The Amaiz Podcast

The Brexit Brink! Introducing the new Amaiz report on UK business and Brexit

December 10, 2020 Amaiz Business / Matt Goddard Season 1 Episode 1
The Amaiz Podcast
The Brexit Brink! Introducing the new Amaiz report on UK business and Brexit
Show Notes Transcript

Amaiz has just published its most important and far-reaching report yet. With less than a month to go before the Brexit deadline, and hopes of a deal heading to the wire in Brussels, 'The Brexit Brink' report pulls together the experiences, hopes and concerns of UK business and expert insight to assess the challenges coming our way:

"The Brexit Brink: Are British SMEs about to fall off the edge of Europe – or building new bridges?"  

It's a temperature check on the state of UK business, even as a lot of questions remain unanswered. In this special podcast chat, Amaiz’s Head of Acquisition introduces the report and outlines its key findings. 
You can download the report now at: https://journal.amaiz.com/amaiz-guide/

Matt Goddard Brexit Report 

Thu, 12/10 2:24PM • 8:18

SPEAKERS: Jake Shaw, Matt Goddard

 Jake Shaw  00:01

Hello and welcome to the amaiz podcast where we talk to businesses large and small experts in subjects across a spectrum of business, entrepreneurial ism tech, innovation, investment and finance. I’m Jake Shaw, your host. If you'd like to learn more about Amaiz, please go to www.amaiz.com 

 Jake Shaw  00:22

Hello everybody. Today I'm joined by Matt Godard, who is head of acquisitions at Amaiz. I'm going to talk to him about a report and some research that Amaiz has  done into British companies preparing themselves for Brexit. Hello, Matt, how are you? 

 Matt Goddard  00:37

Hello, Jake, I'm very well. Thanks. How are you? 

Jake Shaw  00:39

I'm very good thank you very much. Indeed, you've done this big report, great big piece of research, our British business is ready for Brexit. 

 Matt Goddard  00:46

As a business. We work with small businesses and large businesses to help with counts, bookkeeping, and provide services that can really support them in growing their business and scaling up. So Brexit will have massive consequences for every business and UK in general. So the report has some very interesting findings, there is some optimism in there, there are some areas where popular opinion would be surprised really  that companies are a little more optimistic or a little more prepared for what's happening. Overall, 52% of companies believe that Brexit will have some kind of negative impact on the business, over 6% actually believe that it will destroy their business, there's no doubt about that. But there are really discernible differences in their abilities to prepare for what's coming. Smaller companies, leaner companies, ones, with between one and 10 people employed are concerned about increased costs, for instance, but larger companies 11 to 50 employees, they're concerned, about 41%, they're more concerned about the VAT element, the majority about 53% said that Brexit would only have a negative impact on a business that's a sentiment particularly pronounced among the larger businesses with with more than 100 employees. 

Jake Shaw  01:57

So it sounds like a very big subject and a very serious one. 

Matt Goddard  02:00

So yeah, big, big report with a big name on it, the Brexit Brink very much looking at that. So the focus was to talk to SMEs, we've been talking to small businesses and bigger businesses throughout the year, obviously, in a very difficult year. And with everything that's going on, there's no escaping the fact that in less than a month, we do have the end of the transition period. And we wanted to actually talk to them and find out what was going on. And, indeed, if they're ready, how ready they are and how they've been communicated with 

Jake Shaw  02:32

How many companies did you speak to? And what was the general sentiment that you got back from people 

Matt Goddard  02:37

We spoke to 500 SMEs across the UK, across multiple sectors, different sizes of business to really get a broad cross section, and some very interesting findings. The challenge of Brexit one challenge certainly is, it's just the vastness of it. we're well aware that right now we don't have a final deal. It's been recommended. Hopefully one's coming along soon. And we're very much in that uncertainty. And it's uncertainty on top of uncertainty. But what's nice or reassuring, cetainly, from this is that there are a lot more positives coming out from this from talking to business than we were actually expecting, or might be expected generally by what's being reported or people are feeling. It looks like a lot of businesses are actually ready to hit the ground running, when it comes to the 31st of December, 

