Are Govt spending cuts threatening your business?

[jim_gold]

Wondering how many people here are worried about the knock-on effect of the latest round of government spending cuts?

According to a survey by the insolvency trade body R3, around 30% of small to medium sized businesses in the UK consider themselves to be either reliant or very reliant on government contracts, either directly or as a subcontractor.

They also reckon that a massive 10 % of small business are worried they might go to the wall should they lose their public sector contracts.

Anyone here in that boat? What are you doing about it, if anything ? i.e cutting costs, trying to diversify customer base?

 

[westend]

No, not threatening it. However we lost a few longstanding public sector clients. Saw it coming though and stepped up marketing earlier in the year. The cost-cutting across the private sector is just as bad in my view.

 

[gordano]

I like to turn every threat to an opportunity.

On the one side reduction in employment could mean less turnover for my company. But equally there could be an opportunity as more organisations seek to outsource to reduce their costs, in my company's case, outsourcing their recruitment screening processes.

 

[hubbjay]

what this has done has made everyone re-assess their business. I think most people saw this coming. We noticed change about 18 months ago so got as prepared as we could for it.

What I think suprised everyone was how quick the axe fell and how heavy!

I like to turn every threat to an opportunity.

On the one side reduction in employment could mean less turnover for my company. But equally there could be an opportunity as more organisations seek to outsource to reduce their costs, in my company's case, outsourcing their recruitment screening processes.

 

[360interactive]

Actually I have seen an increase in enquires and work from our public sector clients, all realising they are having to do more with less. They all still have budgets, but are looking for new and cheaper ways to market (in our case) a service or location.

BUT, it is still early days and I won't be sure how the cuts will effect us until maybe next year.

 

[Gord]

What I think suprised everyone was how quick the axe fell and how heavy!

???
It's been inevitable for over 12 months & the cuts are over 4 years.

Many public institutions have already made, and others prepared for the cuts.

 

[CKG]

If I lost my public sector contracts i'd take a massive hit as the public sector is my biggest customer.

Luckily I am on fresh 4 year contracts for most of the work so I havn't spent too much time worrying about it.

That said it has made me concentrate on picking up more private clients just incase.

 

[Alan R Price]

The thing to do is prepare your pitch for the inevitable invitations to tender for private sector work which will now have to be outsourced. This will include things like getting ISO 9001 certification or whatever is relevant to your trade or profession.