How much business are you doing right now?

[SocialMediaUncovered]

The tricky in-between time from christmas and new year

How is you business doing in a post christmas point of view - or are you just writing it off until Jan 5th?

Can you afford to?

Or don't you have a choice?

[NetConneXions]

i dont have a retail business, but it looks like everyone has been hanging back for christmas/new year sales. Was apparently 25k in the lanes shopping center on saturday (carlisle). 10% increase on last year.

[matt.chatterley]

Not in retail, but we are back at work (on all cylinders) for the inbetween days. Off NYD, of course, but making the most of the quiet period in the middle to make some progress on back-burner projects!

[Interconnect IT]

Always plenty to do - had a potential client in this morning, doing some tidying up, consolidating information, moving over to Outlook 2007, project planning, etc etc. It's actually nice that there are no telesales calls or support calls to disrupt my flow, getting loads done!

[Esk247]

kind of dead but going back over some unpaid work and general updates along with tidying the office really.

no work in this last few weeks though but thats whitby..it literally dies during christmas and as the weather gets better people get a bit more chirpy and start to ask about websites/office space or storage space or something else that i'm involved with..usually anything and everything these days.

[Burden]

Not in retail...

Closed 24/25/26 Dec and 31/01 January.

We take bookings etc with being a studio so its been fairly busy the in between dates but not as busy as usual

[That Guy]

A few online orders but not as many as usual (to be expected)

Catching up on paperwork and sending out reminders for un-paid invoices :)

Back to normal on the 5th though.

[Dominic Taylor]

Income inline with expectations and even some orders on Christmas day as always! I don't know what's worse, the person buying a hosting account at 5am or me being online at 7am to set it up for them :)

[Comspec]

I spent all day today, on first day back, collecting repairs, etc. Have enough in today to keep us busy all week. Still have a backlog of other work to clear this week too, so gonna have to put in a few late nights/all nights. No complaints though.

[F1SEO]

Income inline with expectations and even some orders on Christmas day as always! I don't know what's worse, the person buying a hosting account at 5am or me being online at 7am to set it up for them :)

Phew - no rest for hosting companies, heh?

[nateski]

most businesses now stop between christmas and new year, especially B2B services, i think january will be the beginning or a real test, right throught until september 2009 - its going to be tough and government need to wake up and smell the coffee that small business, the economic drivers, the real employers of the UK need more support than anyone... money and time spent helping business would reduce the need to spend on benefits and ridiculous government projects.... the question you should really ask is why do we accept and un-elected prime minister who has never had a private sector job let alone run a real business

[Esk247]

i don't get how you can have a health minister who has never worked in the nhs and a chancellor who has never been an accountant coupled with a prime minister who (as stated above) has never been in charge of his own business or group.

shows that the government is perhaps not the most experienced or best equipped to deal with the ups and downs of the economy.

if the government invested more time in business (as stated above) they could reduce the drag on the benefits system and get people back in to work as they keep blabbing on about...all this talk of 'get people off benefits and back to work' is a total load of rubbish! if they wanted to do that why did they invest all of that money in to the banks..why did they not just invest it straight in to peoples pockets and in to the commercial/retail sectors and that would give people the finance to buy cars, food, petrol and get the economy moving forwards!

instead..we've stopped...because everyones run out of money and everyone is looking blankly at one another thinking..what the hell just happened.

[CableGuy]

"Small and medium sized businesses such as yours are vital to the UK economy." - Rt. Hon Gordon Brown

Agreed, Gordon.

Instead of a 2.5% VAT cut, maybe give us some tax breaks so we can spend more in the economy, like recruiting people for example, and offset it against our tax bill.

Jobcentreplus are actually doing some productive stuff with us at the moment to help fill some vacancies.

Business Link have even been helpful to an extent with a few local events, although I still suspect they are generally ineffective.

Try going to Business Link to their information helpdesk with a specific business query - you'll be dizzy they go round in circles that much!

[nateski]

All the above is true, its a disgrace that the people leading our nation have never had relevant private sector experience. The country needs a radical political shift but it wont happen because government employs so many people, so many are on benefits and we are so selfish and fragmented as a society that the motivation and positioning to protest against the government effectively just isnt there

[activedatainstallations]

I run an IT company in Milton Keynes and my core business is network cabling, over the past few weeks work has been really quite. Speaking to different people i can't make my mind up if it is the slow down for christmas or the down turn in the economy, any ideas?

[Mister B]

I run an IT company in Milton Keynes and my core business is network cabling, over the past few weeks work has been really quite. Speaking to different people i can't make my mind up if it is the slow down for christmas or the down turn in the economy, any ideas?

How does that compare with last year? If you're up or level then chances are that it's the seasonal slow down, if you're moving backwards, then it could be the economy.

That being said, without knowing the changes to your business from this year to last, it's very hard to comment. Only you can have a true stab at the answer:)

Mister B

[neildigital]

Not in Retail, but been open for business.
Printing business for me.

Had 6-7 orders in so far....

Neil

[dataferret]

Learning from experience in past years I decided to close until 6th January. I dicovered there was little point being open when everyone was off on holiday. Different if I owned a physical retail shop but most of my business interests (apart from the office desk & meeting room hire) are online now.

What is the point in flogging yourself when everyone is on holiday. All work and no play makes you a very dull person. This said, I am here and still working on unpaid projects so I guess it is a bit of a Busmans holiday :)

@activedatainstallations (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/member.php?u=40517) - I think you will find it is a combination of both. Lots of businesses are closing and most are holding back on spending until things pick up. The only ones still spending as normal seem to be the Government/Public Sector/NHS type of contracts and getting them is always a pain in the rear end.

[cjd]

December is always like 10 days of Sundays for us but January is like a month without them.

[BusinessIdeas]

Demand for our service has increased out of all proportion recently due to the slow down in BMV and buy to let. Investors are looking for an alternative business income. We received phone calls all over the Xmas period and even on Xmas day. Things are looking fantastic for the new year :D