Fact:

        Throughout the country businesses are struggling to make ends meet and many are looking to close down after Christmas. Why? Mainly because the banks have made a mess of things and other businesses are suffering as a result.

       It may sound a bit obvious as to how this can be remedied, by avoiding the banks. I've had a bank contacting me to check on an account I never opened  and there are millions of other people in a similar position. Many more have received other people's bank statements or found money has been misplaced. In so many cases this has resulted in people being fined, when they have neither overdrawn, nor had anyone else steal from their accounts. With businesses this can be a lot more serious as there are usually larger sums of money involved.

        From businesses I've spoken to there aren't many that haven't been affected by their bank. Unlike private accounts, fees are paid for bank services and most are unhappy with what they are getting in return. Most problems are to do with credit cards and cheques. In the case of cheques, some are prepared to pay the extra fee to cash stations to get their money in order to pay bills on time. If these cash stations can do it in a matter of a couple of minutes there is no reason why banks can't do the same, even to transfer the sum into an account.

        While most people have gone into debt because of the way the banks encouraged credit card use and mortgages at ridiculous levels it is these people who can sort out the situation. If people start informing their employers they want to be paid in cash, then only transfer into bank accounts the amount of money they need to pay their bills, the temptation of exceeding income is lessened - mainly because people can physically see how much is available to them. Some will always be tempted to spend it because it's there, but when it runs out they can see there's nothing left and nobody's going to lend them anything.

         How's this really going to affect businesses? If everyone starts buying things only in cash (or cheques if physically being on the premises isn't possible) and going to their local shops instead of travelling to big towns (you may need to spend a lot of money to balance the fuel costs against the lower costs of goods) businesses can increase their income. Most things people actually need are available locally, though without the variety, so be conservative with what is sold.

          If you're wondering why local parades don't do as well as they should, it's because most rely on passing trade. It doesn't mean they don't provide as good a service as those in big towns (quite the opposite, in fact, because they usually provide staff who know about more about what they sell than larger shops who put a lot of people into a department they may know little about) or provide inferior goods, it's often that people trust businesses whose names they know. It may sound cliched but when one of the big supermarket companies cut back on their advertising a few years ago, people who had been customers for years tried out rival companies who advertised more and stayed with them until the one they knew better, increased their advertising again. Another example is Bradford & Bingley, who stopped advertising on national television a long time ago and yet, now they are having problems, are starting to advertise again. Why? It seems to have worked, because the government have bailed them out.

          Nobody bails out small companies. It’s entirely up to them to promote themselves but unfortunately, most don’t realise that it costs a lot of money to do that (ideally 2/3 of all profits- this is not an exaggeration!) and doesn’t always have an immediate effect. It takes time for people to associate the name of a company with a business they want to use and not all advertising or other promotions are suitable for every business. Community Times is here for the community and businesses within the community. We are able to advise on best ways to advertise for your business, depending on your budget and some are even free (do not rely on free advertising alone as there’s a reason it’s free-it may end up with you having to pay out for something you weren’t told or isn’t available to enough people to benefit you). This isn’t a plug to get you to advertise with us (though we do have six websites and three free magazines delivered to businesses and homes in the area available to you, if you want, and two of the websites cover the whole of Essex and metropolitan Essex) but is something for you to think about. We have an online directory (eDirectory) for all businesses in Havering on our www.essexbazaar.com website. Your business will be placed on it free of charge unless you don’t want it there (the catch is that it will be written in small letters-including company name, address, web address, telephone number and email address- unless you pay £5 for the year and add a description of your business with a maximum of  24 words).

            Every business, no matter what it is, should now have a website, or at least a web page. Outside working hours it is your best way of advertising and can bring in extra income. They can be expensive, flashy and overdone or cheap if only on one page with just a written description is used (this is free to anyone paying to advertise on the Essex Bazaar website).

Whatever you decide, we want to hear from you.

Do you have any handy tips you can tell us about? Do you think all advertising is a waste of money? Do you think we’re talking rubbish (we can back this up but would like to hear your opinion)? Is there anything about our magazines or websites you think would make it better?