February 4th (today)  is World Cancer Day - a day to remember, to shed a tear, to reflect but also to be positive, be brave, be supportive and to fight - a day to get involved and support the research and the fight against cancer.

We all know someone whether a family member or friend who is currently or has been affected by cancer. In November 2012 we lost a dear friend and work colleague Maureen who sadly lost her fight against the disease after a short illness. Maureen left behind wonderful supportive parents and brother as well as a son she adored and supported with everything she could give.

In a way I was fortunate up until that time to not have someone close to me suffer from cancer. Since then though I have tried as best as I can to support and raise awareness to help the fight against this horrible disease. 

Each day around the world thousands of people donate, bake, walk, run, cycle, swim as well as many other activities to help raise money and awareness but even more crucially each day countless partners, relatives, friends and volunteers support and care for people affected by cancer.

I'm going to be blunt at this point - this is the link to the many ways you can support the fight against cancer - I beg you to consider donating via the the linked page or by supporting someone you know who is taking part in a charity event in the coming months. 

There are many types of cancer which need supporting and each has its own awareness and funding challenges but each one all has the same goal - to beat cancer.

​On 29th April 2018 I will once again take part in the Stirling Scottish Marathon - 26.2 miles running in the wonderful scenic Stirling countryside. Sounds exhausting and exciting at the same time plus also rewarding to those that complete the feat. 

A feat that is yes personally rewarding but also a feat that requires mental and physical strength - after 20 miles with just over 6 miles to go it is another 6 miles too far for the body which just wants to give up and stop going forward. 

I'm not exaggerating, 20 miles into a marathon the body is struggling and doesn't want to continue with the final miles - personally it is at that exact moment that in the past I have drawn on the support of the crowd but more importantly drawn on the support of the wonderful people that have donated and supported my efforts with my charity cause.

​This year I have chosen to support Prostate Cancer UK, a disease that will affect 1 in 8 men, kills a man every 45 minutes and is now a bigger killer than Breast Cancer in UK.

With the Men United campaign the awareness of Prostate Cancer has increased in recent years but the funding for the research to help fight this particular type of cancer is less than other well known cancer types. 

​Since I started running and raising money for charities in 2013 the support from family, friends, colleagues and customers has been remarkable and each time I am humbled for the support you give.

Conscious of asking for your support again for charity I do believe though that raising awareness and supporting the fight against Prostate Cancer is worth me asking and pleading for your generosity again. 

Please consider supporting, not my running efforts, but the future research and those currently fighting Prostate Cancer.
Thank You.
Scott

Our Christmas present arrived in time for the big day. 
It’s been a whirlwind week full of many emotions with this little man joining our family for Christmas.
Wishing you all good health and happiness over the festive period.

It was pleasing to see an article in this weeks Stirling Observer newspaper about local youth football club Carse Thistle.

I played with Carse at Under 16 & 18 level after spending most of my youth football at the successful North Broomage Colts/VIS Colts team from Under 11 through to Under 15.

Like many of my primary school friends I knew Dick from 10 years old after we all had trials at Carse Thistle and later in life I bumped into him a few times in Stirling city centre where he would never pass you without saying hello and asking how I was.

An absolute gentleman of a man who dedicated a lot of his life to youth football in the Stirling area and I wish the new custodians of the club all the success in the future as they carry on the legacy of Dick Taylor.

Are the A9 average speed cameras a success? Well I certainly think so and the stats prove it.

The most notorious section of the A9 is from Perth to Inverness which I have driven many times and now a handful of times since the average speed cameras were installed with the latest drive being today and I have found the journey to the likes of Aviemore and Inverness to be less stressful and I've encountered less incidents or potential incidents since the average speed cameras were installed.

Major roadworks over the next handful of years for dualling purposes will cause distribution and some frustration but there can be no argument that since average speed cameras were installed instead of the small number of static individual cameras the road is crucially safer with journey times far from affected.

Dualling the A9 is a massive project and was talked about for decades before the current Scottish Government committed to the long term plan and we are already seeing the benefits of the decision to upgrade the road as well as the decision to take decisive action against speeding.

I just wanted to blog and register a post today in what I know I will look back on as a milestone in my business life.

I remember when I was in my late teens admiring what my team and I this week have taken a massive step towards.

Ok, too much info already. Hopefully more news over coming weeks.

Are our expectation levels changing? I believe they are and my conclusion is that internet shopping is largely to blame - but that may not be a bad thing.

In the day of instant online answers to our questions and shopping via our computer and smart devices our expectation levels as customers have increased and it's been working it's way into the traditional trades and services sector for a few years now.

At Stirling Electrical Services and Stirling Alarms a large part of our service is being reactive to customers who have unexpected electrical and security alarm problems so we are geared up as much as we can be to respond as quickly as possible but increasingly we are finding our customer service team are receiving more phonecalls from customers who these days not 'hope' for a quick response but 'expect' a very quick response.

Back to my theory regarding the internet being a cause for increasing expectation levels, I can relate to this in my own experience. I love internet shopping especially for electronic gadgets and devices and purchase many items online for the business and for home and I admit that I will pay slightly extra if it means I receive the goods quicker.

Several examples of how the internet and especially delivery timescales are affecting our expectation levels was this weekend when on Friday I ordered goods from Amazon. Not only could I pick up the goods ordered on Amazon immediately at my local Argos store in a partnership between those companies when I returned the item I purchased on Saturday mid-morning as it was defective I was told that (instead of waiting until Monday as I expected too for a replacement) I could return to Argos later that afternoon when a replacement would be delivered to Argos for me to pick up.

