Prepare for a Historical 2010 and the High Street to Shut

Many business owners will have noticed an increase of sales in the last quarter of 2009. Speaking to clients and small business owners, we're (Media Street) noticing a general sense of complacency and optimism around 2010. People are thinking it's getting better, but sadly it's not.

November sales were up only 1.8% compared to last year, but this isn't to be looked at in a positive light, if we cast our memories back to November 2008 we'll remember the collapse of the Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers were one of the largest global financial services companies and started the domino effect, that turned into the recession, in September 2008 when they declared bankruptcy and a debt of over $613 Billion US dollars.

When the Lehman Brothers went under they caused a worldwide scare and suddenly banks around the world started needing to be propped up by their retrospective governments and external investors. So suddenly saying we're up 1.8% from that period of time isn't as impressive. But is it really a negative? Sadly yes.

2009 has seen low interest rates, V.A.T dropped to 15% and rich bargain hunters buying up liquidated companies. Generally the world had come together to perform a short term solution and in the UK the government had put a blanket over the recession providing a solution to last till past the elections. The problem is that 2010 is going to see the elections and these lovely interest rates and the V.A.T is all now going to have to go up and when this happens, as the insolvency pratitioners' trade stated it's going to be a "bloodbath".

At the moment (December 2009) our national debt is rising by £4,268 a second, that's over £15 million a hour and over £368 million a day. The average debt per household is £58,316 (including mortgages) and every 11.2 minutes someone is having their property repossessed and we're beginning to think we're exiting a recession?

The sad fact is that it's just about to start, China is the only country that shouldn't be petrified and as for UK business owners, we really need to be careful about 2010.