According to the national British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph (11 June, 2022), 'sky-high inflation could spell the end for thousands' of small businesses. 'High street shops are grappling with a perfect storm of rising wholesale prices, disrupted supply chains and huge jumps in energy costs. At the same time sales have taken a hit as customers cut back spending to survive their own cost of living crisis.'
75% of small businesses in the UK are being 'pushed to the brink' and 58% have seen revenue hit.
While the news is not all bad (some sectors are doing better than others), it is not good, and inflationary pressures in the US threaten (to simplify) a possible recession there in the next two years; one looms in the UK as well. The UK is also facing the lowest growth in any of the G20, other than Russia.
In short, the economic outlook is bleak; it is a struggle, coming after the pandemic, to make ends meet, let alone thrive, as a person or a small business.
BSPG is no different. We're an incredibly small company - with less than 200k in annual turnover, and no full-time employees at the moment - and we rely on high-street retail for most of our sales (bookshops), and delivery companies to carry most of our books from warehouses to the retailers.
Please remember to support local small businesses, bookshops, and publishers, when you can, if you can.
