Business advisor says to be cautious when reading online Budget predictions

A business advisor is encouraging businesses to sit tight and wait until the Autumn Budget before making any decisions based on predictions online.

Colin Bielckus is telling business owners to be cautious when reading predictions and advice head of the Budget. | Tahir Osman

placeholder image — Colin Bielckus is telling business owners to be cautious when reading predictions and advice head of the Budget. | Tahir Osman

The Autumn Budget will be delivered on Wednesday, October 28, by Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey in the House of Commons.

With lots of commentary online about what this statement will contain, Colin Bielckus, who runs The Outsourced Finance Director, is telling business owners to be cautious about the steps they take ahead of time.

He feels that there is a high amount of speculation online and it can be difficult to determine which of them have truth behind them, and which are fabricated.

He said: “Just a quick Google search will bring up dozens of articles with speculation, commentary and predictions around what will be announced in the Autumn Budget later this month, but it’s so important to be careful which advice you take, and which you take with a grain of salt.

“There will inevitably be more AI-generated content which can be untrustworthy, and making business decisions based on this can be risky – it could lead to the opposite outcome that you’re hoping for if the changes made are different to those predicted.”

Colin’s advice is to stay vigilant and to look at the previous track record of the publication or individual who is making the predictions, to determine whether they have successfully predicted changes that will be announced in past budgets.

He also said to be extremely cautious around listening to hearsay and rumours on social media sites, saying: “It can be tempting to try and get ahead of things when someone on Facebook or a mate at the pub tells you that something is going to happen that will affect your business, but as I said before, it can be dangerous. The best case scenario is that it costs you time, and the worst case scenario is that it costs you money.

“As long as you take action on the things that do affect you after the budget has been announced, you’ll be in a much better position.”