Financial markets are in turmoil, banks are reluctant to lend, oil prices are high, economic growth forecasts are being cut and house prices are falling, as is consumer confidence. With a dark winter squall gathering over the economic prospects for 2008, British businesses should arguably be battening down the hatches – shelving investment plans, freezing recruitment and running down inventories.

Yet Mario Thomas, managing director of Chapter Eight, says his Leeds-based website design company has full order books and is still taking on staff. “I’ve never seen an economy like this before, with all the doom and gloom. But it hasn’t let up for us at all – with existing customers commissioning work and new business flooding in.”