The Long View

There is a saying that gets trotted out usually quite defensively – Age is just a number. But is that right? I read an article recently about the decade in your life when you are most effective. The rather surprising answer was that you are most effective in your 60s. The next most effective decade […]

I know that I am supposed to write down my goals, but I don’t. I don’t often share them because they are mine. I like to think that I either achieve them, or in the trying, at least do better than if I had not. But late last year I set myself a goal and

There are a few different new years. There is the one that starts on 1 January. There is the Chinese New Year. But what I am talking about is the one that starts on 1 February, the day after the self-assessment filing deadline. And for those accountants that work in tax, the passing of the

Here’s a question for you: What makes you happy? At the moment, getting to the end of January with all of our clients’ self-assessment tax returns filed will make me happy, but that is a temporary state as we will have plenty to do in February. Let me explain the reason for my question. Earlier

The last few weeks have been a bit of an eye opener for me. When you have been in business for a while I think there must be a danger that you think you have seen just about anything that life, in normal circumstances, can throw at you. Then there are those times when you

At the very beginning of January, I managed to do something that I have never managed before. Is this a sign of what 2023 has to offer. You may or may not have noticed that I took a break from posting over Xmas and New Year. This was not particularly scheduled but just happened. You

I know that some of you will be familiar with Paul Harvey. Paul worked with us for a while and is probably one of the key influencers in establishing our current marketing strategies. If you have ever wondered where we got our ideas from for the Highland Spotlight business exhibition, blame Paul. Anyway, he posted

I am late! This should have been last Tuesday. Yes, it’s 6.20 am and I am sitting down to do my usual Tuesday morning routine. But I should have been doing this last Tuesday. But last Tuesday I was more than likely in bed and asleep in Glasgow. Helen and I got away for a

If I pick up a rock, how do I know what it is worth?  I did a degree in Geology, clearly a natural route to accountancy. So, in theory I should be able to tell the difference. That’s the theory anyway. There is a story of a farmer who was eking out a subsistence living

Have you read the book by Dale Carnegie “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. I cannot remember when I first came across this book, but it must have been a long time ago. I didn’t say I had read it! However, this morning as I was doing my usual early morning trawl on LinkedIn