Brexit: Growth Opportunities for Businesses

• Posted onOctober 18, 2016

Brexit has been seen by many as a catastrophe for British businesses. The pound has dropped dramatically against the dollar and there appears to be a general feeling of doom and gloom across the board. However, with every challenge comes an opportunity and this is exactly what we are seeing companies take advantage of at the moment.

A weaker pound might not be good for importing from overseas, because instead of paying £100 for goods costing $150 in June (with £1 being worth $1.50), it is now only possible to buy $125 worth of the same products today (with £1 being worth $1.25). However, let’s look at this the other way round. If an overseas buyer was buying £100 worth of your products in June, it would have cost her $150. Now however, exactly the same product will cost just $125.In other words, all your products and services are now almost 20% cheaper than they were in June.

What does this mean for British companies?

Put simply, it means that now is the perfect time to think about exporting into overseas markets and is exactly the reason why in some parts of the economy we are seeing a ‘post-Brexit export boom’ as UK businesses have been able to compete in the international marketplace. The CBI has stated that there will now be a shift towards exporting globally, a good example being in the automotive sector where exports have already increase post-Brexit.

Access to finance for exporters?

The banks are lending money at the lowest rate of interest for more than 9 years, because they are keen to allow for competition and growth when trading. Add to that the rise in alternative financiers that have come to the market, allowing SMEs to access different types of debt funding to grow without hitting working capital problems.

How to take advantage

As optimism grows in the export industry there is no question that there are opportunities out there to be taken advantage of. Controlled growth is what is required and this can only be achieved through a well planned strategy. MyBusiness Partner at WSP is focused on helping develop such a strategy.