As much as we would like to, we have to accept that some things we cannot control. Looking outside, the weather is often a good example. The political direction of the country is another one-and even our elected representatives seem to have little idea themselves as to how to deal with that at the present time.
We will shortly have a new (unelected) Prime Minister whose main task it will be to try and steer us through the ever choppy waters of Brexit. How, when (and possibly if) we leave are still unknowns and there are numerous possible outcomes. So as we are half way through 2019 already, I thought it would be worthwhile casting a brief eye over what effect this has had on where we are at so far this year and where we are going.
Whilst Brexit continues to hold the headlines it has become mixed up in the bigger picture of the whole political mess the government has got itself into. Sadly the resignation of May and the beauty parade for the next PM have become a sometimes grotesque sideshow to the main event.
Meanwhile- as we have done for the last few years- we all sit around waiting to see what will happen. Which brings us neatly back to where I started- we have no direct control over this. The concern for any business is what will be the outcome of the political situation we are in and how will it affect business levels?
Sitting on our hands and doing nothing is an option, but not in my opinion a good one. It’s better to have direction and purpose. Granted on a wider economic level there is an element of guesswork on how things will work out in the short to medium term if we leave the EU. But this doesn’t stop any of us in business planning on an internal level to ensure we are working as efficiently as possible in the circumstances. We have taken a two -fold approach at BB&J –monitoring where we are most profitable and identifying the growth areas of our business to make sure we allocate resources to those areas. It has given us a target for moving forwards and helped us to grow our business in an environment where it is all too easy to sit back and blame business difficulties on an uncertain economic and political background. In short, what we have done is concentrate on those things we can control.
So on that basis six months into 2019 it is great to be able to say it has been a productive first half of the year. Commercial agency remains strong on a local level. Continuing on from successes last year we have put together some high profile deals including letting 10,000 sq ft to global testing and engineering company IRISNDT on behalf of Ivygrove, 15 000 sq ft to retail display designers Plinths at Sandown Road, helped Derby College enlarge their campus with more accommodation at Southgate Business Centre and let a number of units for Melbourne Developments at Prime Business Centre.
Notable investment sales have included an office building on Pride Park occupied by Pattonair and a strategically located city centre site currently used as an open air car park. The latter went to sealed bids, indicating that there remains a strong appetite still for good quality investment property.
We were particularly pleased to have started summer by letting a unit at Eagle Park to national bathroom supplier James Hargreaves Ltd and rapidly putting together an off-market deal to let city centre office space at 5 Queen Street to Mach Recruitment on behalf of Justin Smith Architects.
This has been achieved using a mix of old fashioned hard-work, initiative in putting deals together off market and keeping ourselves prominent in the market place using social media and PR.
As we move into the second half of the year we have a number of other great deals in the pipeline as well as being in the middle of acting on our aforementioned plans for further business growth.
Despite the uncertainty around then, it does go to prove that with the right positive attitude there are opportunities out there to continue growing business by actively taking control of what you can within your own business environment.
