Business with the Donnos

2026 Starts With A Plan

• Jade Donno

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 32:07

Send a text

Tired of drifting year to year and hoping growth just happens? We dig into a practical, human way to plan 2026 so your business protects profit, stays cash healthy, and actually supports the life you want. We start with the destination—growth, stability, lower stress, or a clean exit—then work backwards into simple, repeatable actions your team can own.

You’ll hear how we pair a survival plan with an ambition plan to balance resilience and stretch. We break down forecasting in plain English, covering profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash so you can see the impact of price changes, minimum wage rises, and shifting demand before they hit the bank. We talk micro‑scenarios for new contracts, how to avoid the “cash rich, profit poor” trap, and the small habits that make a big difference—like moving VAT and corporation tax into separate pots each month.

Operations get the spotlight too. We map bottlenecks, reduce rework, and decide where technology or AI helps and where only people create value. A robot can carry plates down a long corridor; a great server can read the room, upsell the wine, and bring guests back. On the marketing side, we swap random posting for intent: clear goals, timely campaigns, simple funnels, and KPIs that link spend to sales without sacrificing authenticity.

Finally, we focus on team alignment and execution. Goals don’t work if they stay in the founder’s head. We share how to communicate the 2026 picture, turn it into quarterly KPIs, assign owners, and review often without rewriting the plan every week. Keep the strategy lean; pour the effort into delivery. If you’re ready to plan the year before the year plans you, hit play, then tell us your top goal for 2026. Subscribe, share this with a founder who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify & Apple Music and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review – and send us your questions for future episodes!


SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Lizard to the Domino's, where we talk about family, business, and everything in between. I'm your host J Dunno, and I'm here with my dad Paul Donna. And today we've got 20th episode.

SPEAKER_02:

20 of?

SPEAKER_00:

20th. We have done 20 of these.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh excellent. We've got more than one listener.

SPEAKER_00:

We have. We hit 500 listeners the other day, which is exciting.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I know. Thank you, everybody. Um this episode is on. Why 2026 planning matters?

SPEAKER_02:

It does.

SPEAKER_00:

It does. And this isn't just planning financially. I'm gonna put that out there now to give that a rule. It is.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't talk about tax all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

Don't talk about tax all the time. People will be bored.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So this isn't just financial planning, although that is very, very important. This is your other planning as well.

SPEAKER_02:

So for you, this could be family planning.

SPEAKER_00:

It could be family planning. I mean, there is planning to be done. There are spreadsheets to be had.

SPEAKER_02:

Spreadsheets to be had. Matilda planning.

SPEAKER_00:

Matilda planning, that's what we're gonna call it.

SPEAKER_02:

It her.

SPEAKER_00:

No, the planning.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh Matilda's her.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Matilda is her.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Tilly. Anyway, so we find with small businesses talking to them like you can easily just sort of drift from year to year, no clear plan, and then wonder why you're not growing and evolving.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but we've always done it that way.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's the problem, isn't it? And that phrase is the killer of a lot of small businesses. We've always done it this way, especially with advances in technology, and also like the economy at the moment is dire. So like fractious. Fractious, yes. So things like if your pricing is the same as you've done it for 20 years, like it's not gonna work. No, you're gonna have a problem. Um, and and things like that, we've always done it this way as a phrase. If you say that, if you hear that coming out of your mouth, you need to give yourself a slap on the wrist and do better.

SPEAKER_02:

Um it's a bit violent. You normally hit me, although I don't say that.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't say what?

SPEAKER_02:

