Normal daily life seems to be changing at a crazy speed and I don’t suppose that is going to change anytime soon. When I think back to things like the price of petrol, I start to sound like my parents. In a few years’ time, I suppose people will be asking why we ever used petrol and why did we not just plug in the car to the charging point.

I was also looking in my wardrobe this week. I have a Monkey Suit, well that’s what we always called them. I had one when I was at university (well, it was St Andrews) but that suit was ditched many years ago and I decided that if anyone wanted me to wear a dinner jacket again, I just would not go to that event. Things move on! Just over a year ago, I bought a new monkey suit and taught myself (with a little help from Google) to tie a bow tie. No clip-ons for me! It all went well but then along came Covid. The suit, dress shirt and bow tie are hanging in the wardrobe unused.

I will have to go to a black-tie dinner sometime after spending all that money but post Covid, will they still exist, or in the post Covid world of working from home and dressing down, will black tie be replaced by jeans and a clean t-shirt. Your guess is as good as mine as we lurch towards the post pandemic world. As I am sure you will have heard me say, the only constant is change, and the changes are relentless. I would not like to predict what the world will be like even in a couple of years. All we know is that it will be different, but for good or bad. I suspect that will depend on your viewpoint.

One thing that I have noticed is that small business owners are learning to be noticed. In a busy market you need something to make you stand out.  Everybody seems to have a tag line these days. Mine is “making life less taxing”. Not very imaginative I know, plus I nicked it from someone else. Then there is Andrew Still at James Dow “your office planned and delivered”, Sandy Mackenzie’s “you always get a good deal at Goodtread”, David Coutts at iSight Systems “saving you time with technology”, Martin Roy “building modern homes with traditional values”, Mike Rae at Highland Copiers “discover true local” and there are many others I could mention.

However, the most memorable tag line I have heard recently came from Nicco Tough at NV2 Fitness, a small group gym in Muir of Ord, and I do not seem to be able to get it out of my head. Now, given that he is a personal trainer running a gym, he says “making you harder to kill”. Now, that’s a bit different, memorable and embodies so much of what exercise and good diet can do for you. It certainly grabs your attention.

A tag line doesn’t guarantee you any sales but get it right and it does make you more memorable. Mind you the other way is to bombard you with emails and social media posts every week. That works for me. If you want to see what we have sent out every week this year, check out the rest of our website blog, courtesy of Abbie McCahill, Adder Business, “solutions that count”.