Optimism is a default setting for most bosses. How do you win new business and drive a company forward if you’re glum faced, taciturn and obsessing about ‘tough times’?

The focus for bosses is on sales and capitalising on market opportunities. Cynicism just isn’t part of an entrepreneur’s lexicon. In the middle of last year, celebrity entrepreneurs were proclaiming the recession was over when it clearly had a long way to go. Likewise, numerous surveys are being published which state that businesses are growing in confidence about the economy. One such survey suggests that business owners are more confident now than they have been in four years. Another says that companies have greater confidence about their ability to grow than they did twelve months ago.

This is good to hear, but how much stock is placed on these findings is another matter. If you ask a person whether they’re feeling confident, let alone someone who owns a business, the chances are they are going to say ‘yes’.

Go to any business event in the UK and you’ll see that the mood is markedly better than it was three or four months ago. The talk is about growth, profitability and expansion. Amid the upbeat conversation, there is a frank acknowledgement that we’re by no means out of the woods yet. The desire to build for the touted economic recovery is real, but so are concerns about inflation, interest rates, credit and what will happen when HMRC finally pulls the plug on the Time to Pay Scheme.

During this recession, there has been far too much hysteria and over-reaction. It’s as if we’ve lost the ability to step back, count to ten and think rationally. The slightest dip or bounce in the economy has seen us cowering in fear of recession or claiming that what’s happened is nothing more than a blip and we’re all namby pamby doomsayers. We seem to swing maniacally from fits of wild exuberance to deep depression.

Real confidence is based on something of substance. At present, most businesses continue to act with caution as there remains enormous uncertainty about whether a corner has been turned or the worst has been put off until after the general election. 


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