I'm self employed, and in the last six or seven years in my current line of employment I have generally always been busy and taken for granted that if my advertising is in place, the phone rings.

The last six months have not been so good, and the last six weeks pretty dire.

To a certain extent my work relies on a 'buoyant' housing market, so maybe the slowdown over the last year is the reason.

So basically, I'm just interested - if you're self employed maybe you could post comments/do the poll.

And if you are employed by someone, maybe you have worked there long enough to be able to post/pass comment :)

Thanks! Draggle.

I'm sure the poll is inherently flawed but errr, phooey.....
Say if you think it is, could always ask to amend it.

Unfortunately if I told you I'd have to kill you ;)

That the line of my work ;)

Busy. It appears the Chinese, Russian and Norwegian coal boards have just been given new cheque books.

In the entertainment industry that is laser shooting.. business is good!

Obviously lots of people have vengances they need to take out!

im unfortunately affected by everything.
people arent interested in summer 'cos of package holidays.
they aren't interested near xmas 'cos of pressies.
january is too near xmas.
so advertising has to go ballistic in feb march & hope for lots of referrals from the WI, Alzheimers etc.

I work in a niche computer hardware company and have for well over a decade. In the recent years our trade has shifted away from UK based to european to global.

The UK market is extremely quiet for us, indeed several established competitors have gone bust over the last few months, we now have more german customers than we do english. Also we have a good customer in Iran, and we are hoping that president Bush keeps away from invading.

We have very quiet days and then a couple of extremely busy ones, although I am sure that this has always been the case for us.

One thing which has changed in recent years is that all the companies in a similar line to us are now connected globally with an online database so we can find products much easier and from a much larger number of suppliers. This may have speeded up trade and kept prices down, as comparison is much easier now.

I work for a cutlery manufacturer here in the city centre, and for this time of year, its pretty quiet. :(

We sell to the main supermarkets and department stores, who are having big, frequent orders, but the little shops which our reps cover are very quiet.

Internet orders are up too which is good! :)

We sell on Amazon, but our web site is
www.premiercutlery.co.uk

:)

Just as things were picking up inn the shop I own - the damned place burnt down.

That's okay cos it means when I start up again I can do bigger and better. Better location, larger shop, better stock.

In the meantime I am doing diddly, and am really really bored ;)

Dragon

We tint windows on cars, the dealer side of things is pretty slow (ask any car dealer, proberbly some good deals about @ the mo!) but retail wise can't complain. Flat glass side just ticking over, could do with a few more orders for that side.

hows buisness eh,because of the no win no fee parasites my public liability insurance as just gone up £500,i have never claimed a penny off them in 10 years of using the same company and because of these leeches i get a 500 quid increase..*****:|

so now i have to increase my prices just like every other buisness thats been hit:|

(sheffield forum customers not included of course:D )

We are in our second year of retail and are up on last year. Hoping for a good Christmas. Don't ask me by how much, partner does the money, if it comes to more than ten I have to take my shoes and socks off.

If this was a Tory government we'd be in a recession, but somehow, being under Labour, that word isn't being used.

Which is strange as our line of business is definitely quieter than it should be (we hear of companies larger than ours struggling, even 'shutting right, left and centre' in some places). It's been like this for nearly two years now which is roughly when our credit card receipts hit the roof. There followed a number of increases in the interest rate and it's apparent that some people are heavily in debt. Add to increased mortgate payments, the cost of gas and electric and petrol.

It needs at least two further cuts in the interest rate before consumers can feel any confidence to start spending again. We too, rely heavily on the property market and when that market is flat - which it still is - then the knock-on effects can be quite serious.

The Bank of England has some big decisions to make and fast.

I work in the steel superalloy industry and its all hands to the pumps here, we sell loads to the aerospace industry and thats flying (excuse the pun) and we also sell alot into the oil and gas industry which as everyone knows due to the high petrol prices- they are doing quite well = good for us!! We also export quite alot to china/taiwan and that is unbelievable at the moment.

We are breaking records every month!
:D :D

Originally posted by kirky
hows buisness eh,because of the no win no fee parasites my public liability insurance as just gone up £500,i have never claimed a penny off them in 10 years of using the same company and because of these leeches i get a 500 quid increase..*****:|

so now i have to increase my prices just like every other buisness thats been hit:|

(sheffield forum customers not included of course:D )

I hear that water-fed poles, obviating the need for ladders, has brought insurance costs down for window cleaners.

A thought maybe.

My own business is starting to pick up though, and I'm offered more work than I can actually do (without cutting into my forum time).

I'm on the phones for a famous bookmakers and i can tell you this: theres never been so many compulsive gamblers to take money off of!

Originally posted by AndrewC
I'm on the phones for a famous bookmakers and i can tell you this: theres never been so many compulsive gamblers to take money off of!

do you know norwhich phil mate? he lives in sheff but is norwhich mad,i stopped the weekend down at his mates house a few seasons ago...top weekend:thumbsup:

Originally posted by AndrewC
I'm on the phones for a famous bookmakers and i can tell you this: theres never been so many compulsive gamblers to take money off of!
Even I started buying lottery tickets lately. Not like me!