I have serious mixed feelings about the upcoming referendum. I have listened to all the arguments, read the booklet that No. 10 kindly sent me and perused the various websites and while I am leaning one way, I am for the most part undecided.

I can’t help have an instant distrust of the fear mongering that I read and tend to equally discount the stories of impending economy collapse, as dished out by the stay supporters, as well as the fear of uncontrolled foreign hoards, as often brought up by the leave campaign.

These two extreme views do nothing to help me decide. Since my interest is in business and specifically small business, I am interested in small business owners views on the matter.

While I find it mildly interesting that only 36 of the 100 heads of FTSE 100 businesses signed the letter to urge people to stay in, these aren’t small businesses. So not relevant to me.

I was more interested in the chamber of commerce poll that said 37% of its members wanted to leave and 54% to stay. Whilst interesting this is hardly a representative sample with only 2200 out of 104,000 responding.

For the last few months I have been undertaking my own, unofficial, informal poll, by asking my clients their views and here is what I have found:

  • Most people feel that they haven’t been given the facts in a straight forward way.  They feel that they haven’t been given enough information to make an informed decision.
  • Most share my distrust of the extremes view coming from both sides.
  • Many feel the views of foriegn presidents but US and Eurpean do nothing to help the stay campaign.
  • Many suspect that there will be a period of uncertainty after exit but the country will bounce back and be stronger for it.
  • Many say we have to get control of our borders but fear that the conservative government won’t change anything even if we do leave.

On the whole, I feel that my client base lean towards leaving but they have their fears and doubts.

My personal fear is that when the country goes to the polls on the 23rd June, most people won’t bother to vote.

I won’t try to sway you to vote one way or another but I would say that its essential to vote. The outcome of this vote will have massive implications for us all.