It’s tempting to start the day with a rant…
Four years ago I wrote about the collapse of Carillion, the Government’s ‘go-to contractor.’ The company’s strapline was ‘making tomorrow a better place.’ Sadly, tomorrow wasn’t a better place – especially for the 30,000 small businesses impacted by Carillion’s collapse.
The Government went on awarding contracts to Carillion long after the rumours started circulating – and long after the hedge funds had started shorting the company.
Unsurprisingly I bemoaned the lack of business knowledge and commercial common-sense in Government. But nothing has changed: last week the papers reported that the Government is to write off £8.7bn in PPE equipment that was faulty or out of date – and is cheerfully resigned to losing around £4.3bn in Covid loan fraud.
Thirteen billion quid! You couldn’t make it up. But last week also brought us confirmation that the planned national insurance hike is going ahead in April. That base rate was increasing by 0.25% – and is likely to go up two or three more times to combat inflation – and that whether you’re working from home or the office, it’s going to cost a lot more to keep warm.
So Government waste and corporate cash flows were much to the fore last week – but I will resist the rant and instead discuss something that I think is every bit as important.
Eleven months ago I wrote about mental health. I make absolutely no apologies for returning to the subject.
My decision was prompted by another of last week’s stories. According to the headline in City AM, Barclays Bank has issued a warning: ‘business owners’ mental health is in decline after getting into debt.’
The Bank has apparently ‘noticed’ that the mental health of ‘thousands of business owners’ has taken a hit since they took on debt. According to the bank’s statistics, while 80% of business owners are generally optimistic, over a quarter feel ‘worried or anxious’ about being in debt for the first time.
According to Barclays, 80% of the businesses which took on debt in the last two years did so for the first time, the majority through schemes introduced during the pandemic. Add in another result of the survey – 58% of businesses are owed money for late payments – and that gives us the thousands of business owners worrying about debt, cash flow and, by implication, their own mental health.
Barclays’ response has been to launch a series of ‘business health masterclasses:’ fifty a month for the next twelve months.
The cynical among you may mutter that the banks have a track record of causing their share of stress and mental health problems for owners and directors of SMEs: that this is little more than a PR exercise.
Let’s be more charitable. I’d argue that the results of the survey – irrespective of who commissioned it and/or their response to the findings – are both relevant and important.
Many businesses have taken on debt for the first time in the past two years. Give me a minute and I could list 20 TAB members off the top of my head. And yes, anecdotally I know that some of the owners of those businesses do worry about the debt.
This is going to be a tough year for owners and directors of SMEs. Let me throw another spanner into the works: your employees’ demands for flexible working. The pandemic has unquestionably changed attitudes to work, and this one will not go away. Today’s Millennials and Gen Z workforce are not going to suddenly revert to being their parents and grandparents: loyal to one company, motivated solely by a pay cheque and happily accepting that family life must take second place to work.
Obviously I agree with that – it’s the whole philosophy behind TAB. But as I’ve written many times, flexible working and/or a four day week is one thing when you have 5,000 people working for you: quite another when you have a tight-knit team of ten or twelve.
But the demand for flexible working is here to stay, with increasing numbers of people ready to resort to employment tribunals if they have been denied it.
…So no wonder business owners are worrying about their mental health.
It’s easy to trot out the stock answers. A clear division between work and life: regular exercise: eat healthily: stay focused on your vision and your long-term goals – and don’t keep it all bottled up. Talk to someone if you need to.
And that brings me full circle – to Barclays’ Business Health Masterclasses. Or, as I prefer to call them, TAB monthly board meetings.
Isn’t that exactly what they are? A monthly masterclass for the health of your business – and for the mental health of the person running the business. A chance to discuss your problems, a place where you can say anything you want to say, where you know the people listening will treat it with absolute confidentiality – and that the chances are, they’ve felt exactly what you’re feeling.
As Rob Watson says on the website: TAB members ‘laugh and cry’ together. They give each other a new perspective – and they’re always there, whatever challenges you’re facing.