“So where do you keep your money then Mike?” was the question posed to me by one of the MD’s with whom I work after the news broke about Bradford & Bingley recently.
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I spent a couple of days last week at a business exhibition in Wales – an interesting experience in more ways than one with monsoon like weather conditions coinciding with England’s final one day cricket match against South Africa and only 18 balls being bowled.
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Back from holiday to the usual virtual mountain in the Outlook inbox – a quick scan through to see what is really urgent and what can wait.

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Late payment has always been an issue for small companies and in the current economic climate where cashflow becomes even more important then it’s really important that SME’s are on top of their credit control procedures.
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I read an interesting article the other day about a survey carried out amongst business executives and their attitudes towards summer holidays – as you might expect there were the usual statistics about the percentage who check work e-mail, voicemails, those who use their holiday as an opportunity to catch up on work related reading etc.
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Many of my businesses are reacting to the various price rises that are now filtering through in different ways – looking at the necessity of making that journey, car sharing, travelling by train, flexible working, conference calls etc – but the one unavoidable consequence of rising prices is going to be increased pressure on salaries in the coming months.

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Much of this week has been spent preparing for next week’s visit by the auditors – a chance to re-examine how we do things and how we categorise expenses.

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Moving office buildings in the midst of preparing for the annual audit, completing the P11D’s and the quarterly VAT return is not a recommended strategy!

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