Following the triggering of Article 50 by the British Government, the Small Firms Association (SFA) has published a new toolkit for small businesses to help them to prepare for Brexit.
Sue O'Neill, SFA Chair commented, “Whilst many factors are outside our control, it is important for each small business to assign senior management responsibility to assessing the impact on their own business, and developing contingency plans for likely impacts. Companies should pay particular focus to assessing the potential impacts of currency movements, along with supply chain, commercial contracts, finance and funding and workforce considerations.
“They should also reassess the impact on technology, in particular issues around data sharing, likely changes to regulation and market access, and change their own operating structures accordingly.”
She also highlighted the unique impacts of Brexit on Ireland, and called on the EU Commission to prioritise these concerns in its negotiating strategy; “The UK is a key marketplace for our small exporting companies, with 43% of exports from all indigenous exporters going to the UK market. [ ... ]The threat of recession in the UK post-Brexit is very real and we would be very concerned about the knock-on implications of that for our entire domestic economy, given our interconnectedness.”
Meanwhile, a survey of SFA members has identified the three most negative potential impacts of Brexit on small firms as being exchange rate movements (48%), the cost of exporting to Northern Ireland/Great Britain (39%), and other pricing concerns (38%).
In fact, 41% of SFA members said last November that Brexit had already had a negative impact on their firms. 68% expect a negative impact in the next six months. However, a minority of 10% think Brexit will be positive for their business.
More information about the SFA and its Brexit toolkit is available on the SFA website.
© 2017 - Checkout Magazine by Jenny Whelan
