Business roots "key to success"
- As we all know the credit crunch has affected a variety of businesses. The credit crunch has left us thinking everything is too expensive and the truth is, the money doesn’t go around London like it used to. We can see evidence of businesses failing as a growing number of vacant shops sprout up all over London. However, the Southall community is coping better than other areas in the UK. We decided to investigate how much of an impact the credit crunch has had on local businesses and shoppers in the Southall community.
- It has been suggested in documents such as the Barclays Wealth Insights Report that one of the reasons areas like Southall may have fared better during the economic downturn is because many families own small businesses. It has been suggested that family businesses are more likely to survive in a time of recession because: they have a strong team, a lower motivation to make money, a closer management team, less debt, a closer support network and so on. We decided to investigate further to see how businesses are coping with the struggle and if these theories are true in reality.
- We caught up with MP for Southall, Virendra Sharma to get his view on things. He said that the credit crunch is affecting most areas, including Southall. However, Southall appears to be less affected than other areas in the Ealing borough such as Ealing Broadway because it is different to other areas as it has more family owned businesses. Mr Sharma stated that one of the reasons family-owned businesses may be more successful is because every member of the family is involved and they pool their resources, which helps them save more.
- We also interviewed Janpal Basran from the Southall Community Alliance who said he had seen the effects of the economic downturn in Southall as ‘People and businesses are now more conscious of the need to save.’ However, some businesses are still doing well as they cater to a specific community such as Somali or Polish–owned stores.
- We also asked ordinary shoppers and residents on the streets of Southall their opinions on the credit crunch. One shopper said, ‘I don’t believe there is a huge credit crunch,’ and another said, ‘In the line of work I’m in it hasn’t had any effect whatsoever.’ One man stated that the recession has affected him significantly as he now cannot afford to buy the essentials that he needs. He also said that he didn’t lose his job but unfortunately his wages had been reduced. However, most of the people we spoke to reported that they were not personally affected by the credit crunch, although many knew of people who had been.
- Finally, we asked students in our school what they thought about the recession. We interviewed three Year 11 Business Studies students and one Year 10 student. Again, most of them said they hadn’t been affected themselves however, one student mentioned that his cousin was a security guard and he had lost his job due to the credit crunch, and then he had no choice but to sell his car so he could pay his mortgage.
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/7965565.stm
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Dormers Wells Lane, Southall, Middlesex, UB1 3HZ | Tel: 020 8813 8671 | Fax: 020 8813 8861
Dormers Wells Lane, Southall, Middlesex, UB1 3HZ | Tel: 020 8813 8671 | Fax: 020 8813 8861