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One perfect example of this is Lakeside Glass who went bust a couple of months ago. They had a member of staff on the now defunct Glasstalk forum website who constantly talked up how well business was. How they were taking on massive contracts and oodles of new customers on a regular basis. In just a couple of years this company is now bust. All this over-positive, sickeningly bullish bullshit talking now looks even more stupid than it did when the company was trading.
Reporting on positive news is all well and good. But there is a fine line between truth and wildly overstating the actual state of affairs. From what I’ve learned observing these statements from people and companies is that it’s better to provide some sorts of numerical proof to back up what you’re saying. People using social media are becoming ever more skeptical about information they see, so proof is becoming ever more necessary. Also, it’s also pretty easy to spot the bullshit from what’s genuine.
You’ve probably all noticed how little I talk about facts and figures from the company I work for. That’s for two reasons. Firstly, we’re not a limited company so we have no need to publish any figures what so ever – hence utter privacy – so I don’t see the need to talk about it online, no matter how positive or negative things are. Secondly, the minute I talk about how ‘well things are right now’, I open myself up to scrutiny of what I’m saying.
So, in the future, if you’re going to talk about how well business is, make sure it can be proved correct. Don’t leave yourself open to ridicule if things go bottoms up!
P.S. the industry has shrunk from £5.4billion to £3.7billion in the last few years. If all the statements online about how well companies seem to be doing were true, our industry wouldn’t be in recession and it wouldn’t have lost £1.7billion in value!
>I think many in business will play up their current situation in an effort to instill confidence, secure orders etc. Many do it. Ultimately their accounts will show the true picture and that sort of information is publicly available. We, for example have seen significant growth from 2010. One major reason has been a complete refurbishment and rebranding of Cheam Windows. Each of our three showrooms has been completely modernised from scratch with a significant investment put into them. This we believe is the way forward and our vision for the way the Industry should be perceived. An industry with… Read more »
>Quote: "Now some of these bits of information are probably going to be true, despite no-one being brave enough yet to post any figures to back up what they're saying." Why don't you be brave and tell us who these cheeky companies are? If it's a dig at my company then I'm quite happy for you to visit our factory and I'll show you the figures, and show you a factory rammed with frames. What you don't seem to understand is that even though the industry is in free fall, there will be companies who have a good formula and… Read more »
>RCG – how have you come to the conclusion that this would be a dig at your company? Not every rant and rave on here is about you guys. That sort of stuff I'd like to think is behind us. You know as well as I do the repercussions of naming names on here, especially before they go pop. That's not being brave, that's being stupid. There will obviously be companies doing better than the industry average. The point I was trying to make is that there just seems to be a disproportionate amount of positive reporting when you look… Read more »
>You're showing your naivety on this one DGB – or perhaps it's just youthful optimism ;) Why on earth would any company that's struggling come out in public and say so? We all know that business relies on confidence, so it's natural for people to try and build confidence, not destroy it (whether it's justified or not). And then you go on to say that a company who claims it's doing well but then goes bust runs the risk of getting egg on their face. If they're trying to save a struggling company, there are plenty of things they'll worry… Read more »
>Anon – HMV came out yesterday and said that they were probably going to go bankrupt!
Hi I find you blog very interesting but i think what you don’t mention is that these boasting companies are often taking massive orders and the diary looks impressive. They are most likely working at a loss, driving down the price that honest companies (Who pay their suppliers and staff on time) can charge. Eventually the small loss big turnover company will be driven out of business and leave the rest of the companies having to prove their status. Charging an honest price for a good job and passing the money down the line keeps everyone healthy. I work in… Read more »