PJ Timmins
In a recent TAB Board meeting, one of our members asked what other business owners are concerned about as they look towards 2017.
Top concerns are:
- Pay increases. There is a lot of competition from better paid government and multinational jobs.
- Continued shortage in the labour talent pool, especially in the trades, accounting and technology sectors;
- Cost of recruiting and getting accommodation for new hires.;
- Tariffs when trading with USA and possible trade war between USA and China);
- Access to capital without personal guarantees for additional working capital to fund growth
- Regulatory concerns in Insurance, Medical services, Legal is growing and making it difficult for the small guys;
- Unknown impacts of changes in the legislation;
- Oil and gas prices going upwards.
- Office space and warehousing become more scare;
- Vulture funds looking for Peak Rentals now or requesting you to sign away your occupancy rights;
- Cyber security impacts; Several small businesses have been subject ransom ware and have had to pay up.
- Trump on the left of us, Brexit on the right, stuck in the middle with the You-ro (Euro)
- Sterling weakness and UK suppliers targeting our customers with aggression and further price cuts.
- Unknown ability to secure competitive supply of product from EU countries.
All that said, our board members are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead but are staying abreast of things outside of our control that can have implications.