How is your business doing in 2010?

gavney1

Hi All

I vaguely remember a thread on this a few months back (though may be mistaken). Am just wondering how your business or the company you work for is doing. Obviously, not necessary to name your business, but if you mention the area you are in, would be interesting.

For instance, I'm in retail (mens and womens clothing) - down about 12% on 2009 Year to Date (which was down a similar % on previous year). It's cheap clothing.

Am worried when I read the link below from the CSO, which seems to suggest that things are worse for me than for others. Which makes me wonderif I'm doing something drastically wrong or are the CSO stats correct? Anyone know anything about the reliability of these stats?

http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/services/current/rsi.pdf




So, would be very interested to see how everyone else is getting on.

Of course I'm glad to hear some positive stories, but on the other hand it makes me even more concerned about my own business!

antoinolachtnai

All depends really. These are stats for the economy as a whole, obviously. A number of interesting things happen 'in real life'.

Some positionings in the market are hit more than others. If the clothing is 'cheap' in the sense of 'wear once or twice to a party' that's a different thing from the kind of clothes that you might buy because they were the only thing you could afford.

Sales may actually go up in a recession if you are a strong player (or just lucky), or may go down more than the average amount. Why? Because of consolidation and diversification. If there are ten men's shops in an area, and three of them close, then there will be more left from the others. On the other hand, if there are 5 middle tier clothes shops and 5 lower-tier clothes shops, and three of the 5 middle tier clothes shops decide to diversify into less expensive items because of the new economic circumstances, then that is going to impact on the lower-tier shops.

Margins are a further, different matter from overall sales.

Gloomtastic!

Shame to see so little input into this thread. I think it might make interesting reading.

OP, your 24% decrease in sales seems to mirror the fall in the Irish economy over the last two years. How have you cut costs to cover the fall in sales?

I've been running a small business in the service sector since Feb 2008. Whilst it has not been easy and the phone has gone dead for weeks at a time, turnover/profit has been increasing between 25 - 30% per annum.

I operate in a pretty crowded marketplace but I believe 'the product' offers excellent value for money compared to my competitors. I try to back this up with exceptional customer service and put 110% into every job. 75% of my business now comes from referrals. The other 25% is mostly through the internet.

Goodness knows what the future holds for us here in Ireland but hopefully we'll see the back of this Depression in the next couple of years. I hope we'll all remember these days for the rest of our lives and never let it be repeated again (but unfortunately I have my doubts!).

gavney1

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Shame to see so little input into this thread. I think it might make interesting reading.

I agree:)

OP, your 24% decrease in sales seems to mirror the fall in the Irish economy over the last two years. How have you cut costs to cover the fall in sales?

yes, as much as possible. Overall Wages cut by 19% - that's mostly from reduction hours, but also a few people let go, and some rate reductions at the upper end. Haven't been able to get any rent reduction. But been cutting other costs as much as possible also

I've been running a small business in the service sector since Feb 2008. Whilst it has not been easy and the phone has gone dead for weeks at a time, turnover/profit has been increasing between 25 - 30% per annum.

that's good to hear, but I imagine that the increase is due to you being a start-up on the up and not that you're in a recession-friendly business?

[/quote]

I operate in a pretty crowded marketplace but I believe 'the product' offers excellent value for money compared to my competitors. I try to back this up with exceptional customer service and put 110% into every job. 75% of my business now comes from referrals. The other 25% is mostly through the internet.

Also good to hear, word of mouth is often very underrated - probably because the people who usually "rate" forms of marketing (advertisers/marketers) can't make any money from it!

gavney1

Received Form from CSO today requesting sales figures.

I've no reason to quote this inaccurately, but am just wondering if it's possible that other people could be giving mis-information on this perhaps to keep themselves away from a possible revenue audit.

And maybe does this make CSO stats unreliable, and explain why they differ from other reports I've read????

Gloomtastic!

Haven't been able to get any rent reduction.

That must really frustrate you. I know it would drive me bonkers.

gavney1 wrote: »

Received Form from CSO today requesting sales figures.

I've no reason to quote this inaccurately, but am just wondering if it's possible that other people could be giving mis-information on this perhaps to keep themselves away from a possible revenue audit.

And maybe does this make CSO stats unreliable, and explain why they differ from other reports I've read????

I wouldn't worry about CSO/Revenue collusion. That would take joined up thinking and I don't think our beloved PS do that very well.

91011

Mixed is my opinion.

Internet side growing, retail side in one location doing better (located where very little new housing went up in the boom years, hence lower mortgages)

Retail in Carlow town with high unemployment, loads and loads of new houses and utterly overshopped (Carlow) is utter crap - thankfully I have an opt out clause for January.

B2B to hospitality trade has improved somewhat from a dreadful 2009.

Certainly from a retail perspective, areas with a high number of new builds (= high mortgages) are proving extremely difficult.

manta mad

well my business is bust :mad:

cant get paid & cant get running capital ....

iv worked in the leisure & beauty business for a good few years now
(the last three with my own company)

and i serviced & sold to most of the hotels & beauty salons in ireland throught ireland ..

these businesses are just barely holding on and are not spending or upgradeing ,,, just getting enough to barely stay going !
and the story is they cant get credit & people are not spending anymore ..

the banks have shut down lending , overdrafts ect ...

rents are going up !!!!! instead of down for most of my clients and their having to let go some staff to keep the premisis ..

since january this year its been a complete disaster for my business & im told im intitled to no help & no dole or credits ...
so i dont know what next .... but i think im at the end on this road ...

its a pity as theirs work their & loads to do ,, but no one has the money to spend & cant get any !!!!!!!!!!

and with nothing been serviced or upgraded in some places .. its gonna become a health & saftety issue very soon .......

refco

cant get paid & cant get running capital ....

if one person on the chain could get paid it would filter down and end up back in the bank within hours and have loads of us out of trouble for another week as anyone looking for credit has someone to pay and anyone that gets paid will pay the next person and so on


the banks have shut down lending , overdrafts ect ...

as above give us a fighting chance and we might have survive

since january this year its been a complete disaster for my business & im told im intitled to no help & no dole or credits ...
so i dont know what next .... but i think im at the end on this road ...

this is the situation all self employed people are in and considering the taxes we paid over the years it makes no sense that where now been punished

its a pity as theirs work their & loads to do ,, but no one has the money to spend & cant get any !!!!!!!!!!

and anyone that does is in the position to tell you that the prices you quoted are too high and they can get it done for way less but because they know you give you a figure you have to work to or else kiss the job goodbye

and with nothing been serviced or upgraded in some places .. its gonna become a health & saftety issue very soon .......[/QUOTE]

yep i work in refrigeration and people are just letting equipment turned off and not using it rather than repairing it