I was reading an interesting blog post by the hard working and very smart Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, (Editor of the Cork Independent, writer for the Sunday Business Post and regular media panellist) yesterday about signs of positivity and the earliest (Santa Claus wish list) rumblings of tax cuts.
As Deirdre pointed out this thinking might stop when poor Santa gets stuck in the chimney …in truth few of us have regular chimneys these days so like everyone else life is even complicated for him these days!
Deirdre talks about the 58,000 extra people working in Ireland in Q3 compared to Q2 and unemployment has dropped below 13%, she talks about the bottoming out and rising of house prices in Dublin (for me scarcity of supply is the best story of all – building is inevitable which means jobs) and the icing on the cake is the bailout exit.
These are all great and very concrete signs of real improvement and even the news that the State is likely to make a profit on the Bank of Ireland share issue is encouraging.
Deirdre goes on “Things seem to be improving. That’s undeniable. Over the past couple of months, business people I have spoken to have whispered that they are seeing a lift. Whispered, because it’s fragile”
When I hear Deirdre saying things like this I take huge encouragement from it – in her role at the Cork Independent she would interact closely and regularly with a cross section of businesses from all sectors and this would be a good barometer as to how things are performing “for real“.
Last week I shared in my blog post “Are things on the up at last?” our own experiences in Fuzion both in Cork and Dublin. We are witnessing a definite sea change.
Even last week we had many meetings with clients and prospects who are planning ahead for 2014 – we haven’t seen such early planning for quite some time. People are definitely feeling and most importantly behaving confidently.
Confidence and belief is half the battle – performance will follow. We need to start believing.
2014 will be a great year …instead of whispering it we need start roaring it!
#Positivity
Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion
Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin
The biggest bit of ‘good news’ we’ve been hearing of late is, of course, the bailout exit. This is a bit like being one of the aforementioned young people who can’t find work. You’ve moved out of home so your parents technically can’t tell you what to do any more. But living, jobless, in their garage, has its own restrictions.
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 