LMDTFY News

Small Business Predictions for 2012

Britain has a thriving small business community, made up from literally millions of micro-businesses, freelancers and firms with fewer than five employees. If it wasn’t for us, the UK economy would be in a much worse state than it is!

We’re relatively lucky down here. Brighton & Hove enjoys one of the busiest, most vibrant mini-business communities in the country, so we’re better off than most places.

What’s the outlook for small businesses in 2012? Here’s a quick look at a few key predictions for the coming year.

• An increase in employee dissatisfaction and a parallel increase in disputes as budgets shrink and pay is frozen
• A widening of the north/south divide, with the north falling even further behind than ever
• A continuance of the new media jobs boom, with employers finding it more and more difficult to find experienced people who know one end of digital marketing from the other
• Ethnic minorities already account for one in five new start-ups, and more are predicted to  set up new small businesses than ever before in 2012
• More big businesses will get away without paying their taxes, and we’ll see more protests about such behaviour in 2012
• More freelancers and one man bands will launch than ever, as redundancies bite and people search for alternative income streams. 2011 saw start-up numbers up by 20% over 2010 and it’s a trend that’s set to continue
• Ecommerce is predicted to continue outstripping high street sales
• Online shoppers are predicted to spend more this year than ever before with small independent retailers
• Mary portas’ recommendations will be taken up by high streets across the nation
• Some say customer service is at an all-time low… and it’s not going to get any better over the next 12 months
• Health and safety regulations are going to be cut in half, freeing up small businesses to grow more quickly and reducing the administrative burden in a welcome return to common sense
• If we’re lucky HMRC might cut down on small business record checks. Should think so too, when vast companies like Vodafone owe billions of pounds in taxes!
• Permanent job vacancies hit a two year low in late 2011, a trend that will probably continue throughout 2012
• Many small business owners worked longer hours than ever in 2011 just to stay afloat, and it looks like this year will see more of the same
• The national loan guarantee scheme will cut the cost of sme borrowing and promote growth
• A surprising number of entrepreneurs are optimistic for 2012, despite everything!