A recent survey of business leaders were confident about the future of their own businesses (well they would be wouldn’t they!) and on the economy generally, that UK PLC will avoid a double dip recession. This is supported by government and independent analysts.

Well this is only half the story…  The reality is that so many companies are already in trouble and not just the retail ones (the well known brands with the doors locked shut in the high street) Many will not survive the ‘nearly’ recession and I am sure business insolvency specialists will be even busier than they are now, come the end of the year.

It is often said that downturns in the economy are ultimately good for it, because it gets rid of all the dross and the economy and the component businesses will be in a much healthier state when it comes out of a downturn, than when it went in. Obvious, yes, but this does not help those who are in trouble now.

Of course, many of them can be helped, saved even and the good ones will save themselves. But the bad ones… they need some help. Whether it be cash flow, credit management, cost management or financial management generally; there is nearly always an issue which can be addressed which will improve financial matters. Of course, this does not address sales… I will leave that for the marketing experts. But if you can sort the finances out and may be some of the internal processes, cut costs etc; survival is not guaranteed but it all helps.

If you are one of the ones in trouble. Don’t just rely on your order book or your prospect list … you need to look at everything. Don’t be afraid to cut costs or staff. If you are still trading and profitable in a  years time… your employees will be grateful that you took the hard decisions now.

Those of us who are still here are hell bent on survival. Costs have been reduced and then reduced again and there is just a little hope that future prosperity is just around the corner. In the UK, technically we are still in recession, but the government insists that recovery is just around the corner. But why have we in the UK had to wait so much longer than most other developed countries?

This blog entry is about taking advantage of the recovery and is not meant to be a blatant criticism of our national governments economic policy, but you can’t help but think it a little ironic that everybody else seems to be growing and yet our economy is still shrinking. You could argue that the UK is unusually dependant on the service economy, rather than manufacturing or production and that makes us different from other major economies. The trouble with that argument is that the service sector is now effectively in growth. Whatever the reason, it is clear that some sectors of the economy are in growth and some are still in recession and depending where you are and what you do, you are either on the positive side or the negative.

SME’s are the life blood of the UK economy and those that are surviving the economic downturn are now leaner and much more effective than their cousins who fell by the wayside. Prudent evaluation of costs, good marketing and control of processes means that the best companies survive. But that does not mean that they still need a little help.

There are literally hundreds of resources available to SME’s in the UK today. There are consultants, advisors, funders, trainers, web resources galore. The trick is to determine if you need help, what you need, how much you are prepared to pay, how soon you need it and who has got it.

Whatever the government claims, the recession will be over soon and we can all look forward to growth again. Maybe not the megabucks boom growth of the first half of this decade, but sensible, controlled growth, where business owners begin to make cautious business decisions once again rather than sit on the fence and wait to see what happens. The businesses that do the best will be the ones who are best prepared. Are you?