Jane Smiles Is a director of Alex Smiles, a waste
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processing firm in Sunderland which runs skip lorries and tippers to collect, dispose of and recycle construction waste.
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MONDAY
4arrive at work to find that sickness and absenteeism—the main problems of the weekend aftermath—have been sorted out. Most people in transport are early morning people, but i am one of those dysfunctional ones who prefer working later. I attack the wages. It should be easy, but we have built in a cunning bonus scheme to try and get that extra load out of the tipper lorries. The drivers have buiit in their clever schemes too, so I mustn't forget to take the subs off.
TUESDAY
I organise the finance for an excavator. Hire purchase companies now know the terms—no additional charges, flat rate interest with payments monthly in arrears. Left to their own devices, they'll offer you all sorts of different methods of paying, making it impossible for you to compare rates. A policeman appears and wants to talk about tachographs taken from one of the skip-loaders. It's to do with the breaks the driver takes: we have to ensure 15 minute breaks rather than 10 minutes. At some time I need to think about the implications of moving yards and our expansion plans. !find that thinking and planning are difficult processes and rather alien to a business like ours, in which everything is immediate. There was a time when skips were expected within a day or two of order; now its like a taxi-service. In the afternoon I go to the local Business Club meeting where everything is controlled and ideal. It seems like a different world.
WEDNESDAY
A meeting with the Environment Agency to sort out changes to our licence is constructive although I am a bit miffed that I have to pay for the changes and I get not only the modifications that I want but also a load of unsolicited ones that the EA wants to introduce. In the afternoon, I have a meeting with a computer company to talk about ways of making our job easier. Sounds great. This is followed by an update from our project manager regarding our expansion into new premises. More delays.
THURSDAY
A thinking day. I am thinking that it is very difficult to make money from skips. Can we get the prices up? We need to get money in faster, so how can we improve systems? The relationships between customers, income and profit are interesting. In the evening, Alex and I attend a North-East Truck and Van function at the Ramside Hotel. We have a lovely time but my resolve to drink sensibly soon goes out of the window.
FRIDAY
Bad head day and everything is taking twice as long to do. Not very clever. If the company wasn't our own, then someone would probably sack me! I look forward to Saturday when I can get some work done. I have a friend coming to try to get me and the accounts up to speed. She is an absolute whizz on Microsoft Excel which I hope is going to make life a little easier. The aim is to produce inhouse a nice, easy, profit-and-loss account or balance sheet which the bank will understand. Now that we are going to be borrowing loads of loot, freedom is out of the door and we are going to have to supply all the figures to justify ourselves.
Being able to express the business on a simple spreadsheet should give us a fair indication of the month's progress—now that is really something worth having. But whether it is possible remains to be seen.