Author archives: charlie

If I asked you about the warning signs of a heart attack, you’d probably be able to tell me the main one: Pressure in your chest. There is also wide awareness of the other signs, which include pain in your arm or shoulder, jaw, neck or back; lightheadedness, nausea or vomiting; and shortness of breath. […]

Has this ever happened to you? You notice a lump or bump somewhere on your skin… …And because it’s small, you ignore it. It’s probably nothing… You imagine it’ll go away on its own. But a couple of months later, it’s still there. You think of it more often… In fact, it’s started to really […]

If you have a staff member running payroll in-house, have you talked to them recently? Chances are that you’ll catch an earful about how stressed out, tired and fed up they are… Payroll, which used to be a relatively simple monthly task, has become the bane of their lives. And it’s never-ending, taking up a […]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been discussing the need to put together a brand-new business plan for the Coronavirus era… So that after months of uncertainty and crises, you can regain some control over where your business is heading… And instead of feeling like you’re constantly scrambling to react to events, you can start […]

Hopefully you’ve never been in a true medical emergency… But if you have, you’ll doubtless have been rushed to hospital, triaged – and dealt with swiftly by medics trying to save the situation. It’s all-hands-on-deck and usually loud and messy! At a certain point, though, the patient stabilises… …and then the doctors have time and […]

On 9/11 – the original one, in 2001 – I was interim Finance Director at a company that sold specialist software into insurance companies. It was the last day of a 3-day retreat for the board… …Which we’d spent doing a strategic review of the business, and developing a new business plan. At some point […]

I remember what it was like to have teenagers leaving the nest… That moment when they first set out to go to university, and after 18 years of guidance, protection and lots of loving from their parents, they first had to make their own way in the world. You hoped that you had given them […]

When I talk about what we do here at Insight Associates, I often describe it this way… “We give companies turning over £1 – £10 million the financial management that a corporate would take for granted.” Here’s a good example. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been talking in my blogs about how critical it […]

You’re driving down the road, when suddenly a car coming from the opposite direction runs a red light. You’d probably blame the other driver for being reckless… And be angry at them for being selfish and putting everyone else in danger, just to shave a couple of seconds off their journey time. Actually, you’d be […]

You’re just settling into your desk for the morning, when there’s a flash of light and a puff of smoke… A man appears by your desk. He comes from the future – from exactly 3 months’ time – and he comes bearing bad news. Several big orders that are currently in the pipeline are going […]