How was it for you?

In our case, it was pretty much as we would have expected. We knew we would be working long hours and 7 days a week. Clients were contacting us as late as Friday 30th, but you generally cannot prepare a set of accounts in a day. So, there had to be some estimated returns that we will update over the next month or two. HMRC give you a year to amend a return. Life can now return to something more like normality, whatever that is, but at least life becomes a bit more relaxed.

Where our first office was located, we could easily see the lights of a number of accountancy firms just like ours. In the run up to 31 January, it was always interesting to see whose lights were on before ours in the morning, and what lights were still on as we went home in the evening. These days, with the march of technology, we could be working from home, especially on weekends, or others may be doing the same. My office at home is probably the best equipped office of all the ones I work in. It does not have the best office chair though. I found that gaming chairs were best suited for my working pattern, but my best chair is in the office in Elgin.

Anyway, we continue our steady way through the year. I sometimes wonder how you can make such a difference that you actually change the market. I came across this quote from Henry Ford. I think it embodies what it takes to be a disrupter.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Now you can either believe Henry Ford that he built his cars to disrupt the market in horses, or you could take the view that he was an inventor and he happened to strike it lucky.

I suppose it also highlights two types of business. The first type is where someone goes into business using known procedures and technologies and supplies their goods and services to an established market. That is what we, and most of you, will be doing. You just try to do what you do that bit better than the competition, and so attract more customers to your business.

The other type of business is the disruptor. Someone comes up with an idea and is so driven that they get it to work, and they establish a new market that did not exist in that form previously. This is the Musks, Dysons,  Bezos and Gates of this world. They discovered that needle in a haystack that the rest of us wish we had found. The rest of us just find rusty nails.

All that most of us can hope for from our businesses is that we earn a reasonable living and, at the end of the day, have something of value that we have built up over the years. But of course, it is a gamble. If your goods or services become obsolete or the market is taken over by the competition, all that hard work could have been for nothing. What are all the typewriter salesmen doing now? But, as they say, that’s life. You give it your best shot, and you may or may not come out ahead.

I was in a meeting this morning. One of the things discussed was what it was like working 80 hours a week to establish and build a business. Like many of you, we did just that. We are down to about 60 hours now! At the end of the day, you have built something up which you can either pass on or sell. If you sell, the government wants about a quarter of the value of all your hard work from the last 10, 20, 30 or 40 years. Given that you have already paid a lot of tax on the profits you made over the years, it does feel a little unfair. I am not getting political here, and I understand the need to collect taxes to fund public services, etc. But it still feels a bit harsh on people who have given up so much over the years, missing out on family time, on hobbies, etc.

If, as they say, the government wants to grow the economy, then surely, they have to incentivise those people who want to grow their businesses. Otherwise, why do any of us bother?

I do not have an answer. The basic rate of tax for many years was 30%. But governments since then have given away 10%+ tax on income, but have to fill the gap either by restricting spending on services or raising other forms of taxation. So public services have suffered over the years, roads have got worse, the country’s defenses have been depleted, etc.

Have we lost a sense of perspective? Maybe there is just too much politics in taxation policy.

Just saying ……

Alan E Long

The Long Partnership

07770 738770