180 businesses per day to go bust in 2009!

[Alison Jones]

how do you know this? I wasnt aware Woolies, Whittards, or MFI had expanded too quickly....or have I missed something this past 20 years?


Woolies over expanded when they opened the "Big W" Stores.

Alison

 

[lockie]

If we listened to or believed everything we heard or read about we wouldnt leave our houses for fear of being stabbed,attacked by a large dog or attacked by a hoodie.

Now back to reality the business's that will be affected are those that dont plan for any downturn or dont change their business plan as they need to.

So if everyone will be unemployed next year and every shop closed where do we buy things we need ?

It maybe a coincidence but the most successful people i know are also the most positive i know.

My outlook is if my business can survive this economic downturn it can survive anything.

Reccession ? Pah bring it on and lets sort the men from the boys.

 

[3babies]

I started my business in 2008 and was a little silly and spent too much money. Now I am trying to keep afloat and pay off a couple of bills so I can start fresh in 2009. Its my first business and I have learnt the hard way about spending money, I just have to work really hard, really fast to get the $4000.00 I need to get rid of the bills and start fresh.

 

[lockie]

I started my business in 2008 and was a little silly and spent too much money. Now I am trying to keep afloat and pay off a couple of bills so I can start fresh in 2009. Its my first business and I have learnt the hard way about spending money, I just have to work really hard, really fast to get the $4000.00 I need to get rid of the bills and start fresh.

you made a mistake and have learned which is a good thing, cashflow is king in business as you have learned.

Its the ones that dont learn and do a gordon brown and try borrow their way out of trouble that will suffer.

 

[telemax]

@ AlisonJones

All of the retailers who have gone bust are ones that expanded too fast and spent too much money they did not have available ie run up debts they could not afford to repay.

how do you know this? I wasnt aware Woolies, Whittards, or MFI had expanded too quickly....or have I missed something this past 20 years?

Woolies, Whittards and MFI all have something in common... I can remember them being exactly the same since at least the early 80's. Especially Woolies!!

These companies failed to change with the times, rather like M&S a few years back when it almost went to the dogs. For the last decade MFI has been getting massacred by the likes of Ikea, Woolies has had to compete with Asda/Tesco/Morrisons et al. I'm sure even in the good times they were close to the edge.

 

[3babies]

Its so easy to spend money when you are excited about the business and try to go too big too soon or when other PR type companies help to spend more money than you have. Big mistake made - slowly getting out of debt.

 

[stevon]

David Jobber wrote a nice simple book on Marketing... Principles & Practise of Marketing or something.

Anyway, he makes some excellent points about adaptation. Businesses who adapt to the environment (which is constantly changing) will prosper. It's very much a Darwin-orentiated belief of survival of the fittest, which I think is oh so true in the competitiveness of the marketplace that faces most businesses. Charles Handy also spoke of the Shamrock organization... Outsourcing is a very valuable tool that many "traditional" businesses have yet to implement in order to remain competitive.

All this is in the books... That being said, it does take a certain person to implement this into the real world. And when are most SME owners going to have time to sit down and read these books really?! But there ya go!

 

[Goodegging]

It migth be possible that the busineses are going bust because that market, e.g take away pizza parlours, had reached saturation point. Just how many pizza parlours does one town need. Same goes for coffee shops, fashion shops, computer game shops, burger bars and beyond. With the latest amount of businesses going down it gives the opportunity for fresh and new exciting businesses to step into their premesis and offer far greater products, or what ever to the customers.

Out with the old, in with the new. If you have good business plan their should be no worries.

 

[christinna h]

I think the only way to combat market saturation is to innovate your products or service. Food items can undergo image makeovers to improve their salability. The best way to remain competitive is to improve the products and make it distinct and superior from what others are offering.

 

[Goodegging]

I think the only way to combat market saturation is to innovate your products or service. Food items can undergo image makeovers to improve their salability. The best way to remain competitive is to improve the products and make it distinct and superior from what others are offering.

or cheaper, seeing as pound shops are going from strength to strength and all these discount supermarket shops cropping up everywhere (Lidl, Netto, Aldi) We are supposed to be getting 6 Aldi in our town within next ten years. e already have 2 *sainsburys, M&S, Teso, tesco express, tesco petrol station, 2* Lidl, Netto, 2* Iceland, Morrisons, Asda and more - the town is only 150,000!

Seems like cheaper goods maybe way forwardas as another option seeing as people are cutting back on eating out with recession and everything else.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I think the only way to combat market saturation is to innovate your products or service. Food items can undergo image makeovers to improve their salability. The best way to remain competitive is to improve the products and make it distinct and superior from what others are offering.

I'd change that to:

"The best way to remain competitive is to improve your offer and make it distinct and superior from what others are offering."

i.e. have a unique selling point.

If you can't explain to people why they should do business with you, then you're lucky that anyone chooses to buy from you at all.

And, you might get away with that in a buoyant market, but you'll find it's a different tale when people are spending less and shopping for the best quality for their money.

Steve

 

[Peter Bowen]

Smaller businesses may be less vulnerable to small contractions in the market - let me explain.

I read this about the South African supermarket chain Pick n Pay but the numbers are probably similar for Tesco, Asda etc.

The operate on a tiny margin - about 1,5% gross profit averaged across all their lines. Their suppliers provide the working capital by giving them anything from 30 to 90 day terms. A drop on 5% in spending at their tills is significant.

We smaller businesses have to operate on much higher margins because most of us don't have the turnover to support these low margins. (You'd have to sell £1 000 000 worth of goods/month to make £10 000 gross profit from which you'd have to pay yourself, staff, rent etc.)

So a slight downturn hurts but not nearly as much when because our margins have to be higher.

 

[Goodegging]

if you ask me I think if all towns had one less:
take away burger bar
curry house (take away or eat in)
pizza parlour
coffee shop
newsagent
clothes shop
mobile phone shop
and any other shop where their is 10+ anyway its not too bad

some sectotrs are overloaded, they have reached saturation point. if the availiabilty was trimmed back a little and were too see some vacant shops it would give the opporunity to new business startups with gtreat plan/model/usp to jump in.

i am trying to take a alternative yet postive and optmisdtic outlook on this matter.

 

[pixelnet]

I'm sorry if this has already been mentioned, but 180 businesses a day has no reference point. How many went bust per day in the last 5 years say? Is it a small percentage increase?