I was traveling to my workshop earlier this summer (a 4-mile trip) and couldn’t help but notice that the grass had been cut on one of the roundabouts along the route. Why did I take notice of such a minor thing? Well, it was like a bad haircut with short and long bits sticking up all over the place that looked like a toddler had done it while having a hissy fit at the same time. My first thought was why bother, if a job needs doing it should be done properly in the first place, my second thought was we the taxpayers are charged for it! It’s August now and the council seems to have gone on strike and everywhere around the edges appears to be overgrown.
About a month ago our main road was closed at night for resurfacing work with those stone chips, they apparently don’t need to do the edges of the road anymore but in the morning the council sent out the road sweeper to clean the same road, which removed most of the stones that were laid the night before.
Then there is the cycle lane they have been working on for months and months running alongside a Bus and Cycle lane that rarely gets used, apparently funded by the leveling-up scheme. This has cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and when I had to ask one of the guys working on it why it was taking so long he couldn’t give me a reason, however, he did say that this wasn’t his usual trade as he usually erects fences for a living. I guess his answer explained more than his bosses could. It will probably resume and be finished only when the next round of wasteful funding lands in their laps.
I’m writing this because every time I see waste and poor standards of workmanship, a lack of pride in what is being created seems to be very much when taxpayer’s money is used. It certainly isn’t the case when a customer is paying for any product or service in the private sector because the customer wouldn’t be happy to pay for something substandard.
Small businesses do not have the luxury of wasteful spending because every penny counts to keep oiling the things that make it function or to improve its capability. It’s a completely different world that’s for sure and one that is being squeezed by the rule makers and lobbying corporations who want us gone by imposing ever more regulations and costs to adopt and abide by.
We are living in changing times, whereby it seems reliance on the state is being demanded by the public, but given that we can see how inefficient and unaccountable it has become is this really what we want as our future? If it can’t do the basics well how can we expect it to take care of society? It’s clear that the state is failing to deliver services cost-effectively with poor standards and has restricted access for small startups (by turnover) to help it deliver on its goals and contracted the very corporations that have lobbied parliament for that exact reason.
Owning a good tool kit for the future is going to be important because it vastly improves our own lives in so many ways. The disposable age is just a stone’s throw away from finishing, especially when we all have our carbon footprints taken into account. Owning good quality tools before implementation would be a very good strategy.
We saw the decline in the private sector firstly with the pubs, then the high street, and soon the Internet where restrictions are now being imposed on a greater scale to limit free speech, I’m sure further regulations will follow with every small business restricted online by Ai.
So how do good small businesses survive the onslaught?
A good reputation and word of mouth will be vital, along with a good customer base that values what that business delivers.
Our newsletter? Yes, this is important because it is a direct link between you and us where were can keep in contact via email. Most people know I have never spammed my customers with excessive emails because it’s not something I like myself! I occasionally send one out as a gentle reminder we are still alive and kicking and even if you don’t buy anything I try to put together something worth reading that you might get some value from. The other reason I don’t send many newsletters out is because they take time and I’m usually busy trying to give customers something fresh or replacing items that are in short supply on the website.
Business premise expenses have increased and we have also seen a 2 1/2 X rise in business energy costs, along with rises in other materials used. These have been absorbed at the expense of doing more hours thus far and the pressure of doing this will continue for the foreseeable future.
What Can Customers Do to Help?
Other than buying something, If you value someone’s small business it’s always helpful to mention them either online or offline to others. In our case, we are different because of the added professional service we inject into the vintage hand tools to extract the best qualities of that tool. It could also be that you like the fact we are as Eco as you can get when buying good quality tools for use or just that you had a good experience with using us by leaving a good review online.
Over 50% of employment comes from small businesses in the UK and if people took a little longer to think about the deeper impact of their purchase many could thrive. The alternative is large corporations that will continue to decline the value of everything by reducing its material quality (Clearly seen in modern tools) and will also continue to offset their pollution by nefarious deceitful means.
