Tomorrow Never Knows featured on Sky News Website!

We've been asked by Sky News to write a weekly blog, detailing what its like for a small business in the current economic climate.

The introduction to the blog is featured on the Business Homepage of the Sky News website, as will all weekly updates.

This is the introduction;

"Many small businesses are facing a fight for survival this year as the global economic downturn gets worse.

Ritch and Bally Ames are a husband-and-wife team who run Tomorrow Never Knows, an online PR, digital marketing and new media consultancy that operates mostly in the music industry.
Their current clients include Basshunter, War Child, Travis, Kid Cudi, Archangel, Ruarri Joseph, Red Blooded Women and GuilFest. They have also worked with Embrace, Paul Weller, Fatboy Slim and So Solid Crew

The couple, who have two young children, run the firm out of the top floor of their Guildford home in Surrey. Sky News Online has asked them to write for us on the ups and downs they face as a small firm. We'll be following their progress as they battle to keep ahead of the opposition, cope with the deteriorating economic climate and deal with the challenges faced by the music industry."

And here's our first contribution to the site!
"Daily doom and gloom updates from the media about the economy has made people really think hard about how they are spending their money.

Entertainment traditionally gets cut first, and gig ticket sales are down, venues are closing across the country.
The knock-on effect from all of this to a service company like ours is a reduction in the marketing spend from labels and artists. In this current economical climate we've been forecasting our costs and profits for this year much more closely than last year.

As a small business our overheads are relatively low but over the last year these running costs have steadily increased, eating into profit margins. Not sure how much more you can cut off basic running costs needed for a business like electricity, post and travel.

Like many others, we've suffered with cashflow problems, a direct result of our clients being paid late themselves - fortunately the Government has stepped in to help small businesses. Having a safety net like the Business Support Service does give peace of mind but what the Government doesn't publicise is that the amount owed is charged at 7%, nowhere near the record breaking 1.5% base rate. We're still scratching our heads trying to work out how a reduction from 17.5% to 15% on the VAT has helped us. What has happened over the last few months in the music industry has really taken everyone by surprise."

Read the full feature here!