I've always done it this way.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't say that, no. No, you don't. Although I think you did the other day, but I can't remember what it was for. And I was like, Dad, what are you doing? Um I think having a clear plan as well of where you want to go with your business is is really important, and it's really important to align your team to that as well. If you don't have a clear plan and you can't communicate that plan, you've again you've got a bit of an issue.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and be ambitious.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, I mean, I had someone in the other day, and they're like, they put the plan through and what have you, and I looked at it and I went, that's really good, that's that's excellent. But where's your ambition? Because you know, we're just gonna survive. So, what about if you do extra here or you know, if you had unlimited money and you could invest in stuff, what what is it that you would do, and how would you achieve it? Give do maybe do two plans. Do one that's kind of this is a survival plan, but this actually is where I want to be. This is my ambition. You know, you're not gonna go forward if you can't plan and actually have those budgets in place and what have you. I find it bizarre.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So the first tip that I've I've written down is to start with the big picture, which I think it's what you're saying. So, like, start with that end goal, and that end goal could be absolutely anything. So it could be at the end of this year you want to have gone on three holidays, and um, you've wanted your business to run without you while you're in those holidays. That could be your goal, and that is what you're working towards. That's fine, yeah, but you need a plan to be able to do that. It's not just gonna happen magically overnight, you're not just gonna go on holiday and it'd be absolutely fine. You might not even have any team members to do that. So you need to might not even have a passport. No, exactly. You need to have a clear plan and do it.

SPEAKER_02:

But it's a plan, isn't it? If you want to go on holiday and you haven't got a passport, the first thing you do on your plan is get a passport.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Because Harry now office hasn't got a passport.

SPEAKER_00:

He hasn't.

SPEAKER_02:

No, but he has been in a plane, and but he's never landed in a plane, he's never landed in a plane. No.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll let you guys figure that out. Um so it is start with the big picture, it's your strategy first. So what do you actually want 2026 to actually look like? Is that growth? Is it stability? Is it less stress? Is it plans to exit your business?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Whatever you want 2026 to look like, you need to decide on that first and then work backwards.

SPEAKER_02:

You do. But also, if you want to exit your business, I mean I know you don't want tax to be everything, but tax is part of your planning.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So if you're looking at a business exit as a plan, that really is a three-year plan, five-year plan. That's not a oh, I'm gonna tell my accountant I'm gonna sell my business next week, and then suddenly not realize that it takes three, four, five, six months to sell, and it's you straddle different tax years. So if you can plan an exit now, if you're looking at exiting in 2029 or 2030, now is the time to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and not just financially, but also if you're you are if that is your plan and you're planning to exit the business, and that is your your plan for the end of 2026. One, it's a huge plan, but also operationally, if you're selling that business, it's got to run without you.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, which is why you need a three three to five year strategy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Which is why, as well. Well, this is the problem we see with a lot of small business owners, is the business is heavily dependent on the owner, and that really does cause problems when they come to sell.

SPEAKER_02:

That's why I play golf.

SPEAKER_00:

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02:

Then I can be out of the business and everyone else can work it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Not that I'm gonna sell, which I'm not.

SPEAKER_00:

No, exactly. That's not your plan.

SPEAKER_02:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, my next tip is actually financial planning. So we are gonna touch on the finances because I think it is important. Whatever your plan is, you're gonna probably need a budget, and you're probably gonna need to know how financially it's gonna impact your business, whether that's growth or um stability or or whatever you're planning. Obviously, money is the reason you're in business, so you need to look at the finances.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and there's some great tools out there to help you do that, you know, along with working with your accountant who should really be using those tools as well. So we use a product called Fathom, which we love, but that helps us do the forecast for people. Yeah, both, you know, I say both, it's not in both, it's more in both. Um, so that's with profit and loss, balance sheet, cash. Yeah, um, you know, we work with clients to help them understand that as they plan. Because you might plan to improve your sales by let's say 50% in six months, but it's no good if you're gonna run out of cash.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. And it's no good if you're not gonna make a profit as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, because I mean we've we've seen businesses get a lot of work in, yeah. Um, and actually that work that they were getting in, because it was contracted, was not profitable at all. So they were literally working themselves into the ground and they weren't making any money.

SPEAKER_02:

No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

So they were doing it for nothing.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, they were they would they were doing it so they can go down the pub and go, Oh, I've done a million this year, I've made 50p. So, yeah, yeah, but yeah, get the planning right, and when legislation changes. So, in the 6th of April this year, minimum wage goes from£12.2021 to£12.71. Big change, especially if you're in hospitality or you're in sort of like industries where minimum wage is really important. Have you planned for that? Are your prices planned for that? Are you do you know the impact of that on your business? You know, when the government changed national insurance rates to 15%, but also lowered that threshold. You know, some of our high you know employment clients, we had to go back to them and go, we need a plan on this, so you can you can go through there. This yeah, um, so you need to be able to have something in place that can adapt to the changes in legislation. And in you know, if you lose a contract or gain a contract, what do you need? So that that um bit of software called Fathom, we do little micro forecasts. So, you know, if you have a particular contract, come on board, we'll add it to the current forecast, and then that micro forecast adds on. You know, yeah, it's just huge.

