Ross Weddell

Secretary of the Zetland Management Company

[CapX @CapX]

People argue endlessly about Britain’s tax burden – now the highest since the Second World War – but almost nothing is said about the time businesses lose to compliance.

No Chancellor stands at the despatch box and tells firms they are about to spend another few billion pounds’ worth of working time satisfying new rules. It never appears in the public accounts, but firms pay for it all the same.

✍️@DamianPudner

Read more:

[Luke Johnson @LukeJohnsonRCP]

More (mostly pointless) govt regulations = higher costs for businesses = higher prices for consumers

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

I sit in Parliament listening to these ministers, and it’s all just so depressing - the vast majority of them have never run a business, and it SHOWS. You would not believe how bad it is.

They think ‘work’ means turning up to an office between 9 and 5, answering a few emails, and going home at the end of the day. Nice lunch break, few coffees away from the desk, probably a smoking break or several. It doesn’t - not for the millions of men and women who actually create the wealth that funds the state.

Running a small business isn’t a job. It’s a way of life. It is life. It’s 24/7/365. It’s relentless. You are the accountant, HR department, compliance officer, cleaner, marketer, and customer service team - all in one. There’s no sick pay, no safety net, and no taxpayer-funded pension waiting for you.

Holiday? Good luck. If you do manage to get away, it’s checking the phone all day, every day. Wife/husband obviously getting pissed off. We’ve all been there...

It’s all on you. Every invoice chased, every tax deadline met, every bit of red tape navigated is on you. And if you make one mistake, one error, one small slip-up, the state comes after you - in a relentlessly efficient manner that is never afforded to us when we ask questions of it.

Most MPs have no idea what that feels like. They just don’t. We’re going to see more of this in the budget I’m sure. More hurt. More pain. More tax. They don’t get it.

They don’t understand that when a small business owner gets hit with another tax, it’s not absorbed by a ‘budget’ - it’s taken straight out of their family’s pocket.

There is no ‘deficit’ in the business world - that’s called going bust.

And they certainly don’t understand what real risk looks like. Politicians can vote through a policy on Monday and forget it by Tuesday - a small business owner lives with the consequences of that policy for years, decades. The MP monthly salary is safe. It always has been. In the public sector before, and in the public sector after - if not that, some charity/NGO funded entirely by the public sector.

GET A REAL JOB.

If MPs actually spent a week running a small firm - paying suppliers, tackling VAT, navigating health and safety law, sorting out HR issues, chasing clients for payment, trying to expand while staying compliant with everything from GDPR to local planning regulations - they’d legislate very differently. I can promise you that.

They’d realise that most of Britain’s problems could be solved by the state doing less, not more.

Cutting tax. Simplifying regulation. Slashing back the HRification of the country. Trusting people who actually produce things to get on with it.

Instead, we have a political class that talks endlessly about ‘growth’ while brutally punishing the only people capable of delivering it - especially going after the family businesses/farms, which is a particularly spiteful policy decision.

Small business owners are people who work harder than almost anyone in Parliament could imagine - and who are treated worse for it.

Britain’s small businesses don’t succeed because of politicians, they survive in spite of them.

[Susie Dent @susie_dent]

Word of the Day is ‘snerdle’ (19th century): to lie warm and still beneath the covers for as long as humanly possible.

[David Cant @davidgcant]

Complacency breeds trouble.

[Karun Pal @karunpal]

Introverts hate being rushed. They want time. Loads of it. To think. To process. To analyse. To hypothesize it from every angle before they even begin. For you it's work, for them it's art. We're not the same.

[David Cant @davidgcant]

Step into my office…

The most effective risk management strategies are usually shaped best at the frontline…

Not in a meeting room far, far away.

Lesson: Those who do the work best understand the work.

Learn from them and create a better culture of safety together.

Agree?

[Matt Winston @Mattw1nston]

QOTD “there is so much cricket chat on this bus between the brit’s & aussies i now get cricket adverts in my feed” @johndegenkolb 🇩🇪 whose sitting drinking his Yorkshire tea…with Milk

[Geoff and Margaret @RetirementTales]

Here's your obsolete word of the day. It seems like a pertinent one at this time in the school year...

[David Cant @davidgcant]

Spoiler alert:

Training on a subject that lasts a few days is an “information dump” and ineffective overall.

People's brains can't cope.

Doing aside.

Learning happens best when our brain digests small pieces of content spaced out consistently and repeatedly.

Less is more!

[David Cant @davidgcant]

If you fail to grasp the significance of human behaviour in safety performance.

You will always experience the same mistakes and compromise the desired outcomes.

This is essentially what old school safety management is about.

It wastes lots of time, effort and money.

[David Cant @davidgcant]

Leadership is challenging.

[David Cant @davidgcant]

Find developing a safety strategy challenging?

Create a focus group of influencers to support you in the challenges.

It also helps to have a vision of where you want to be and a structure to follow that will get you there.

Tip: Better to work on improving one thing at a time.

[David Cant @davidgcant]

Instead of walking around pointing out what's not right and writing a safety report with actions.

Spend time getting to know your workforce and discover the problems from their point of view.

Build those relationships and trust.

Lesson: Lots of value in positive conversations.

[David Cant @davidgcant]

This is not uncommon:

Many safety people spend time fixing the wrong problems.

Often they are keen to add more policies, processes and procedures when things go wrong.

And all the while, what they don’t see is...

The ever growing pile of symptoms preventing any change they make from bearing any fruit.

Solution:

Dig deeper because it's usually a behaviour, system or environment problem that needs fixing.

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

So true! 🙌

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

This is truth! 💯

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

This is so true! 🙌

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

This is important! 🙌

[David Cant @davidgcant]

Quick Safety Nudge

Before walking around a workplace, spend 10 minutes standing and observing.

You will see people behaving in their natural state.

And you will see the habits they have formed and the shortcuts they take.

Often this valuable insight into their behaviour can display a dangerous space to be in.