The strength of internet business in the face of “recession” November 14th, 2008

Internet business is strengthening. As MD at internet hosting provider, UKFast, I have the luxury of being able to observe the fortunes of thousands of businesses. Of the quarter of a million domain names on our network, not one is complaining about the recession. On the high street decreases in spending are evident. You may well spot boarded up shops and buildings to let, which leads to concerns for the economic climate. However this is much more likely just to be due to the natural shift in consumer activity. The offline to online shift has been taking place for a number of years. More people than ever before are shopping online – in 2007, e-shoppers spent £370m online in just 24 hours on the second… Read the Rest »

Panic sacking erodes your long term business success November 12th, 2008

Four major British employers including Yell and Virgin Media have announced plans to axe over 5,000 jobs this week, as businesses fear the recession. I have found myself contemplating the implications of panic sacking. Will companies actually benefit from this move? Personally, I think not. Companies that make their employees redundant to save money over the period of recession may be able to balance their books but they don’t think of the long term consequences. The downturn isn’t going to last forever and when in a year or so the economy regains its strength, these companies will have whittled down their pool of talent. Apart from this, companies that have grown and been successful until this period of economic slowdown also face losing valued members… Read the Rest »