SPEAKER_00:

It is, and I I think it's knowing what you want. So, again, this is all in the planning, it's knowing what you want. How much profit do you actually want to make in the business? What do you want to keep in the business? What do you want to take out of the business? Like, it's knowing all of those answers and having a clear direction and clear goal. Um, and it it works across the board with any of the metrics. It's you've got to know what you want out of it to be able to achieve achieve it. Um we've put on here as well got cash flow awareness. I think cash flow is like a big a big of what what's the word? Like people get really confused by cash flow.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it was it it was on the tell the other day, um the old fashioned words are coming back, so people get bamboozled.

SPEAKER_00:

Bamboozled, that works, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That is a word, bamboozled by the cash flow.

SPEAKER_00:

We can do that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I think they do, yeah, because they forget that when they're doing a profit loss account, it doesn't include that. This is a very simple bit because there are other things as well, but when they do a cash flow, it does include that, yeah. So if you sell something for£100, your profit loss account it shows as£100, but on your cash flow it shows£120 because you then get it back in your van. Yes, that's where you need to understand with your accountant on how that all fits.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely, and just understand how how cash flow works. I mean, I always find it easier to understand by looking at your own sort of personal finances because it's a lot smaller normally than your business, so you can figure out how it works. So you can sort of say, right, I'm getting paid this this month, I've got these bills to pay, then I've got this left, and I've got to pay for this here, and this here, and this here, and then you understand how the cash flow works.

SPEAKER_02:

How you do it. Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Why are you laughing? That's good. Do you not do it like that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, of course I do, absolutely, to the umph degree.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that is how you do it, so you make sure that you've got enough cash to be able to pay for your things like your holidays and your big expenses.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Business is the same, that is what cash flow is, it's making sure you've got the money in your account when you need it.

SPEAKER_02:

I think a really good tip on cash, but not not like cash cash, um, but cash management. And a really good tip is at the end of every month you can run on accounting software your VAT return. Yeah. Look at what it says on your VAT return and put that into a VAT savings account. Yes. And if you do that, you're always gonna have your money for your VAT return. And I know that's a really simple thing, but a lot of people don't do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and you can do the same for your corporation tax.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it can do exactly the same for your corporation tax. PAYE is normally done monthly anyway, so you should be alright there. You should know that figure, so you've got that to pay over. But certainly VAT separate bank account, or if you've got a new chat, you like a challenger account like Monzo or Starlin, you just open up another pot and put it in that. Yeah, and that really does help, just gives you a bit of discipline.

SPEAKER_00:

It yeah, and it it really does, so that you're not surprised when that cash has to leave your business.

SPEAKER_02:

But you're planning, you definitely need a 12-month forecast. You ideally 24 36 is a minimum, yeah, and work the plan. If you're using accounting software like Xero, um, you can upload it into Xero. It's a bit of a pain because it's the wrong way around for the months, but you can work it, and you can now ask um co-pilot to or Chat GPT to reverse your spreadsheet. Yeah, that does it really quickly. Um, but put it in there so you can do the reports to see how you're comparing to your plan and your budget, and plans change, yeah. So revisit it at least every quarter with your accountant and and amend it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and you've you've got to keep looking at it, plans change, things change, things happen, especially throughout the year, and and you've got to be flexible with that as well, but also just having that clear plan is much more motivational as well, um, yeah, to do. So, my next thing is operational planning.

SPEAKER_02:

Operational planning.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so how the work actually gets done, this is not not dad's strong point at all. So when you're sitting down to plan for your operations, you need to know what's slowing the business down. You need to know what your bottlenecks are, otherwise you can't plan to fix them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And if you don't have any, that's lovely. But you probably do have areas in your business that can be streamlined and and fixed.

SPEAKER_02:

So and normally many, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

I can be streamlined and fixed.

