The virtual event which took place on Tuesday (2nd September) featured a keynote speech from respected economist, and former Finance Cornwall Chief Executive, Lord Robin Teverson.

Guests at the event included a range of local business owners as well as Stephen Bohane, Head of Business Development in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly within The South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) and Terrye Teverson, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Truro and Falmouth.

Talking about the Cornish economy Lord Teverson said,

“We’ve had the accepted mantra that when the rest of the UK plunges into recession, Cornwall is hit even harder – certainly in terms of unemployment – and we then come out of recession later than the rest of the country. But over the last decade, since the last recession in the early 1990s, Cornwall has arguably become more confident and resilient.”

“It’s received a lot of European funding which has meant that new investment in people, infrastructure, and businesses has taken place. Distance has become less important because of information technologies, and Cornwall has had a high take up of broadband. “

“A number of SMEs will fall by the wayside – but by managing costs very carefully, keeping the sales and marketing going, and avoiding bad debts they can survive and be even stronger on the other side when things get better.”

“SMEs need to make sure they keep close not just to their customers but also their staff and suppliers.  Loyalty and trust gets to be pretty important during difficult times.” He continued.

Discussion and questions followed the main presentation with topics discussed including; the continuing improvements to the ICT infrastructure in Cornwall, bad weather and the tourism sector, manufacturing, business cash flow and budgets, the government’s announcement on Stamp Duty and the rise of Eastern Economies such as China and India.

Overall the mood was optimistic with many businesses not yet feeling the effects of any downturn. A direct question from Stephen Bohane on how individual businesses were fairing prompted responses of ‘never busier’ and ‘we are forging ahead with our growth’ from the assembled business owners.

The virtual event entitled ‘Insight:Recession’ is the first part of a series of events planned by UKNetWeb to help businesses in Cornwall and further afield gain insight into a particular subject of relevance to an SME operating within the county.

Commenting on the first session Toby Parkins, UKNetWeb Managing Director said,

“Given the amount of discussion and media coverage presently surrounding fears that the UK is falling into a recession we felt is was time to help businesses in Cornwall improve their understanding of them and their potential effect on our local economy.

“Lord Teverson has a lot of knowledge on the economy in general; however, his deep insight into the local economy made him an ideal candidate to explain how a recession might play out within the region.

“We were very pleased with the turnout and believe that everybody was able to take something useful away from the experience.”

A full transcript of Lord Teverson’s speech and the following discussion is available to download from http://www.uknetweb.com/docs/insight-recession.pdf. For information on future events please contact Aren Grimshaw at UKNetWeb on 01872 555933 or email info@uknetweb.com.

The innovative party was planned by the company to demonstrate how businesses can use emerging technology to cut business running costs while adding new and exciting ways of promoting their businesses.

The party began at 12.30 on Tuesday (29th July) when a link was published on the old UKNetWeb site. Guests were told to go to the company website, UKNetWeb.com and follow the on-screen instructions to enter a virtual room.

On entering the room, guests could select their own music from a selection of preloaded tracks and carry out conversations with other attendees via on screen text based chat. At 1.00pm Managing Director, Toby Parkins, made a speech to the room where he introduced the new site and recession guide.

All guests were given an opportunity to introduce themselves to the room, following a similar structure to conventional face to face networking events. Guests came from all over Cornwall and further afield, with at least one international guest signing in from an Icelandic advertising agency.

The launch of the new site and recession guide was well received with over 300 people accessing the site and over 150 downloads of the recession guide within the 24 hour period after the launch.

Toby Parkins, MD, UKNetWeb

Managing Director, Toby Parkins said, “The possibilities opened up by emerging technology offers exciting prospects for businesses that want to cut costs and attract new sales. This launch party demonstrated that there are alternatives to travel and we hope that businesses will adopt some of the ideas within the guide to help them through more difficult times.”

“Since the event we have been inundated with interest in similar events. It seems everyone who attended has been telling their friends about it and now there is a real buzz for more virtual events to be organised.” Toby continued.

The new website can be found at www.uknetweb.com with the recession guide available for download at www.uknetweb.com/recession-guide.

The whole guide can be viewed or downloaded here in pdf format which can be printed as required.

