Green Shoots? Maybe we can work it out after all….

Hooray! I have at last found those elusive green shoots. There is a landscape gardener based in Guildford who is really busy at the moment. I know this is probably an example of the DIY syndrome which normally occurs in housing recessions i.e. if you can’t move to a new house you do up the old one (although B&Q, Homebase et al should be so lucky), but normally the gardener is one of the first cuts made by a cash strapped household, so maybe these are green shoots that really have taken root. It seems that Barack Obama thinks so as well.

I met the aforesaid landscape gardener at a breakfast seminar entitled “Preparing For The Next Upturn” organised by the Surrey Economic Partnership where the speaker was the ever ebullient Beermat man Mike Southon. His presentation compared the life cycle of an entrepreneurial business with the career of the Beatles, and mixed great music with amusing anecdotal snippets and a great deal of common sense advice. Mike kept the whole audience entertained for more than an hour and I think everybody left the seminar believing that they will get through the current economic downturn, and emerge well equipped to take advantage of the upturn.Maybe we are having a hard day’s night at present but if we can work it out and help each other rather than let it be, perhaps we will see the economy getting better in the end.

Haslemere - The revolution happened here (honest)

Friday 28 Nov 08 - Back on the road again!The genteel Surrey town of Haslemere may not on the face of it seem the most obvious place for a revolution, but that may be about to change. The 21 businesses that were represented at the lunchtime Peal Networking Club event showed increasing belligerence as they castigated the media for focussing on the negative aspects of the current situation and not acknowledging the many businesses who are still doing very well. Perhaps that is the answer - a bottom up revolt - maybe it will have more effect on boosting the economy that any top down Government action. Power to the people, as John Lennon used to say.

Earlier at the IOD West Surrey branch breakfast we were all encouraged to think of skills that we had developed in 2008 and what we would be aiming to improve in 2009. My offering was working on my running skills to enable me to complete my first half marathon, a choice I justified when questioned by saying that it was an ideal way of pushing me beyond my comfort zone, improving my strategic planning (getting through 13.1 miles required a systematic approach in terms of running speed and time goals) and gaining the focus and determination to achieve a seemingly impossible target, all skills that could greatly assist my clients.

Suitably inspired my colleagues then decided that in 2009 they were going to focus on improving their juggling skills, unleashing their inner cartoonist and becoming the best know left handed bass guitarist since Paul McCartney. All in the best interests of our clients you understand………