have also been careful to keep a very tight rein on costs, breaking down all of our income streams so we can understand which is most profitable and where necessary this allows us to allocate the appropriate resources.
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Siobhian Raymond
Owner at Pale & Interesting
As an independent porcelain artist and small business owner, I was planning on attending more makers markets and fairs in the hope to generate more sales and exposure. With the constant barrage of outrageous and unending price hikes on absolutely everything, however, my family are now having to decide whether our car is a luxury item that we can justify and afford to keep. If not, this will have a massive knock-on effect with my plans. I won't be able to attend markets and I'll struggle to take my work to be fired. I already obsess over our energy consumption and budgeting for food. I feel that the future of my small business is bleak.
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Rachel Hayward
MD at Ask the Chameleon
After the turbulent ride courtesy of Covid, I have barely taken a breath it seems before re-arming for battle once more. Whilst running a business is never for the faint of heart - the rollercoaster is a common feature for many - I fear the next 12-24 months will be a challenge of epic proportions. This is because the energ/inflation/High Street demise etc affect us ALL. I am battening down the hatches in my one-woman boat, looking for ways to reduce bills, make the most of subscriptions and scrutinising EVERYTHING (even though I did this in early Covid lockdown 1 days). Some of us will survive, collaborate, change and adapt. Some of us will need to move into employment to pay their bills and feed/clothe themselves and their children. Some of us will simply have to stop trading. I am keen not to lose heart; control what I can and be alert for opportunities. Onward small biz, once more into the breach dear friends....
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Lewis Thompson
Business Development Manager at Future Fit for Business
Unlike many business, we're fortunate to be entering the turbulence from a really secure position, having grown throughout the pandemic. We're launching a new qualification now in Life Coaching and opening up more resources for people looking to move into the Health and Wellness Industry. As people struggle to make ends meet, we believe that careers like Personal Training that offer additional income as well as flexibiulity to work around existing commitments will be more in demand than ever.
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Graham Wells
Founder and Financial Coach at GroWiser Financial Coaching
It's vital to brace for the impact of certain price rises. Central heating will be procrastinated a few extra weeks this year and the cosiest jumpers will be hauled out from the back of cupboards. It all reinforces the value of regular financial housekeeping, such as cancelling unneccessary subscriptions and taking time to truly assess the value of spending decisions. Negative growth in the economy affects different people in different ways and it's not always bad. It might need some creative thinking to minimise the impact and for some, it will be unavoidably difficult. Collectively, we'll get through it and a helping hand for those less fortunate will be appreciated, whilst boosting the positive energy of those able to help.
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Julia Usher
Managing Director at Ashes Memorial Jewellery
Like other businesses across the UK I have started to action my business survival plan. With rising inflation, the cost of living crisis, the hangover from Covid and Putin's war games, the situation I find my business in at present is nothing sort of terrifying. We have heavily stripped costs back within the business. Marketing budgets have been slashed, staff are now having to work from home one day a week to help with their fuel costs, machines are now only turned on when we have orders running on them. The constant battle for consumer spend is tough and we have added more frequent email marketing and offers to try and encourage buying behaviour. We are also doing more B2B work to make our machines more cost-effective. We now offer a laser engraving service for the jewellery trade. This way we're trying to bring additional and much needed cash flow into the business at this difficult time. During the next two years the landscape of our economy will change dramatically. Businesses now more than ever will need to take drastic action to safeguard their future and to ensure they are not victim to the economic apocalypse we are heading towards.