A SMALL family business in Woodbridge today revealed its secret in beating the recession blues - hard work.Stephen Wilkes, managing director of will writing firm Silver Lining Estate Planning, said his company had flourished amid the doom and gloom of the financial meltdown.

A SMALL family business in Woodbridge today revealed its secret in beating the recession blues - hard work.

Stephen Wilkes, managing director of will writing firm Silver Lining Estate Planning, said his company had flourished amid the doom and gloom of the financial meltdown.

And his recipe for success is simple - extra effort.

Mr Wilkes said: “We work very closely with financial advisers and from around October last year many of their businesses went very quiet, so accordingly ours did too.

“This made us really think about how to grow our business and has forced us to become more proactive in our approach.

“We are now seeing the results of promotions that we have done since October, and this has coincided with a big upturn in the referrals we are receiving from financial advisers too.

“We have just had our busiest January ever. Many of us have never been through a recession, and for those that have none of them were like this one, they were very different in their nature.

“I believe that around October last year the amount of bad news had reached fever pitch and the general public decided that they were going to drastically rein in their spending.

“With Christmas out of the way, I feel there may have been a general change in the way we are behaving. Those who still have jobs are possibly now thinking that maybe the sky isn't falling down after all.

“And I believe that more people are beginning to spend. Mortgage rates are down, petrol is cheaper and inflation generally has reduced.

“While there may be no green shoots as yet, maybe we have remembered where the umbrellas are and that things aren't so bad.”

Fight Back

The Evening Star's Fight Back campaign aims to bring you the positive stories of how defiant Suffolk is beating the economic blues.

While the county is not immune from the pinch of the global recession, civic and business leaders believe we stand well-placed to ride through the financial storm.

And the Star's Fight Back campaign will be highlighting the many reasons to be optimistic and championing our battling businesses and institutions.