Industry News
these requirements needn’t ever stop you
doing what’s needed for the business to
prosper. It just means it has to be done
carefully within the law.
It’s also important to understand that
if someone commences legal action
against you, the risk isn’t just about
the money that might be awarded to
the complainant, which is unlimited in
cases of discrimination. Probably more
damaging is the time that you will have to
devote to the case and the sheer strain it is
likely to cause.
When your staff know that you do
everything by the book, they are unlikely
to even start a claim. By following these
guidelines, I have never been dragged
through an employment tribunal, despite
a long management career and occasional
threats by staff.
Bad staff
Once I had a great solicitor. I used him on
several different housing transactions. Not
only was he reasonably priced, he never
failed to turn around actions the same day.
So naturally, I turned to his company when
I needed help with litigation.
Nightmare. I had to chase everything,
deadlines seemed to be completely elastic
and the different solicitor seemed to add
no value, only get in the way. Eventually
I complained and things improved, so I
am guessing that a rocket was let off in the
appropriate place. However, by then I was
largely bypassing the solicitor and dealing
directly with a barrister. Fortunately, we
won.
The point of this is that the quality of
service you provide is totally dependent
on any staff that you employ or subbies
that you use. These represent a risk – your
reputation for quality can quickly be
ruined by a single bad worker. As a result,
you must always resist the temptation to
lower standards or fail to take fast action
when needed, however busy you are. It’s
better to delay work than trash your hard-
earned reputation.
Customer risk
I recently used a fair-sized ground works
company to do some work on my home.
Before I took them on, I looked into their
history. Why had the directors previously
run a similar company that had gone bust,
I asked? The answer was that they had
done a lot of work for a larger contractor.
That contractor had gone out of business,
leaving a big debt owing. This is the
difficulty of relying on one large customer.
Once you couldn’t cope with non-
payment of the outstanding debt from any
one customer, that customer’s business
risk is added to your own risks. The
horrible thing is, you have no control over
that risk. And it gets harder and harder to
try to insist on payment terms the larger
the amount of business that you do with
them. There is nothing you can do other
than to reduce your reliance on them.
For these reasons, it’s probably worth
turning down work once you are above a
certain threshold, hard as that is.
Unexpected expenses
I wish that it was easier running
a business, but I guess that then the
potential rewards would be smaller. One
of the easy traps to fall into is not allowing
for large expenses that may arise down the
road. Some examples of this are the VAT
bill on a large invoice that hasn’t yet been
paid, assuming you are on the standard
VAT reporting scheme. Another is the
replacement of important machinery.
Then there is the annual income tax or
corporation tax bill.
Knowing what’s coming and planning
ahead is the answer here.
About the author
Benjamin Dyer is CEO and co-founder
of Powered Now. Powered Now’s
mobile app aims to take the pain out of
paperwork for installers, as well as other
trade businesses.
www.powerednow.com
MAR/APR 2020
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