Small Business owners -- How are you faring?

[tech/a]

Im in Civil Construction

Well for me we have halved in size.
Turnover down 50%
Profit down 40%

Lots of pricing up 20% on this time last year but majority doing nothing just not going ahead.
Pricing is just crazy. So So Cheap just to keep people employed and machine leases paid (Well thats what the competition is doing).
Some of the bigger guys have closed up.
Really tough to turn a buck.
Paying forward taxes hurting on last years profits--Now--Profit what is that?

How are you going out there people?

[prawn_86]

I work closely with about 150 SME's across all industries. The vast majority reported their FY profit was about the same as the last, so no growth over the last year.

Anything mining related is still booming, fashion and retail performing poorly. The vast majority of my clients are telling me "Business is steady" (not good, not bad, just average in the true sense of the word)

[breaker]

I am in the milk business in Central Queenland staff are impossible to find and when you do they want time off sickies ect I don,t know how you can say they are cheap T/A.have my kids in the business and would be gone with out 'em
business is good overall though

[sinner]

I'm only involved with one small business (I.T/tech), it is growing and transforming after many years "doing the same thing".

* international cashflows
* bread and butter type business
* hiring new technical engineers/admins (not cheap)

P.S: if you want to help this business grow (it provides mostly hosting/storage services) as a client, send me a PM

[moXJO]

I've been surprisingly busy in NSW construction, though haven't got months worth of work ahead anymore. Every time I wonder where the next job is going to come from up one pops. The commercial work has dried up and I think the bigger guys are doing it tough. There are new rules for builders having to report every payment to self employed or contractors or some crrap that has come into effect as well. Which has left a few gun shy.
Just count down till labor gets tossed and hopefully things will come right again when the red tape is lifted.

[wayneL]

Over on this side of the ditch business is pretty patchy generally. Recently I bought some tyres and the guy was whingeing about how slow it was in his (and associated) industries.

Most of my clients are farmers or in some rural related industry... they always whinge, but I think they are holding their own, no shortage of money to pay for me.

As for me... I'm just a one man band, but I just put my prices up 12% on average and still have TOO much business... I wish I could clone myself. But my industry is not an economic indicator at all, good guys in my trade are always in short supply. (Farriery)

[finnsk]

I am in the food business (cake shop)

Similar t/o as last year but think I am lucky there is many around here (Sydney northern beaches) there is complaining.

A bit worried about end of year and beginning of next it will be interesting what impact carbon tax ect. will have on prices.

[Smurf1976]

I am not personally "in business" but I deal a lot with those who are and also suppliers etc.

Wholesale materials suppliers (electrical) - pretty much dead at the moment.

Roofers - industry has been hit in a big way it seems. Contractors going broke, laying off staff etc. I know an apprentice who lost his apprenticeship recently and he certainly wasn't the only one. Last I heard he was doing some temporary insulation work at Incat (shipyard).

Painters - going the same way and lots of people seem to be worried.

Electricians - lots of one man operators going broke but the more established ones are doing OK (presumably with lower margins however).

Builders - I have some work being done at the moment for me personally. Suffice to say that there is no shortage of builders willing to take on my $15K project (including materials) whereas a few years ago I'd have had trouble getting anyone to even quote o something so small. Even a "big" building company, which normally does commercial work only, was chasing me asking if they could quote on the job.

Apprentice group training companies - pretty much stuffed. Apprentices being handed back left, right and centre and it's to the point now that administrative employees of these companies are now getting worried about their own future (or lack thereof). Very bleak.

[Glen48]

The demise of of cars:
This is the start of the end of our way of life and start of a new world needing ideas and direction.

Youth culture was once car culture. Teens cruised their Thunderbirds to the local drive-in, Springsteen fantasized about racing down Thunder Road, and Ferris Bueller staged a jailbreak from the 'burbs in a red Ferrari. Cars were Friday night. Cars were Hollywood. Yet these days, they can't even compete with an iPhone - or so car makers, and the people who analyze them for a living, seem to fear. As Bloomberg reported this morning, many in the auto industry "are concerned that financially pressed young people who connect online instead of in person could hold down peak demand by 2 million units each year." In other words, Generation Y may be happy to give up their wheels as long as they have the web. And in the long term, that could mean Americans will buy just 15 million cars and trucks each year, instead of around 17 million.

Just how bad are things in motoring Europe? On Wednesday Peugeot reported it lost over $993 million in the first half of 2012 alone. The same day, American maker Ford announced second quarter net income of just over $1 billion world-wide — but a $404 million loss in Europe, where the company now expects total losses to exceed $1 billion by year’s end. Meanwhile, General Motors Europe affiliate Opel-Vauxhall has lost a whopping $14 billion since the start of the century, and is almost certainly facing the same sort of layoffs and plant closures Peugeot has announced.....What’s more, the sector is almost certain to see more bad news on the revenue front. According to the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (EAMA), new car registration declined by nearly 7% in the first half of the year. All told, projected total sales of 12.4 million cars in 2012 would represent a nearly 20% slide in volume over 2007, when the current string of annual shrinkage began. Forecasts that once saw activity improving by 2013 now push returning health in the sector beyond the recessionary horizon now stretching far off into the European distance....That dismal outlook on the demand side is compounded by concerns over excess supply. Industry analysts say auto manufacturers in Europe maintain around 30% more production capacity than the market will bear.

[gordon2007]

Getting ready to build my retirement house. Haven't even put my plans out to tender yet and already i'm getting phone calls from builders wanting to put a bid in. One told me they heard through 'word of mouth'. Probably good for me, not so good for builders at the moment.

Builders - I have some work being done at the moment for me personally. Suffice to say that there is no shortage of builders willing to take on my $15K project (including materials) whereas a few years ago I'd have had trouble getting anyone to even quote o something so small. Even a "big" building company, which normally does commercial work only, was chasing me asking if they could quote on the job.

Apprentice group training companies - pretty much stuffed. Apprentices being handed back left, right and centre and it's to the point now that administrative employees of these companies are now getting worried about their own future (or lack thereof). Very bleak.

[sptrawler]

I live in an established area of Perth, with a small but vibrant light industrial area. There are a lot of vacant premises and a couple of close friends, one involved in automotive the other in furniture, say it is the worst they have seen in 30 years.

[DB008]

I live in an established area of Perth, with a small but vibrant light industrial area. There are a lot of vacant premises and a couple of close friends, one involved in automotive the other in furniture, say it is the worst they have seen in 30 years.

+1

I am seeing a lot of empty shops in a lot of High Street's (Military Rd, Parramatta Rd).

Also, l have a friend who works for a company which supplies tradies and construction items. It's very, very slow at the moment. Worse than GFC.

[Gringotts Bank]

I like to keep an eye on things in the strip where I work in the inner east of Melb. I don't own the business, but we had a drop off in cash flow around Mar-May, now back to average. In fact possibly a bit better than average. Lots of 'for lease' signs around, even in some sought after spots. I suspect agents and landlords are asking too much. Cost of electricity is a profit-killer for those that use a lot, but this will change eventually. In 20 years time I bet we will be saying "I can't believe how cheaply I can buy electricity".