WE MUST SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES ALL

YEAR ROUND , AND THERE ’ S NO BETTER TIME TO

START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON

IN JANUARY .

Antonia Sanchez-Toomey , Founder and Director of Tailor Made Living , a high street shop based in Enfield , London , said : “ 2022 has , without a doubt , been our worst year since we started trading in 2017 . We grew our business during the pandemic by making changes and increasing our retail offering both online and in-store . Sadly , this year has been full of financial challenges due to a huge drop in consumer confidence resulting in very poor sales .

“ The cost of living crisis has driven the downturn in sales in 2022 with customers expressing their fears of not being able to pay their bills and actively cutting back on non-essential items . I own a lifestyle store specialising in homewares , gifting and fashion , in effect , non-essential retail and we have felt the impact of the cost of living crisis deeply . Throughout 2022 it felt like every month brought a new wave of fear and uncertainty from rising petrol prices and the war in Ukraine to the death of the Queen and more recent national strikes . The instability we are experiencing , along with inflation at record highs , means that consumers are understandably cutting back and afraid to spend .

“ I have cut back on staff and the remaining staff have had their hours cut . I will be closing

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Intelligent SME . tech