Brexit and small/medium businesses

Yes of course they will. The lower exchange rate is already having an impact on prices.

I happened to see this advertisement which talks about our global connections and says "we are not an island". I thought for a minute it was an advertisement for the European movement, following from the Remain campaign and the punchline would be "we are not an island, not just an island, we are part of the European Union"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-1UNaA92fg

It turns out to be an ad for HSBC (Hong Kong based bank), but I think it is the sort of ad the Remain campaign should have run two years ago.

I agree, varian.
22 different nationalities on Nelson's Victory!

www.fsb.org.uk/docs/default-source/fsb-org-uk/a-skilful-exit---what-small-firms-want-from-brexit.pdf?sfvrsn=0

A report from the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses).

Are you watching David Davis trying to wriggle again on parliament TV?

That's a response to Elegran's questions, gillybob, all 48 pages of it.

The report mainly concentrates on employing people from the EU and potential skill shortages etc. which will not effect us directly as we do not employ anyone from outside the UK (although we have done in the past). However many small businesses such as ours will undoubtedly experience a knock on effect as our (large manufacturer) customers suffer. For example one of our main customers relies heavily on an EU workforce of mainly unskilled workers. They are already taking steps to move part of their entire operation into mainland Europe. This will have a big effect on us as they will no longer need to purchase as much of our expertise in the UK.

Additionally we have been told by some of our specialist suppliers that we should stock up on certain parts we buy from Europe as they are expecting a very large price hike. As a small business we do not have the cashflow to "stockpile" parts (as many larger businesses are probably doing) which will make it very hard for us to compete once the prices rise.

It's amazing how much won't matter according to David Davis.

Apologies, I appreciate that the thread has moved on significantly and I was busy all day yesterday. I really don't expect anyone to read it in full durhamjen.

I don't think we can even begin to understand the knock on effect that will ripple down from the top manufacturers right down to us bottom feeders.

Just reading the executive summary shows the problems that small businesses envisage.

Support and incentivise small businesses to invest in training employees

This is one of the key areas that I would like to see change. As it stands there is absolutely no incentive whatsoever for a small business to take on/train an apprentice (unless they are straight from school) It is far too expensive. We have one apprentice in his 20's and we have to pay Full living wage, full NI, £2000 per year to training company to tick boxes (larger companies can tick their own boxes) college fees (if appropriate) pension.....etc. the list goes on. Once they are fully trained (at the small businesses expense) they usually up and leave to fill a skill shortage in a large company who can pay better wages (and haven't gone to the expense of the training)

I would like to see "apprenticeship" schemes extended up to 30-35 year olds with incentives for small businesses to train someone up. After all we are all going to have to work much longer so will still have 30+ years to give.

Thanks Gillybob. Very interesting and very worrying. It is all very well for people in favour of Brexit to talk about the long-term, but I think small businesses would not have the resources to survive that long.
An extended transition might make things slightly easier, but the uncertainty will be crippling.

I think the uncertainty is what troubles the small business community at the moment Mamie .

As we see our (bigger) customers getting twitchy (ie moving some of their operations out of the UK as a precaution ) it worries us that it only takes a few more to follow and we (and many others) will be left without a marketplace.

As it stands I'm not sure if there is anything any government could do to stop this from happening.

No I suspect you are right. Even if Article 50 were to be revoked tomorrow, I think a lot of damage has been done. Confidence is such a big part of business, isn't it?