“Whats in your wallet?” That’s the slogan of a well known credit card company who are trying to entice new customers to use their card. There is no doubt now that the economy is slowing down and that people are exercising an element of caution over their spending but this said it doesn’t mean that it is all bad news.
The majority of customers using the UFindUs network are small businesses, some sell luxury items and arguably these may be the first hit when the purse strings get tightened. Many however are tradespeople, you know, the sort who do building, plastering, joinery or plumbing work. A lot of these are essential trades and if people arent moving home then chances are they may prefer to ride out the storm staying put in their own piece of England.
Chances are it is a more sensible option to extend rather than trade up. Maybe upgrading their kitchen will give their home the new lease of life which negates the need to move. When I moved at the end of last summer you could certainly feel a change in the market even in the 4 months between putting my old place on the market and getting the keys for my house. I can’t say I didn’t have concerns. As an ex estate agent I was in a unique position last time round to see the market throw on the brakes literally overnight.
In my part of the north west the ripple effect of a stagnating market hit us in June 1989 and week on week we watched as the sales dried up and the market went into a sharp nosedive. What we then saw was an increasing number of appointments to appraise peoples homes who you knew would never move. More often than not they would be fact finding before they instructed the builder to change the garage into a playroom or bedroom.
I personally think that the current situation on the high street will have a positive effect on quite a few of our customers who are prepared to embrace a changing marketplace and make sure their businesses adapt to market conditions. Internet traffic is increasing, our directories, which include Smile Local, are busier than ever before. Last month we had just short of 11.5M searches carried out across our network which must have contributed to a fair proportion of business transactions
Businesses should use the present time to plan ahead, take a fresh look at their business and move forward with confidence that there are people out there who still have the income to use their services. Maybe we should all adopt the motto that “if you fail to plan then you plan to fail.”