Jake Shaw  03:29

My reading of it and looking at some of the stats, and it were very, very interesting, shall we say concern is probably not the right word, but sort of pitting companies being concerned that they will negatively be impacted against companies that thought that they would actually be okay. sort of split sort of 5050 a bit like the referendum didn't it? Is that magic split 5050. That affects everything. It's true that in the report 52% of the SMEs, we surveyed believe that Brexit will have a negative or any negative impact on their business as it stands, from the short term to the long term. But what's also notable is that split that nearly 50% say that they've actually prepared for it, they reviewed the changes that will affect their business, and they've actually made changes to respond to what's happening. Again, not knowing what what a deal may look like they are aware of the challenges. So it's interesting, there are broad splits and this research covers SMEs of various sizes. And we see there is a difference between the size of the company and how they are responding whether they have one to 10 employees or up to 100 employees. That does affect how they're seeing Brexit and their concerns going forward. 

Jake Shaw  04:48

There was also a bit of a split between the age ranges of CEOs, wasn't it? 

Matt Goddard  04:53

Yes, I think so. And generally may reflect sentiment politically and socially as well to this one of the one of the challenges of Brexit. It is not only that we are less than a month away now. And a lot of the issues are still going around. We all know there are going to be changes that come in on the 31st of December. But a lot of the legacy that's happened over the last three and a half years is still affecting on the business level and on the personal level.

Jake Shaw  05:18

The managing director of a maze said the uncertainty around Brexit wasn't helped by the fact that we had this transition period. And I won't quote it word for word, but the transition period was supposed to be there for getting the trade agreement bedded in. So we all knew what was going to happen on the 31st of December. Instead, what's happened is the government's used it as an extension of a negotiation period. So we're coming up to this 11th hour deal if indeed there was a deal. 

Matt Goddard  05:42

Absolutely, yeah, it hasn't helped. And it's been an extraordinary in many ways, it's posed a great deal of challenges to many of the small businesses we've spoken to throughout the year. And for this reason. 

Jake Shaw  05:55

What are the top-line concerns that precious businesses have got about this impending Brexit? Well, it's a really mixed question now, which I think reflects the scale of everything that's facing businesses. Now, this, obviously Brexit will affect and we address in the report everything from the Duty and VAT to customs duty, to importing, exporting, tradable services, and everything in these affect businesses in different ways. Over 25%, just of businesses are concerned about the damage to the UK’s reputation. There are concerns about talent as well, although nearly half of the companies that we spoke to don't recruit outside the UK. So it's really interesting spread of responses to the possible deal that might or might not happen 

Jake Shaw  06:43

to sort of conclude this mat model sort of recommendations that came out of the report for businesses?

Matt Goddard  06:49

Generally, there are three main recommendations that we are very close on, on time to what will be a dramatic change. So maybe not not enough time for some businesses who haven't looked at it to do anything drastic. But there are certainly three things that they can do now, any business can do now and should continue to do. One is to do homework to research and review information, look at the changes and obviously be ready to look at what the government and professional bodies are saying about deals and as any deal develops. Second is to stay on top of developments. Of course, pay attention to the news. Keep on top of that and see what is happening in the relationship between the EU and the UK. And the third is to make sure they undertake a Brexit impact assessment. Lots of trade organisations have been advising businesses and companies to do this. It really comes down to some simple questions. There's a lot of support out there for them to do that. To make sure they are as ready as they can be for what happens. 

Jake Shaw  07:51

If somebody wants to read the report that where do they need to go?

Matt Goddard  07:53

The report is available to download for free from Amaiz.com that got our head of acquisitions at Amaiz. Thank you very much. Thanks, Jake. It's brilliant. 

Jake Shaw  08:03

Thank you for listening. If you'd like to hear more podcasts like this, please go to www.amaiz.com and don't forget to like and share this podcast.