Bank chief calls on Shropshire businesses to diversify

Andrew Gornall, head of business banking for Barclays in Shropshire, has called on more companies to find ways of being innovative in order to grow.

Mr Gornall said there are some surprising examples of businesses that are thought of as traditional, but are actually finding really innovative ways to market themselves.

"But honestly, I think there’s not enough of that," he said. "I recently needed to buy a part for my bike and wanted to try and support local businesses in doing so. None of my local independent bike shops had a website that could tell me, on a mobile site, whether they had the part in stock. They give the option to phone if you want to know what they’ve got in, but I can go to the Wiggle or Evans website, click a button and it will be delivered tomorrow.

"I like the experience of shopping local, picking up goods and taking them home; it’s nicer. But I don’t want to make the phone call in the car or on the train and I think there are a lot of businesses that are just not taking that extra step; particularly to have a functioning web and mobile-friendly presence that enables reaching new customers that there would otherwise have been no exposure to. They don’t know what they’re missing."

It has been a challenging year so far for many firms, with Brexit, consumer confidence and online competition high on the agenda.

"For every one of those things, there’s a winner and a loser. We see plenty of examples of what we would classify as a high street business which also sells through Amazon or eBay and does really, really well. If I was to be tough, I’d say there are almost no excuses for any businesses. The digital revolution is an opportunity for everybody; a chance to cut costs, a chance to find new customers, a chance to find new marketplaces.

"Maybe I’m just a born optimist, but I don’t see many of these things as challenges. They are risks, but every one of them is also an opportunity if business owners choose to grab it.

"The challenge is making sure that every business owner has the mindset that says ‘I can do this differently’.

"I think business owners now need to be capable of both being passionate about their business and their product while at the same time being aware of an ever-greater and ever more changing context in which they have to operate; and adjusting their business model to suit."