Your accountant tells you it's your most positive year in a while. Every headline tells you the country is going under. Which one do you believe?

Charlie leads this week with a simple question: is British business actually in trouble, or does it just feel like it? It started in his accountant's office, where everyone through the door that week had opened with the same line. Then the figures came out, and they were the best in years.

Matt gets there first from the other direction. A warehouse purchase, a new store having record days, and yet a September that finished slightly down on last year. Cue imposter syndrome. Did he earn this, or was it right place, right time?

Claude's Fact of the Week takes apart the 16,500 millionaire exodus figure. From there it's retailers warning on business rates, diesel at £2 a litre, what it now costs to employ a junior admin role in the UK against offshoring it to India, the new duty to tell staff about union membership, and who a business owner is supposed to vote for.

Then Claude's Question of the Week: would either of them ever get out, of the country or of the business? One answers without hesitation. The other finds out what Matt really thought of him when they first met.

📊 Matt's September rainfall ran at roughly half of last year's, and his September finished slightly down year on year

🧠 Good numbers and bad headlines can leave you feeling like you've missed something

⚖️ Hard is not the same as broken, and hard is where market share gets won

💷 A junior admin role costs roughly £2,500 a month in the UK with NI and pension, against about £1,000 offshore

🎯 Small businesses need to grow aggressively, bigger ones can afford to play defence

Chapters:

(00:00) Rain, cricket pitches and a dry autumn

(03:00) September rainfall, 143 percent vs 70 percent

(05:24) Matt's McDonald's pen

(08:10) Matt on imposter syndrome

(11:49) A down September and the fear of complacency

(13:26) Is British business broken, or does it just feel like it?

(16:35) Claude's Fact of the Week: the millionaire exodus figure

(18:00) Retailers warn on business rates

(21:10) Hard, not broken

(24:11) Living off our history, and two pound diesel

(28:24) What do the leavers know that we don't?

(33:09) Good numbers, bad headlines

(35:46) If anything, I'd like it to be harder

(36:40) Offshoring to India, the numbers

(39:26) The union letter rule

(40:42) Who does a business owner vote for?

(48:43) If the next five years are harder

(50:33) Wins of the Week

(54:50) Charlie's new unit, two weeks in

(58:37) Meeting the local MP

(1:00:15) Claude's Question of the Week

(1:02:24) From wet lettuce to entrepreneur

Follow Matt:

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mrmattholland/

👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmattholland/

📱 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mrmattholland

❌ X - https://x.com/mrmattholland1

Follow Charlie:

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theworkwearexpert

👨‍💻 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-smith-1a55295b/