Departing friends

In a private ceremony, heavy with emotion, the silences broken only by muffled sobs, two friends, inseparable in death as in life, departed this life having served faithfully, resolutely and without complaining about retirement benefits or pension shortfalls. They weren’t ill, simply worn out after a lifetime of devotion to their employer. They weren’t downtrodden or dismissed as servile as many of their contemporaries often are, but treated with respect for the important role they played. But now time had overtaken them. They could no longer provide the standard required.

So, as a lone piper played a lament on a distant hillside, the inevitable took place, as my loyal, comfortable, but hole ridden slippers were consigned to the bin.

Give people jobs? Give me strength!

On Any Questions (5th December) Eric Pickles declared that the only way out of poverty and austerity is to give people jobs. You can’t just give people jobs. Jobs are created through increased demand – just ask Aldi and Lidl. Likewise jobs are lost through a drop in demand.

When and if, demand increases for a product or service, job vacancies occur. Then, and only then, will employers start to take people on. Good employers will, naturally, choose the right person to fill each vacancy, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation. etc.

Common sense really.

Heart attacks

What genius came up with a “scientific” study to suggest that working for a bullying boss increases the risk of a heart attack by 23%?

Anyone who has worked in such an environment already knows only too well of the heightened blood pressure, the stress, the palpitations that result from working for a trumped up, inadequate human being, who grandly tries to make up for his or her shortcomings by being a bully and trying to scare people.

What these people don’t realise is that, as well as ruining their workers’ lives, they are actually building for themselves a reputation that will eventually catch up with them. Over the years I have, thankfully, had bosses that, whilst varying greatly in their abilities, have not been bullies. Pressurised? Of course. Unnecessarily? At times, certainly. The remedy? Play them at their own game. Call their bluff, when you know you are on rock solid ground with your argument. Afraid of losing your job? Isn’t that better than losing your life? Think about it.

Twenty five years

2012 sees twenty five years of involvement with the Enterprise movement. Based on an average of, say, three clients a day, four days a week, forty five weeks a year, it means I have worked alongside 13,500 clients over the whole period. I am glad to say that the majority of those have been meaty, successful businesses, providing their owners with a good standard of living, despite the inevitable ups and downs of business life. Many have retired and sold their businesses for a substantial sum, others are still trading themselves.

Of course, there have been many non-starters, where they person has been totally unsuited to the life of an entrepreneur, making a good living by remaining an employee. There have been the inevitable inventors whose ideas have been wholly unsuitable for the market, two springing to mind being plastic headstones and four poster beds for cats. Others have been the proverbial pain in the you-know-where. But overall, the past twenty five years have been, without question, the most satisfying of my working life. The thrill and satisfaction of helping people start up and grow their businesses is something which cannot fully be described in words alone. There have been the relatively small handful, where the business has grown to become market leaders and household names. There have been those who would never have got their ideas off the ground, but, thanks to organisations like the Princes Trust, they have been given a kick start and now are millionaires in their own right.

Recently, the Government promoted the start of businesses under the strap line “There’s a business in everyone.” This, of course, is utter garbage. There isn’t a business in everyone. The majority of people are not entrepreneurial in their outlook. They need leading. They need an employer – someone who, bluntly, tells them what to do each day, sorts out their tax and NI issues, and welfare, and pays them for going on holiday or sick leave. The life of the average entrepreneur is precarious at best, health threatening at worst.

However, there are still many who aspire to start their own businesses, and still requires my services to enable them to achieve their dream. It still provides the same kick for me as it did in 1987.