I attended a seminar the other evening. Amongst other things, the speaker described what he felt were the three key components for any business to be successful: inspiration, marketing and control.

Running a small business can be very rewarding. Unfortunately it can also be very frustrating.

“How do you see the economic prospects in UK?” It was an innocent enough question and the sort I am frequently asked. However, on this occasion I felt I had to be particularly careful how I answered.

I couldn’t believe what I had just read from the Federation of Small Business.

Does it matter who owns the business you work for? Many column inches have recently been devoted to the private equity take-over of British companies. Although the accusations have been strenuously denied by those inside the private equity business, the thrust has been that such takeovers are in some way bad.

Anne and I were looking at the annual salary review. As it had been a good year for the business she was keen to be generous with the salary increases, but I wasn’t so sure.

This is a busy time of year. More than one-third of my regular clients have 31 March year ends.

When you file your accounts, how much do you know about how they will be interpreted by the companies that analyse such data and, in many cases, add their own interpretation?

“Peter, I have just had an interesting phone call. I am really not sure whether it means we are in for a nightmare or a windfall.”

It is time for reflection. Not only has another year begun but “the new decade” is now well on the wane. Was it really seven years ago we were celebrating the new millennium?