Is the Brexit result a potential fall into the unknown for Irelands small businesses.

While the dust settles on the Brexit result in the UK with the departure of many notable figures from David Cameron the Prime Minister to Boris Johnston and Nigel Farage on the "Leave" side what does this mean for Ireland and in particular small business. Many commentators have looked at it from different perspectives offering their opinion on how this will affect us into the future both positively and negatively.

In general and looking at the immediate aftermath of the result Sterling has weakened in favour of importers like ourselves so in terms of planning for the stocking requirements for the next six months these will in theory be cheaper. But in a situation where we deal with UK suppliers who themselves deal with suppliers in currencies other than the Euro such as the Japanese Yen there will be a cost to them in sourcing goods for sale and distribution.

Initial contacts with many of our suppliers has not provided any great clarity on what they expect to happen but all see the implications for their businesses as being negative to static at the moment but gloomy would best describe their mood. For anyone running any business big or small what we need is a focus at Government level to show that they are not "asleep at the wheel" and that they understand and recognise that they have to be alert and proactive in Irelands interest.

 We will not know for sure how consumer sentiment has been affected by the Brexit result but initial indications post the result where not exactly positive and we could find ourselves looking at stock sitting either in showrooms or on shelves for longer than expected. It is only to be hoped for that those in a position to make decisions in Irelands long term interests do so and that if we are now entering into the unknown that our parachute will protect us against another hard landing which many in Government said was not going to happen in the past.

For the immediate future those of us in particular retail sectors can plan to be as streamlined and focused as possible in our dealings with consumers and hope that there are no sudden shocks to the global economy. In simple terms for the small business sector the advice has to be proceed with caution in the short term until things begin to clarify and check your own "parachute" as you can be sure neither the Government nor the decision makers will do it for you.