smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

It seems that despite the government’s assurance that the Olympics will provide a long-lasting economic legacy for the UK, businesses remain unconvinced.

Prime minister David Cameron expects the events to generate ‘at least £1 billion’ for British businesses, calling them ‘vital to our efforts to secure a long-term return to sustainable growth’.

However, according to our very own SmallBusiness poll of 274 respondents, just 17 per cent anticipate that the Games will help their company, with 61 per cent saying they won’t and 20 per cent even forecasting that the Olympics will actively be a hindrance. The results are in line with a similar study conducted at the start of the year.

It could be argued that it’s hard to tell exactly what’s going to happen to business fortunes once the torch returns to London. According to a separate study by Deloitte, just 45 per cent of company owners say they have enough information to accurately forecast how beneficial the Games will be for them.

Rick Cudworth, lead partner for something called ‘Games Readiness’ at Deloitte, believes that, over the last 12-18 months, the mindset of British businesses over the level of preparation required for London 2012 has ‘almost completely turned around’. According to Deloitte's research, two thirds of UK companies originally expected the Olympics to have no positive impact on their business, with just 2 per cent sharing this view now.

It does make you wonder what it was that prompted business owners to change their minds. After all, surely their expectations of benefiting from the events are based on little more than what sector they are in and how that corresponds to demand from tourists or infrastructure developers. This isn’t exactly time-sensitive stuff, unless at some point in the past year everyone decided to move into security services or mobile food vending.

At the end of the day, the quality of the research is always questionable when respondents will be representing sectors ranging from hairdressing to accountancy to contracting. Naturally, a beautician in Bolton won’t be visualising the flashing pound signs as a trader selling tourist tat in Waterloo will. Either you’re in a sector that’s going to benefit, or you’re not – it’s hard to see any middle ground.

It just so happens that, seemingly, the sectors set to benefit are far outnumbered by than the ones that won’t.