{"id":10008,"date":"2024-05-09T11:30:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T11:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mouthymoney.co.uk\/?p=10008"},"modified":"2025-03-03T08:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T08:53:12","slug":"diary-of-an-sme-owner-remember-reader-its-all-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mouthymoney.co.uk\/pensions\/diary-of-an-sme-owner-remember-reader-its-all-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"Diary of an SME Owner: remember, Reader, it\u2019s all luck\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SME owner Michael Taggart remembers his spiritual link to a famous comedian, accidentally enters the Lisbon Marathon and spots a huge societal trend \u2013 almost certainly prematurely.  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Michael<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


In this instalment of his monthly column, \u201cDiary of an SME Owner\u201d, Michael Taggart continues to tell all about the highs and lows of relaunching and running a tea company, MDTea<\/a>, alongside his wife, Helen.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, Michael remembers his spiritual link to a famous comedian, accidentally enters the Lisbon Marathon and spots a huge societal trend \u2013 almost certainly prematurely.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diary of An SME Owner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

March 25th <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was born in Plymouth on a clear, crisp morning in the first week of October, 1975 \u2013 a week that might one day be considered one of the most significant in the cultural history of homo sapiens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because, in the miniature form of a newborn baby, that period bestowed upon entertainment-seekers the world over a talent who would eventually bestride the fields of comedy, pop-philosophy, writing and life coaching with Napoleonic command. Yes, that was the week Tim Minchin<\/a> was born. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Minchin would soon be spirited off to do his growing up in sunkissed Western Australia, he made his way into the world \u2013 four days after my d\u00e9but on Planet Earth \u2013 in the damp East Midlands, just 230 miles from my Devon stable (A38, then M5, then M40 is the route I usually recommend from Plymouth to Northampton). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A coincidence, then, not just of time but also of place. Were we somehow one soul split into two bodies, I often wonder, looking back. These were not the only signs of our twin flame connection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MORE DIARY OF AN SME OWNER by Michael Taggart<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As Minchin grew from baby to boy, that puppy-faced Perth pre-schooler could not have known that he and I were both the second sons of public sector workers (his parents were doctors; mine a teacher and a civil servant). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor could he have guessed, as our four testicles dropped virtually simultaneously (my pair here in Northern Europe and his where the ancestral land of the Aborigines meets the Indian Ocean), that we shared a guilty love of man-scara and guy-liner. It was just a thing we both did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adolescence bestowed on each of us pleasant baritone singing voices and we would soon fancy ourselves as vocalists, each eventually taking the lead role of Judas in the hit rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Minchin\u2019s spellbound audiences in Dublin, London and Sydney must have been larger than mine in a dusty school hall in Crownhill, Plymouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the thrill would have been as intense for both of us, further connecting the parallel railway tracks of our destinies with the timber sleepers of our shared experiences.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bring all this up because I happened, in an idle moment this morning, upon Minchin\u2019s famous 2013 speech<\/a> to graduating students at his alma mater, the University of Western Australia. It reminded me that because Minchin and I are two bodies with one mind, I should listen when he speaks, as one listens to one’s conscience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRemember it’s all luck,\u201d he told those young mortar board-sporting men and women. \u201cYou are lucky to be here. You are incalculably lucky to be born and incredibly lucky to be brought up by a nice family who encouraged you to go to uni. Or if you were born into a horrible family, that’s unlucky and you have my sympathy \u2013 but you are still lucky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky that you happen to be made of the sort of DNA that went on to make the sort of brain which \u2013 when placed in a horrible childhood environment \u2013 would make decisions that meant you ended up eventually graduating uni. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Well done you for dragging yourself up by your shoelaces. But you were lucky. You didn’t create the bit of you that dragged you up. They’re not even your shoelaces.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: “Understanding that you can’t truly take credit for your successes, nor truly blame others for their failures, will humble you and make you more compassionate. Empathy is intuitive. It is also something you can work on intellectually.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remind myself of this every day and urge every successful business owner to do the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 3rd <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I suppose it was bound to happen at one point or another \u2013 and it won\u2019t be the last time. One of the businesses we supply, a chain of caf\u00e9s in Brighton and Worthing, has gone into liquidation. That ship will sink with our last invoice still unpaid. It\u2019s a near miss really, as it\u2019s less than \u00a3200. But it\u2019s also a reminder for any SME owner to look for the signs a client is in trouble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chuck them a rubber ring if you can \u2013 but make sure you\u2019re not too tightly tied to a ship that\u2019s definitely going down. It\u2019s also a moment to reflect that someone\u2019s dream may well have sunk and that compassion is the order of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hospitality sector is experiencing some of the choppiest seas it has navigated in the last half century. And this latest bad news has spurred me on to redouble our sales efforts. When life gives you storms, dance in the rain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 13th  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve entered the Lisbon Marathon and have until October 6th to prepare. I was drunk when I did it but I\u2019m glad, all the same. I make better decisions when I\u2019m fit (such as not entering marathons when drunk). I also have access to a broader range of trousers and shirts, the smaller ones suddenly coming into play. The business benefits of this project are innumerable.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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S\u2019miles to go: Michael kicks off his marathon training with a massive barbecue (it\u2019s a fuel thing, apparently) <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

April 28th <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m convinced the health benefits of green tea are finally going mainstream. That said, I spent most of the last decade prematurely telling people “the Golden Age of podcasting has arrived”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact it hadn\u2019t \u2013 not quite \u2013 and when that age finally dawned, I had quit my marketing career and was no longer trying to convince podcastless business owners to release podcasts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, I had become a podcast-free SME owner myself. I was like an evangelist who, having spent years gleefully telling fellow Americans the Rapture is nigh, disappears to Benidorm for two weeks when the day for everyone to float off into space finally arrives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, take it from this SME owner the signs are everywhere that my latest great analysis of UK culture is correct \u2013 and not wildly premature. Radio 4, for example, just dedicated a whole 15 minute show to the topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest research, listeners heard, suggested green tea is good for your heart and mind<\/a>, specifically helping to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n