SPEAKER_00:

Causing me problems. Uh yeah, so what are the bottlenecks? Is there any work that we're duplicating? Are you firefighting things? And what what are the common firefighting issues, and how can you make a process or something to resolve these? That's really important, and you can do all sorts of stuff to help. You can put systems in place, AI in place, um, technology in place, processes in place, people in place. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do to fix things, but you need to know, you need to sit down and work out what those things are.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And agree, like you keep performance indicators for that side of it as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, if you're, for argument's sake, a restaurant and you need um you need to sell 50 meals a night, you know, how are you gonna sell 50 meals a night? Yeah, you know, and on a Saturday and Sunday you need to sell a hundred meals a night, how are you gonna do that? So, you know, they're part of you know, where's the operation on that? Are you doing it, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

And who's responsible for that? And yeah, how are you gonna do it? How are you gonna execute it? And who's responsible?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and and you know, are there things that can make life easier? Yeah, we know that people are expensive, yeah. Yeah, really good people shouldn't be expensive because they should save you money. But we went to Y Boston Lakes, didn't we? Yeah, and they had those little robot servers, didn't they? They did, you know, they were cool, yeah. So I'm not saying everyone should invest in a robot server, but at the end of the day, they they obviously somehow worked out it was um cheaper or more efficient from an operational point of view to get the food out to the waiting staff rather than the robot that entire way down the corridor, and the little robot's got the little plates on, isn't it? And off it comes, and it sings you happy birthday. The ones at the parks do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I did get one to sing me happy birthday, that was great.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, weren't even your birthday though, was it? It was actually my birthday.

SPEAKER_00:

It was Josh had to leave the room because he was so embarrassed.

unknown:

True.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, we um as well though, like people are expensive, people don't like to hear either that people are getting replaced with robots and things that not all people are no, like that. I think that example is just because that walk is quite a long walk, and they still had servers given the personal experience. And like we went out for dinner the other day, didn't we? We went to the Pack Horse Inn, which is a lovely pub in Moulton, yeah, yeah, and our server there was excellent. A robot couldn't have done what she did, no, and you would go back because the service was so good. Yes, absolutely, she knew exactly what was what she was funny, she was personable, and like I imagine that server was worth every penny to that pub because she also upsold wine, yes, she did, she upsold steaks, she uh she was really, really on it. Yeah, whereas if that was a robot, people could easily be like, no, yeah, indeed. And they would because you wouldn't be up, you wouldn't feel bad about upsetting a robot.

SPEAKER_02:

Um I don't know how many people put pleas and thank yous to chat GPT. Oh, thank you for doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true, and apparently that uses like they don't want you to do that. I I end up deleting my pleas and thank yous because I've heard that they don't want you to write pleas and thank yous because the time it takes the whatever the servers to um process the pleas and thank yous like uses up so much energy, it's really bad for the planet to say please and thank you to ChatGPT. So stop being polite to it and just tell it what you want, but be polite to people. I'm sure it does appreciate it sometimes, though. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you're such a lovely.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel bad saying don't not saying please and thank you, but I do delete it. Um my next one is marketing planning, and I uh I plan my marketing, but then I always over plan and end up with too much to do. Um but you do need to plan it. You don't want to just randomly post stuff, you want to have intention and um like real funnels of getting like a real not even funnels, um like really set goals. Do you want to have social media just for brand awareness? Do you want it to get leads? Do you want the marketing like to be like in the community more? Like, what is your actual goals with your marketing? Because if it's to get leads, it might be a different direction to if you just want a bit of brand awareness.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but you've got to be aware of what's going on, haven't you? So your planning on your marketing's got to be absolutely right. It's no good us uh planning to do your tax return now, is it? Because tax return time has been over, but we've got making tax digital, so our market is gonna be facing on that for April.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, you know, if you're a restaurant, you're not gonna be planning for Easter before Valentine's Day, so you know Yeah, you've got to know your market and you've got to know what's going on in in the world to know what your marketing actually is, and and make a plan for that and and have the KPIs again. If it's leads you want to get, how many leads are you expecting to get? How much are you gonna spend on your Facebook ads and whatnot to get those leads in? What funnels are you gonna build to get get stuff? What discounts are you gonna give if you're a restaurant? Are you gonna give 20% off in your quiet period to try and get people in? What what is going on? What is what is the plan? Yeah, because without a plan you'll be overwhelmed and and you can do it all at once, can't you?

