Grombles

Of course all entrepreneurs want to make lots of money. Who doesn't? But the difference between entrepreneurs who do make money and those who don't, is that successful ones don't focus on making money. They focus on building their businesses. And that relies on having an attitude of pouring any money their businesses do make, back into them, rather than rubbing their hands and taking it out as soon as they can. True entrepreneurs are gamblers and thrifty by nature. Given the choice of a holiday of a lifetime versus the chance to create a great business, they'll always choose the business - and take it for granted that if the business does eventually make surplus money, they can have that holiday - although entrepreneurs can become so hooked, holidays become a guilty wrench away from the businesses they need to protect. I didn't have a single days holiday, or off sick, for 10 years after I started my first business. I probably could have afforded it (in fact my wif

There's not long to go before the British people will be asked whether they want to leave the European Community (EC) or not. I predict most will say leave. We're proud to be British and nobody likes interference from abroad. We are also a net financial contributor to the EC, so voters are being told we'll immediately be better off if we leave. But we won't be. In fact it will quickly cost us very dearly indeed. There are plenty of arguments for and against leaving, but for me the biggest issue will be the probable loss of export trade. The argument for Brexit is that we're a big market so why will the rest of Europe want to put up export barriers to sell their stuff to the UK? Why will they want to cut off their nezs to spite their visages? The answer unfortunately is that while 50% of our exports are to the EC, only 10% of theirs are to us. In other words, we need them more than they need us. But the biggest threat will be from revenge. There are two types o