To ensure that our guide is available to the maximum number of people we have copied the content to this blog where it can be easily navigated through use of categories, tags and cross referencing links.

In this guide we have tried to look at a range of issues of relevance to businesses of all sizes; where possible suggesting routes to utilise technology in dealing with them. In each case we have tried to provide links to further information, research or tools that might be useful to you or your business.

At UKNetWeb we specialise in the technical and strategic aspects of working with the internet.

During the planning stages of website builds we have become accustomed to identifying technological routes to improve business efficiency, drive sales and improve marketing. Areas that are extremely important to the bottom line of any business.

With fears of a recession growing and a never ending deluge of stories about rising prices, the credit crunch and low consumer confidence we decided that we should share some of our in-house knowledge; identifying routes for businesses to use technology as a means to drive profitability.

If you would like direct assistance in following any of the advice given within this presentation we can provide consultancy or support in setting up, managing or integration of any of the services listed.
Our unparalleled knowledge of technical programming and emerging digital media means that we are well positioned to maximise your return from these activities.

Our guide is a working document and we envisage that you and other businesses will have your own tips and ideas on how to beat the crunch. If you think we have missed something please leave a comment or contact us directly through the contact form here.

Thank you for reading, we hope you find this guide helpful.

Even if you haven’t noticed any effect on your business just yet, it is clear that all the talk is having an affect on consumer confidence and eventually the results will be felt by many businesses.

Now is the time to take stock of your business and implement changes to your processes that will lead to increased revenue and higher profitability. After all, the worst that can happen from taking action now will be better profits at the end of the year.

So, assuming that we are heading into rockier times, who will be the first businesses to feel the effects?

Go to the next page to find out some of the areas that can expect a downturn.

It isn’t just the estate agents feeling the pinch. There are a number of trades which rely on house sales and each is beginning to feel the problem already. Trades suffering include: Removals, Conveyancing Departments, Property Developers, Building and Construction companies and even garden centres. Take a look at ‘House Drop Should Be Alarm Call’ for Cornish accountancy firm ‘Bishop Fleming’s’ view on it.

High Street Retail

Although May saw record sales growth in the retail sector there is no getting away from the fact that high inflation will eventually drive consumers to cut their spending on non-essential items such as impulse buys, retail therapy purchases, gadgets and beauty treatments. Industries likely to feel the hit include: phone shops, electrical retailers, independent beauty product retailers, clothing stores and accessory stores. Check out this report from the BBC to find out more: ‘Sales Remain Flat on High Street’.

Nights Out and Nights In

In a survey conducted by leading financial gurus, Motley Fool, they found that 89% people were looking at making cutbacks on ‘non-essential items’ with 67% of those people listing ‘Nights Out and Takeaways’ as the top thing on their list of non-essentials. Bad news for businesses in the pub or food trade including takeaways, night clubs, restaurants, cinemas and coffee shops . Check out the Motley Fool guide to ‘Cracking the Credit Crunch’ for more information on how consumers are dealing with the credit crunch.

Holidays and Travel

Although the big travel companies are telling us everything is all right in the travel industry, key analysts are already saying that the big impact won’t be felt until 2009. Whatever side you’re on you can’t fail to ignore that in the same Motley Fool survey we quoted for ‘Nights Out and Nights In’ 49% of those looking to cut back on their non-essential spend included ‘Cheaper or Fewer Holidays’ on their list coming in at number 4 overall. To read one business analyst’s view on this check out – ‘Is Holiday Travel Recession-Proof?’ .

The first stage in solving this imbalance is to sit down and evaluate your internal processes, time spent on various areas and the income generated from each activity. Once you have undertaken these evaluations of your efficiency, consider some of the following as means to further improve efficiency

• Have a Plan
• Automate Processes
• Stock Management
• Time Management

The tools within the system are suitable for a range of circumstances including training sessions, seminars, remote support, client meetings and board meetings. The system operates with no additional technology required, running directly from your existing internet browser.

Individual attendees can view other attendees, share files, ask questions, display images or artwork and much more.

For a tour of the different systems available check out – http://www.webex.co.uk/uk/resources/quick-tours.html