SPEAKER_02:

You could do like you could do for our sake, we we're at the beginning of February, aren't we? We could do it all of February now, yeah, and plan that social social media or that marketing for that month done.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yeah. So I use a product called Genie AI to schedule our social media. Um, and we can do that for the month. You still have to be on it because because things change, you still have to be aware that it exists and do it that way. But all your ads and all of that stuff can all be done in advance and in one hit, you don't have to think of it every single day. Um yeah, you can absolutely just have a plan, but what you don't want is just post in for the sake of posting because that doesn't work, um and also one of my pet peeves, I really, really hate the AI generated pictures. I do because I can tell from a good one in Betsy doing a handstand. Uh yeah, we mentioned that last week. I just that's fine, but some there's like some restaurants that have been using AI generated images of their food, and it just makes me think, can you not cook? Yeah, like I don't know. So you've got to think about what you're putting out there, and I know sometimes it's quick and easier to do other things, but you've got to think about what you're doing and plan. Think about how it comes across. Um and also don't overwhelm yourself with the marketing because there's so much you can do, and that's a tip from me who always overwhelms herself with the marketing because there's so much I can do.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, but in our industry, how many leads have we had this month already?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yeah, we've had a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

A huge amount.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, which is which is fantastic. Um but yeah, you've got to have a plan and some structure to your to your marketing. Um my next tip. I've got quite a few on here.

SPEAKER_01:

Have you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I'll shut up. Planning your team, planning your team alignment, make sure everyone is pulling in the direction to your goals. Whatever your goals are, your team needs to follow.

SPEAKER_02:

That's all down to your values, though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

It's down to your values, but also your communication of the goals. If you've got a goal and it's only in your head and you've not communicated it, you can't then get frustrated. Yes, you do. Have you shared your growth plan yet?

SPEAKER_02:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

Are you frustrated that people don't know what that growth plan is? Exactly. If you don't communicate it, how on earth do you expect people to be able to deliver? You need a clear plan.

SPEAKER_02:

We do accounts, we don't deliver.

SPEAKER_00:

But that was that was awful. But also, if you get the team excited and motivated, people are more likely to want to follow and grow and be part of your goals.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. I'll share my growth plan.

SPEAKER_00:

And you can even turn those goals into you know projects and tasks and break it right down so that that actually gets done. Um so and I've got tips to do that. So turning your plan into action, which I think you can write the plan. Writing the plan's easy and exciting, but then actually delivering it is your job. My job. And when I then go to deliver it, Dad will come up with a new plan, and then I the old plan is it's very difficult. But turning the plan into action, so the first thing you want to do is probably split your year into quarters with quarterly goals. That's what I would do, and then I would set three to five KPIs per quarter of what you want to achieve.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you want to review it, like you don't want to just set that and then forget forever because that's no good. And also when the plan starts to wobble or go wrong, you don't want to abandon it, you might just have to edit and change. There's no point getting disheartened, you want to keep going or just adjust it slightly so that it works. So, yeah, that's that's my tips on how to execute the plan. And I would really break it down into really small tasks as well and make sure they're delegated. Um, I think often we can set a huge task and then that won't get done if you break it down.

SPEAKER_02:

So, what's my favourite phrase? How do you need an elephant in small chunks?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Okay, nice if you took your own advice.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So to end this this bit that we've been talking about, the 2026 planning. Um, I think one of the key things is you don't necessarily need a 40-page humongous business plan. You can have those, like, and you can write huge business plans and strategy plans and whatnot, but they're no good if you don't do the bit after. I think sometimes, and I'm I mean, I've written quite a few strategy plans that have been really, really beneficial, and it's worth doing the research to find out what way your business can go or fit into, but without an action plan afterwards, yeah, it's it you're gonna read it and think, oh yeah, that's really good, and then just do nothing on it ever. So you need the action plan afterwards, and you need that action plan to have clarity and direction and alignment with your team. Yeah, and I've I've written a little key point here: plan the year, or the year will plan you.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, and where are we now? We're one month gone.

