Reading the headlines and listening to the news can make you very depressed. You can just feel like battening down the hatches when you get into work and be afraid of continuing to invest in order to grow.

Yet I keep wondering whether thing are really that bad. Yes we are seeing large companies coming into our market trying to pinch our customers by offering silly headline prices and then whacking them with extra costs once signed up to a 12 month contract. Yes we are seeing customers trying to squeeze the lowest possible price out of us.

But despite all that we are are still winning new business and our existing customers are buying new kit and investing in their businesses. So I’ve decided we have to press ahead and to that end we have just taken on an apprentice. Yes I have increased my cost in uncertain times, but I hope I will have a well-trained and motivated employee ready to go when things really do pick up.

Most importantly there is one less 16 year old looking for work.