Gone very quiet

[Drl22]

This makes for interesting reading. A slightly different perspective as my business is based around obtaining Visa’s and, as such, is very international. We are still up for the year but are seeing a big delayed knock on effect now, fortunately we are a very low overhead business but this hasn’t been helped by starting a new member of staff on the 1st of March. Hopefully what we are seeing now will be short lived.

Jan + 48%

Feb + 47%

Mar + 306%

April + 9%

May + 4.8%

June + 7%

July -65%

August -185%!!

[anonymous-user]

My side business..

I cant give month per month but there is a definate "no non-essential business" vibe going around. I write content/ghost write papers for large IT vendors and top tier website as a side line as well as do "introduction to product x" videos etc.

A lot of my clients tie in my work with the big conferences that occur. That obviously has completely gone for the time being. Being IT its all about middlemen so I am not sure how many clients will survive.

Luckily, a lot of my direct clients are still ordering, but not as much. My business is at ~50% of where it was last year but it has no debt and still makes enough profit to make it a compelling proposition. Overheads as a % are less than 5% even after CV19.

I have also noticed the generosity of my clients (They used to pay for me to visit them, international business class) has gone too. I don't know if it will return but for the timebeing I am plodding on.

[Frimley111R]

We install EV chargers for homes and workplaces. Post lock down its been very very busy but I am conscious that this may be a peak due to the cars being held back from previous months. Every time we get a quite day I worry and then the next ones goes mad!

[Terminator X]

August holiday period? I work in construction, that month is quiet every year + December too with everybody running down to Xmas.

TX.

[red_slr]

Yes but should not show on the figures as we are comparing like for like, year on year.

[MockingJay]

Sales are down for me too this month (ecommerce - jewellery). August is usually the quietest month of the year but we're down 21% on July.

[Frimley111R]

I looked at our website traffic and we're about that same as the previous months, so it looks more like people are still looking/buying, just delaying it for hols etc.

[red_slr]

Our ecommerce is still ticking along ok probably actually a bit up on last year.

[Frimley111R]

Just spoke to our marketing agency. They said everything is quiet for their clients at the moment. Clients who said they were working in Aug suddenly have out of office replies on their emails etc. Looks like a general August thing I guess.

[Dr Interceptor]

August has been our quietest month online since lock down hit in March, but still 3 or 4 times up on a normal year.

The retail shop has died a death over the past week, up until the 15th it was busy.

Hoping the web sales continue as I'm currently sat on a lot of stock.

[sagarich]

Glad it's not just us...

This is our YOY:

Jan +34%

Feb -49%

Mar +36%

Apr -97%

May -55%

Jun -75%

Jul -74%

Aug -52%

We work with Further Education Colleges, so as soon as lockdown happened it was a case of battening down the hatches and reduce all overheads to near zero. They really struggled with remote working and it took a good 8-12 weeks for core support teams to get online wfh working ok... which had a huge knock on for us. I still have a number of contact that are unable to make outbound calls via their systems.

We're just about treading water, but things are still pretty bleak.

[Mr_Megalomaniac]

We're in software and only disclose quarterly figures.
We were -4% in June from target but up 23% on p/y. I think, as in much with the other gent above on his business with visas, it depends on the sector?
Might be able to establish some trends on which ones are affected most?

[Grrbang]

Just a theory but maybe people had an excess of annual leave that they didn’t take earlier in the year. My colleagues and I have got way too much unspent leave.

I’ve been saving mine for if things go quiet.

[T1547]

red_slr said:

Similar to builders merchant.

Lots of sites shut April-May so pent up demand and trying to get back on programme boosted June/July. Perhaps a combination of people being away so reduction in DIY and some sites not back up to full programme meant reduced August figures. I’m finding the majority of the larger sites (London/SE) that are out of the ground are cracking on though and have been for weeks - it's 6months to a year down the line that worries me in new projects starting; particularly office, retail, hotel, leisure sectors.

[Drl22]

Drl22 said:

This makes for interesting reading. A slightly different perspective as my business is based around obtaining Visa’s and, as such, is very international. We are still up for the year but are seeing a big delayed knock on effect now, fortunately we are a very low overhead business but this hasn’t been helped by starting a new member of staff on the 1st of March. Hopefully what we are seeing now will be short lived.

Jan + 48%

Feb + 47%

Mar + 306%

April + 9%

May + 4.8%

June + 7%

July -65%

August -185%!!

By way of an update August has ended with a nice upturn and the revised number is -38%.

We managed to pick up a decent new client, the first new client since March. Not sure about you guys but I have found many businesses have been unwilling to move from their current suppliers. Perhaps a better the devil you know scenario during these times.

[anonymous-user]

We are down 90% compared to this time last year. All of our clients have been closed down. Staff are being laid off. (Healthcare and medical recruitment)

[anonymous-user]

We do IT services b2b. We are ahead of last year mainly because of ongoing contract revenues and a strong customer base (we have always been cautious about who we deal with). Really glad we have followed that strategy over the years. We have noticed an increase in unsolicited enquiries for our services post lockdown where businesses have realised they were not in a good place when remote working kicked in. Overall we are hoping to end the year broadly flat as some of the bigger project work is now delayed due to hardware supply.

[red_slr]

Well, we finished -61%. Our worst August in the last 25 years.

[MOBB]

We finished 25.6% up on last year, best August on record in fact (trade flooring)

Edited by MOBB on Tuesday 1st September 11:42

[Andrew[MG]]

26% YoY and a record month here. Car Finance.