Christmas Summary

Well, what a year that was.

Suzanne – my trusty side kick – asked that I write a jolly blog about the pleasures of 2023.

Got to be honest, it’s been a year of endless stop start, stop start projects… and endless planning delays.

It’s been a tough year – very much like the duck looking smooth and serene on the surface whilst paddling like f**k underneath the water just to stay still.

We have a project that we have an order for that has been waiting for an approval letter from the planning department for over a year.

If I had a pound for every job that changed its start date this year – I’d be a rich man.

Seriously, the number of clients that have rung late on a Friday to say – ‘You can’t start on Monday, can we put you back a week?’ …It’s unbelievable how many times this has happened this year.

The chaos this causes in a small business like ourselves is to be seen to be believed. You suddenly have men who have nothing to do for a week – and then the week after… you have several jobs all starting on the same day.

On the positive side, we do have many great clients and we are truly grateful for their continued support and confidence in the service that we provide. It’s great to know that we are your chosen provider when you have issues with invasive species and that you have confidence in our work ethic and pricing.

We had good months and we had bad months in 2023, we made money and we lost money at various points – very much a roller coaster of a year – and we’ve ended up pretty much exactly as we did in our previous year – similar turnover and similar margins – so I’m not complaining.

I’ve often said that nowadays if you can keep a business trading profitably and keep people in employment – then you’re doing well. Everything over and above breaking even is a real bonus and if after all of it you manage to make profit – then that’s bloody brilliant.

So, well done to all the businesses that managed to make it through 2023 and let’s hope for some improvement in 2024 …

I’m sure it won’t get any easier – but then again it wouldn’t be any fun if it weren’t a challenge.

Mike C