Another example from this weekend was on late Saturday afternoon when I again ordered goods via Amazon and expected a Monday delivery but in fact I could choose for the goods to be delivered free (Amazon Prime member) on Sunday. The goods arrived at my home late Sunday afternoon.

Yes on Sunday, the last few years has seen many of the delivery companies starting a Sunday delivery service to meet the growing demand and expectations of online shopping.

The above examples add to the recent orders I have placed just minutes before midnight on Amazon for delivery the following  day and I believe Next also offer a late at night ordering service for following day delivery.

Our expectation levels and demands are increasing and the instant answers and service driven by internet shopping is well on the way to affecting the expectation levels within other business sectors, and you know what I think it's a good thing.

These days when a customer of mine expects me to have an electrician hiding around the corner just on the rare chance that they may have an electrical problem so we can respond to in a matter of minutes, then although I will initially feel they are being unreasonable to expect an electrician to be waiting just for them, it does get me thinking and makes me take a step back and ponder about how we operate and how we can work towards improving our service level.

Customers expectations, yes for us business leaders they can be a pain at times but as leaders we must put ourselves in our customers shoes at every opportunity and improve and align our own business services as much as possible to match the changing customer exception levels as well as keeping an eye on and learning from other business sectors.

What a day it's been for high profile decisions by both the UK Government and The Supreme Court.

First of all UK Government announced that from 2040 all new cars sold will be electric or hybrid and then The supreme Court ruled that charging employees to bring employment tribunal cases against employers is illegal.

I'm going to give it a few days and then blog again in more depth but both decisions leave me with many questions and also anger.

I know it's more than a few decades before the new electric vehicle ruling comes into force and many many technology advances will take place within that time but as someone in the industry the generation of and then the infrastructure demand to cope with electric vehicles (in current power demands) is massive. I think its obvious that today's announcement is only to appease and beat a court order deadline knowing new generation and infrastructure plans can be left for another day and another government down the line. 

The other headline news was The Supreme Court's decision to rule that charging employees a higher fee (introduced in 2013) to bring an employee tribunal case against an employer is unlawful.

As I said I will go into this in depth in another post as your point of view on this decision will likely be on whether you are an employer or an employee but let me tell you from experience, this decision will once again increase the risk and heavy burden on small businesses like mine to have to safeguard at a high insurance cost against those odd rogue employees who know at no cost will now be able to again raise a tribunal case against the employer even with a weak and deliberate vendetta case. 

I really do believe you have to employ people to even start to appreciate the extra demands, burden and costs placed on small businesses who just want to create jobs and contribute to the economy.

Let me tell you that when an employee gets charged and convicted in court for a personal offence that means they cannot undertake their job but an employer can then still have an unfair dismissal tribunal case raised against them then the system is wrong and this decision just opens up the floodgates to rouge employees and rogue no win no fee lawyers.

'Back With The Team' today after nearly two working weeks off and it was great being back engaging with them all again as we collectively work to improve as individuals and also as a business. 
​

The family break in Lanzarote was most welcome and deserved after another challenging but also rewarding past 12 months. When you run a business especially one that employs many people there will always be ups and downs and it's how as business owners we react and the decisions we make to the challenges and successes is what determines how the business progresses and grows.

Watching my young boys have fun and how they have improved in their swimming over the past 12 months gives me such energy and drive and does an amazing job at recharging my batteries.

My office team fully expect me to be on the phone or email to them every day while I'm away but although I have various business information if I require at my fingertips via iPhone/iPad apart from seeking basic updates I have learned over the years that it is not healthy-management and is very soul destroying for my team for me to constantly check in to make sure all is ok. 

A combination of introducing various procedures and systems over the years allows the day to day operations to operate efficiently but I am confident in the knowledge that our systems are run by our excellent office team who do a wonderful job keeping everything together and running smoothly. It's a team game, we all have our own individual roles within the team but collectively we must work and be motivated as a unit.  

​Although I've talked about my own experiences above, which I know I must continue to work on and improve, the principles of team building, delegation and trusting your team as well as taking time out to recharge from the day to day coalface are all crucial to small business owners with employees. 

Time off, recharging and reflecting is a great investment in the business. 

Writing this blog nearing the end of my family holiday in Lanzarote my mind drifts back more often now to business and the months ahead running several companies.

I don't like taking time off - I know I must, I know I must for not only my family but also for my wellbeing. In recent years I feel that I am getting better at relaxing during the downtime and allowing my team back home to look after the day to day operations.

They are more than capable and I do take heart knowing that our procedures and systems we have worked tirelessly down the years developing are now in place and being handled well.

When companies get to a certain size having procedures and systems in place that help everyone understand the day to day processes is very crucual to the efficiency and consistency of the business.

It's a busy period for us in the electrical and security system trade and we have many ideas and plans for the coming months that will require hard work from myself and the team but for now, for me, there's still another day to relax...the hard work of resuming running can also wait another day or two as well. I know this final day downtime will be another day invested well in myself and family.

The development of the smartphone and apps over recent years has given me and other business owners the tools that at a glance an overview of certain crucial business information such as bank, accounts information and emails can be sought easily with the facility to drill down into the information if I wish but to be honest I don't go into them in depth while I'm away. Knowing the information is there if I require it is good enough.

On holidays though I do tend to spend time planning my diary, todo list and note taking as ideas and problem solving can become much clearer when your away from the everyday hustle of the office.

A change to a slower pace is required at times whether it is for one day or one week. Although I've started to realise this in recent times I've still a way to go and can improve to relax further.

I never like taking my eye off the ball from my business life but I've believed this week off has given me the rest and boost required to tackle the upcoming next stages in my business development.