Merchants of doom and what to do about them.

At the moment you would be forgiven for thinking that the UK is on a downward spiral of inevitable doom. All the news seems to be bad. You have probably seen the headlines about millionaires leaving the UK in droves, the economy going down the pan, the cost of borrowing going up, the standards of living going down, and a whole host of other bad news stories. It all seems terrible.

The reality is, however, somewhat different. Sure, there are issues in the UK, we are recovering from the hangover of the pandemic, and we are still having to deal with the additional negative effects of Brexit. But I don’t think it’s as bad as the media will have you believe. It is starting to make me quite cross about how many stories I am seeing coming up in my LinkedIn feed trashing the UK. The irony is that a lot of this is coming from the supposedly patriotic, right-leaning outlets and influencers. Nothing says “I’m patriotic” more than trashing your own country at every opportunity because we have a Labour government it seems!?

The real issue

The real issue is that doom and gloom stories get clicks. This transcends political leanings; the left wing press is as guilty as this as the right. If the Tories were still in power the polarity of the doom merchants would shift and the lefties would be carping on about how terrible it all is. In today’s attention economy, all media outlets are desperately trying to grab your views and we humans are hard-wired to focus on doom and threat far more than good news. As the online mediascape is essentially a Darwinian competition for the public’s attention it is only natural that those outlets that focus on doom and gloom will out compete those that give a more sober assessment of the situation. Fear beats optimism in the attention economy.

The problem with this is that the state of the economy of any country is reliant on how confident consumers and businesses are. If people are confident, they will spend and invest, and we will get growth. If they are scared witless about impending financial Armageddon, then we will not! So, the doom and gloom become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We are literally talking ourselves into recessions. This process has been observed as happening in the past but today it seems to be a turbo-charged process due to the modern media landscape.

So, what can we do about this?

1 Have a little faith

Well first let’s engage our inner bulldogs. Yes, it’s a bit tough for old blighty now but we have faced far worse things down with steely, stiff-upper-lipped, determination, and grit. Have a little faith in our country. The probability is that things will be a bit rubbish for another year or two and then things will get better.

2 Work out smart ways to reduce risk

Let’s get enthusiastic about growing our small businesses. SME’s are the lifeblood of our economy and getting them to grow is the main thing that will boost everyone’s living standards. The issue is that it all seems a bit risky to spend money to expand any business at the moment. This is particularly true for SME’s who won’t have vast amounts of cash lying around. The banks and other lenders are also being somewhat cautious when it comes to funding expansion. So, we need to think of ways to reduce the risk of expanding in uncertain times.

One way we think we can help is through our third-party logistics services. This allows business to expand their warehousing and logistics capacity without needing to invest in large upfront costs. This reduces the risks associated with such expansions and eliminates the need for capital investment or expensive loans. However, there are many other areas where outsourcing can help reduce risks. For example, outsourcing some sales or marketing functions might well be less risky than taking on extra staff yourself. If we get creative and use the UK's amazing service industry sector, some well-thought-out outsourcing could de-risk many expansion plans and help fuel the desperately needed growth.

3 Fight back and don't contribute to the problem

Finally, let's actively counter and challenge the doom and gloom merchants. The algorithms only reward this drivel because people read it and click on it so much. So don’t be part of the problem by engaging with the articles and half-arsed opinion pieces that are dragging our country down. I’m not suggesting we put on rose-tinted glasses and pretend everything is all hunky dory. Let’s acknowledge the real issues and the reality of the situation but at the same time have unwavering faith that we can sort it out as a nation. One way we can do this is by just not engaging in the doom spiral being peddled by those desperate for clicks. Let’s not participate in the self-fulfilling prophecies of doom. We, as a nation, are better than this.