Don’t believe everything you read/watch!

It’s not all doom and gloom!!

Last week LIW conducted research (via surveymonkey which is a fantastic tool) to over 200 health clubs and gyms and findings were interesting and very encouraging. In almost direct contrast to the Bleak Britain Corporation in fact.

44.6% of respondents said that recruitment of members had been ‘much better’ or ‘better’ than expected while only 16.7% said it had been ‘worse’ or ‘much worse’ than expected.

43.1% of respondents had more members than last year while 23.8% had less members than last year.

54.9% of respondents said they would be investing in new equipment this year and 25.4% of those would be spending more than £50,000.

68% of respondents were feeling ‘very’ or ‘quite’ confident about their business while only 5.8% were not feeling ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ confident.

86.4% of respondents were considering visiting LIW to source new equipment and suppliers.

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Is broadcast media partly to blame for recession?

Before I go any further, it should be acknowledged that the banks are principally to blame as we all know. For example, the series on BBC (Repossessed) shows how financial institutions preyed on homeowners selling debt with the promise 'you can afford it' then leaving them in wretched situations.

I like Robert Peston (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/) but I wonder whether his simple explanations of relatively complex issues such as toxic debt has meant that all of us better understand what is going on.

Armed with our new knowledge we are now ‘economy bores’ at dinner parties - this has replaced our normal ‘property price bore’ status for obvious reasons - and understandably we have also reined in our spending. This, coupled with the reduced availability of credit, has had a negative effect on the economy.

News is all around us. In fact, you can watch it 24 hours a day - and I'm certain my father-in-law goes close - so there is no escaping how bad things are, and now we understand why too, which is just exacerbating the problems.

I reckon the South Koreans have got it right by threatening a 5 year jail term to a blogger who warned of financial gloom in the country which upset ministers. On second thoughts, perhaps I don't.

Perversely, the UK attractions industry may do well this year as the strength of the euro and dollar will mean more UK holidaymakers will stay in the UK while the UK will be seen as a good value destination by those with the Euro and Dollar as their currency.

The health and fitness market is holding it's breath to see how new membership sales have performed in January and whether the first paycheck of the year is set to be invested in losing the Christmas lard.

We should at least try and stay positive - however difficult it is. But we’ll do well do escape broadcast media and their influence.