Monday, February 25, 2019 - 11:55

Answers by JULIAN BYRNE of GFSB

Today’s exclusive interview is with Julian Byrne, Chairperson of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses (GFSB). Prior to becoming the Chairperson for the GFSB circa two years ago, Julian started Piranha Designs 19 years ago after trying a small business in the UK.

What impact do you think Brexit will have on businesses in Gibraltar, in particular small businesses?

Well, at the moment the impact it’s having is trying to help us improve. So at least in the GFSB we’re trying to tell people from the start that Brexit is an opportunity to tighten your belts, to look at what you’re doing, increase your marketing, think outside the box, try and do things differently, make Gibraltar the best place it can be, make your business the best it can be, save for a rainy day - all that kind of thing. And now what is Brexit going to bring? Who knows, at the moment we don’t really know what’s going to happen.

Hopefully whatever it’s going to bring we will rise to the challenge and face it. So you know our way of dealing with things is we have to look them square in the face and say ‘okay, well, how can we get the best out of this situation?’ So really as business owners, you’re used to having to adapt, always things are happening.

There’s never a dull time, something’s going on. So Brexit is another challenge that we’re going to have to face. We want to have the tools that we can have to do that and at the moment it’s still a bit unclear, and that doesn’t mean it’s going to be anything bad. We need to be ready and face it the best way we can.