Tag Archives: small business

Double digits and the next decade

This spring has been a biggie chez nous. As the daffodils tentatively turned their golden trumpets to the (occasional) sun, I was marking 10 years since leaving a long career at the BBC. And as is always the case with the passage of time, it’s been hard to believe that a whole decade has flown

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Power cut or power up?

Dunno about you, but I’m bricking it. As the economy spirals into freefall and prices skyrocket, I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling the fear. These are seriously scary times. Often it’s the unknown that fills us with dread, but no-one needs a crystal ball to know that we’re all in for a rough ride, a VERY

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Baby steps and snail’s pace

Spring’s on the horizon, traditionally a time to pick up the pace. But as February storms and relentless rain have battered spirits and prevented any meaningful return to the outside world, there have been moments when it’s been difficult to do much more than limp forward. This ongoing limbo is pants. The light is supposed

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Feast, famine and feeling the fear

Aye, we’ve all been there, hovering over a draft email, fearful of firing it off into other folks’ inboxes. But as the saying goes, feel the fear and do it anyway. If, like me, you’re a sole trader or small biz owner, feeling the fear is par for the course. The daily uncertainty of the

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Baby steps and high hurdles

As Scotland eases itself out of lockdown this April, I find myself thinking of feet. Yes, feet. These foot thoughts were partly inspired by wearing actual shoes for the first time in 13 months. Wow, that felt weirdly constricting after a year padding about in trainers, slides and slippers! Needless to say, “fashion” footwear has

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Sleepwalking in small business

Blurry, foggy and fuzzy. Everything feels so indistinct these days. It’s difficult to grasp anything tangible, let alone find a break in the clouds to gaze at distant horizons. Never mind taking the long view, when it comes to commerce I can barely see into next week. No, I’ve not ground to a halt or

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The Covid cling on

Throw me a lifebuoy FFS, I’m drowning. Well okay, then not drowning, but definitely doing a lot of treading water to keep the auld napper above the waves. Some days my personal pandemic psychology is rock solid, buoyant even. However this week, spirits have taken a bit of a dip, partly because the sun has returned

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The birdsong blues

It all began with a blackbird singing in the dead of night. Last night, to be exact. Not content with living through the disruption caused by the biggest global crisis known in my lifetime, my menopausal combustion engine is firing on all cylinders, causing restless, energy-sapping, sweat-drenched sleep. And so it was at 3.05am in the deep, dark night

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Basic instinct

I’m a bit of an animal. And so are you. It’s just that you and I seem to have lost the ability to tune in to our instincts. Unlike our furry, feathered and scaly friends we have become myopic when it comes to tuning in to hard-wired signalling. I suspect that the information revolution has

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Two wise money men

Wonga, dosh, moolah and wedge. Money has been much on my mind this month and not just because Christmas is starting to exert its ruinous grip. In fact, the economic devastation begins early chez nous thanks to the Word Up Wean’s insistence on having his birthday in November. Inconsiderate wee blighter. However, there’s nothing like the annual

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bbc business business start up children clients commerce confidence COVID-19 enterprise entrepreneur entrepreneurial family Glasgow mental health pandemic parenthood poverty radio Scotland Scottish self employment small business sole trader startup work life balance

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