Swine flu threat to be sneezed at
Aug 05 2009
Swine flu: the big tissue
SMEs are more worried about finding new business and getting paid on time than being hit by the swine flu pandemic.
In a poll by SmallBusiness.co.uk, 73 per cent said that finding new revenue streams and being paid promptly were their biggest concerns.
Mark Olbrich, owner of sandwich shop Salade, says that swine flu is a minor worry for him. ‘The threat seems grossly overstated. People I know who have had it have only been sick for three to four days. Our biggest problem is getting people to open their wallets. Since the recession hit we’ve lost a fifth of our market share.’
Alex Ciangola, owner of London-based 4 Hairdressers, says that finding new customers is currently his top priority. ‘I’m spending all my time doing marketing to get more people in the salon. But it’s not really paying off as people just don’t want to spend money at the moment,’ he says.
Of the 260 SMEs surveyed, 11 per cent said they were more concerned about “Freddie” Flintoff’s fitness than swine flu (ten per cent) and inflation (six per cent).
In a recent a poll by SmallBusiness.co.uk on whether SMEs were seeing the ‘green shoots’ of recovery, more than half said that business was getting worse.
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