“Flexibility is enabling entrepreneurs to find new ways to turn a profit,” an FSB spokesman said.

FSB member Marian Robinson, owner of Marian-Art Gallery in Gloucestershire, said buyers were proving cautious, so she was developing her teaching services, and offering products to compensate for the closure of a local post office.

Karoly Nunhofer, owner of Leko Natural Paints and Finishes in East Sussex, has altered his marketing focus.

“Fewer people are moving house and redecorating so we are telling homeowners about the benefits of sprucing up their propert,” he says.