Are we heading for a recession?

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

Are we heading for a recession?

[coxadmin]

What makes you ask, Tony?

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

What makes you ask, Tony?

You get the feeling that some business are going through a tough time.

I wonder if a lot of folks in this forum are starting to find it hard to make the sales.

I have a friend who is a web designer and he said that he can see a tough time at christmas & the start of 2006.

So not many presents for his kids this year

Best

Tony

[MinuWeb]

There is alot more competition than there used to be, due to how easy it is for someone to start an online business, resulting in new signups being harder to get. I wouldn't call it a recession though.

It just means that we have to adapt more and offer added value services and that extra bit of flair that seperates us from our competition. (isn't that one of the selling points of sitepal ? )

Also, in the design and hosting industry, I have found it very beneficial not trying to compete with the sites offering everything for £1-2. It is still easier to get one client that pays £1000 for a job than it is to get 1000 clients paying £1 each (and alot less work supporting them :D )

[Russ]

You could even add to the mix that being the holiday season a lot of key decision makers are away which has its own impact on productivity. We have deferred the start of a business development campaign for this very reason.

In general though different sections of the economy are affected in different ways, if the key indicators are retail spending and house sales the future looks a little bleak.

Most of us were probably around in business in the early 90’s in one form or another, one thing to be thankful of is at least they are unlikely to increase interest rates this time around!

[Richard Conyard]

Looking at the current climate and the changes in retail spend we are already in a "recession", albeit a very well managed one.

With the careful role that the Bank of England is playing with interest rates it is unlikely that we'll see the wildly fluctuating peaks and troughs of boom / bust that weren't so long ago. I just hope we haven't replaced those regularly repeating waves with a longer / tougher extended period of recession matched by only limited growth after.

[Top Hat]

With all the talk of recession, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

People, start spending less, as they think the recession is round the corner.

So, yes we are heading for recession IMHO.

[Rob Holmes]

With all the talk of recession, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

People, start spending less, as they think the recession is round the corner.

So, yes we are heading for recession IMHO.

Some people might be - I'm not.

Rob

[Jayne]

I think money is tight at the moment, expensive mortgages, rates going up, hiden government charges, fuel, plus extra charges for small business (not on the net business). Things like minimum wage, in London areas it's not much, but up north it is getting harder to keep up. Making it more difficult for small business to grow, therefore it has a knock on affect, a bit like the food chain. The bottom link goes and it works it way all the way to the top, until all feel the pinch.

Jayne

[Twokids]

I have a friend who is a web designer and he said that he can see a tough time at christmas & the start of 2006.



Personally and in my business, a litlle summer slowing buit no signs of a recession.

However I'm not surprised that a Web Designer is feeling the pinch - there seems to be hundreds of them out there touting for business, I get approached a couple of times a month by someone offering design services.

Years ago people wanted to be a train driver when they grew up - now it seems everyone wants a web design business...

Jim

[fastfences]

What makes you ask, Tony?


I have a friend who is a web designer and he said that he can see a tough time at christmas & the start of 2006.

Tony

Hi Tony,

No recession for me. Best favour you can do for your friend is to tell him to give web design the flick and take up prophesising! But, tell him to wait until after Christmas, or he won't make much money at that, either.

Cheers,
Nigel

[VeryMark]

As far as I'm concerned, last Christmas to Easter was flat, and then everything took off and now everyone seems to want to do something.

[retailer since 1988]

listen people i am a off licence owner bin in the trade for 20 yrs and we can see that we are in a very bad recession our takings are down by 35% and on monday what we took in our till was the worst for 4years we were down by 70% its gonna be a hard 5yrs ahead believe me i was their in 1988 and this time its gonna be harder and much more longer so get ready because soon they will start shedding jobs too because if this is retail now i dont wanna imagine the next few months mark my words this is going to be the worst xmas on record you watch if it isnt ile eat my own hat .!

[RedEvo]

However I'm not surprised that a Web Designer is feeling the pinch - there seems to be hundreds of them out there touting for business, I get approached a couple of times a month by someone offering design services.

Don't confuse the wannabees with the proper ones. Quite often in these forums we get people that come along and say "I've had my website professionally designed and blah blah blah.......". When you look at their site it's obvious it wasn't professionally designed. Web design is awash with the snake oil and wannabe bunch, not decent firms.

IMHO

d

[telemax]

In boom times some businesses will do badly, in a recession some businesses will do great. Just because one person sees hard times it doesn't mean another person will.

Anyway a recession is technically 2 or more quaters in a row when the economy shrinks. It hasn't happened for around 15 years in the UK, and looking at current growth, something really big and bad would have to happen to cause a recession.

It aint gonna happen!!

[RedEvo]

In boom times some businesses will do badly, in a recession some businesses will do great. Just because one person sees hard times it doesn't mean another person will.

Anyway a recession is technically 2 or more quaters in a row when the economy shrinks. It hasn't happened for around 15 years in the UK, and looking at current growth, something really big and bad would have to happen to cause a recession.

It aint gonna happen!!

For a more detailed (and contradictory) point of view, read on (http://www.moneyweek.com/file/35233/is-britain-heading-for-a-japanese-style-lost-decade.html).

d

[Sue F]

Are we heading for a recession?

I really hope not ...

Last June I gave up my HMRC job of 18 years to open my own on line shop selling baby bedding and accessories.

Last month my hubby gave up his bank job of 21 years to work for his dad's on line business selling children's character bedding and accessories.

If people stop spending their hard earned cash me, hubby and the pup will be living in a cardboard box on Redcar beach :eek:

I've just celebrated my first anniversary and things are on the up at the moment. After a year of ploughing all the profit back in to expanding the stock this will be the second month I've drawn a decent wage from the business and still been left with a profit (I hope I don't sound pompous here). I have peaks and troughs but it's pretty much steady away.

Due to my hubby joining his dad's company they have found the time to add an Ebay shop to their business which has increased their turn over nicely.

[dal]

I don't think we are yet, A lot of investment up till the Olympics. I think there's a bit of a boom at the moment.
After the Olympics I think there is going to be a recession. So many foreigners / cheap labour over here that are willing to break their backs for £30 a day. The more I think about it the more I worry.

[RedEvo]

I don't think we are yet, A lot of investment up till the Olympics. I think there's a bit of a boom at the moment.
After the Olympics I think there is going to be a recession. So many foreigners / cheap labour over here that are willing to break their backs for £30 a day. The more I think about it the more I worry.

That's a South East centric way of looking at it. The South East is important but not the be all. A country requires widespread prosperity surely?

d

[dal]

Good point Red Evo,
I think the majority of money and major things do happen here first though and then the rest follows. Like how we follow America. The rest of the country follows London.

[Lasting Designs]

That's a South East centric way of looking at it. The South East is important but not the be all. A country requires widespread prosperity surely?

d

Feeling left out we, then buy a lottery ticket ;)

Seems that what should happen, but my understanding is that the Londoners are already seeing large hikes in Council Tax. This is of course being denied, but some think that the Olympics budget burden is put onto the shoulders of those that live there...

[RedEvo]

I wouldn't shout that too loudly if you visit the north or worse still Scotland ;)

d

[Lasting Designs]

The Isle of Wight isn't the SE either 'd'

[RedEvo]

It's close enough.

d

[Lasting Designs]

The living standards aren't, like most of Scotland though, great scenery.

http://www.iwight.com/living_here/environment/estuaries/images/5IslandEstuaries01.jpg

The view from my garden (almost about 100 yards from where this was taken)