I may have the opportunity on Wednesday to comment on the new Budget for The Times on behalf of small business, and more specifically small retailers
The request set me thinking about what it was that we would like from the Budget as a wholesaler of knitted and fairtrade crochet toys.
There are obvious ones about encouraging sales of fairtrade and organic toys by reducing the tax on them but this is obviously very specific to Best Years and fair trade importers and producers
The newspapers and news websitesare full of demands to decrease red tape and simplify taxation. They claim that the majority of small businesses put this as a top priority but if thats the case i do wonder who they are asking (financial services companies?) or what the question was because most people I know have one priority and thats to increase sales
Its way easier to handle the burden of red tape and taxation requirements if the sales are rolling in through the door. If sales are good enough you can even hire someone to sort it out for you! But if sales are tight then the ability to afford outside help declines and everything comes back to the business owner
So if you are listening George, heres my very clear request for the budget. Find a way to make people feel happier about the economy. I know you can't do it but if we didn't have the spectre of an increasing mortgage rate hanging over our heads I am sure that consumers would be more inclined to spend. Is that too difficult? How about decreasing VAT again? Or income tax. Or National Insurance
Well if thats still too difficult heres an easier one. Make the banks lend to small business at a reasonable rate. At time when the interest rate is at an all time low the banks are still trying to charge over 10% on small business loans. And the small business laon scheme guaranteed by the government. Want to know how much the interest they want on that George? 17%. And thats not a typing error. Cash flow is the one central point of all small businesses and a VAT rate of 20% has only added to the problem. If we were able to access finance at a reasonable rate then we could find ways ourselves to increase sales. Small business owners are nothing if not creative and if you can't find a way of increasing our sales at least give us the opportunity to do it ourselves