SPEAKER_00:

We are one month gone.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's another only 11 months to Christmas.

SPEAKER_00:

Geez, yeah, only four months till Matilda arrives. Absolutely, which is slightly terrifying, but there we go, that's that's cool. Um, anyway, on to our unfiltered minute.

SPEAKER_02:

Our unfiltered minute. You're gonna make me start again though, aren't you, on this?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I've got mine, so good, you do yours. Okay, so mine is I had some I've so I'm doing my MBA. I don't know whether I've mentioned it on this podcast or not. Doing my MBA, and anyway, in my I checked my uni emails the other day, and I got an email to say that my submission for my assignment hadn't gone through, which had really surprised me because I had a receipt for it and everything, and I thought, oh that's really odd. So they said basically that I needed to resubmit in the next submission date, and that um I'd failed because of the non-submission. This was news to me because I submitted a week early. So um yesterday I emailed some people and then phoned the university because I was quite panicked by the whole situation. And they said, Oh, well, you've uploaded it to the wrong portal.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

And I was like, Well, how have I managed that? How is there even two portals to upload the assignment to? How on earth do you manage that? They didn't have an answer to me, and I said, Well, I have planned, so with the 2020 26 planning, I have planned my MBA around my pregnancy, and I have got it to finish in April, just before Matilda comes. So it's all planned, and I have to be very, very organized to be able to get it all done. So this has sort of put a bit of a spanner in the works because I won't get these marks back until April, which means if I didn't pass, which I'm not gonna lie, it's unlikely because I do think the assignment's all right. But if I didn't, then I would have a problem to redo it. And I told the lady this on the phone, and I said, look, I've I've you can clearly see I've made a mistake. I've got the receipt of when I submitted it and everything, it's on your portal. Can you not just pull it and put it with the other um the other assignments? Bearing in mind there is still two weeks left of marking. The lady on the phone did try to help, but ultimately the marking team said no. And they said, if you did fail and need to redo it, you'll just have to have a pause in learning, which I do not want to do. I want to have it finished. So overall, this was just a computer says no, can't be our situation from the university, and I think it was a real letdown. I think it I ultimately I think it's really poor on their part, and I feel really disappointed with them. And that's my unfiltered minute, and I think if you have something like that where your team are going, nah, just because it's the rules, rules are rules, then you need to look at that and do better.

SPEAKER_02:

Rules is rules, that's a good one, isn't it? I don't know what to say about my unfiltered minute because we've been we've done so much because we hit the deadlines on our tax returns last month. So I suppose that is the team did pull it through. We did have to work really hard in getting them whipped up into shape to to pull it through. We then we did come up with a plan for the month, and we had a nice graph as well, which showed that we were actually performing on target, etc. So we were not, you know, some of us were stressed out, some of us worked a little bit more at weekends just to get it done, but we did hit our plan and our target. So all of our returns are in on the Friday. Yeah, um, obviously, HMRC being you know good customer-centred organization, government body, announced earlier on in that week um that they weren't opening the phone lines on the Saturday, so we had to make sure we had everything in for the Saturday just in case they decided to shut the doors for no reason. So you can't submit, but unlike a government body, they did a U-turn um and then they opened the lines on the Saturday anyway. But anyway, the team performed well, they got everything in.

SPEAKER_01:

They did.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, we've had a really good RD tax credit, bit of work go in as well, so that's good. So our plan, which didn't include these, some of these figures, um, has changed, which is great.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, and and the team worked really well. Now the team, I think for this year, we we have this thing with you know being in your client's shoes, so we're doing that, but we're also looking really really heavily at how AI helps us as a tool. Yes, um, and and I think that's probably a big theme this year, and and our professional body um has set out guidance on using AI because there is a lot of reliance on AI out there that is actually wrong. Um, so that we've got to follow certain strict guidelines on that. I think that's also really good. Um, so uh yeah, so yeah, so well done to our team for pulling out the hair. Um even Joshy.

SPEAKER_00:

Even Joshy.

SPEAKER_02:

He did a couple.

SPEAKER_00:

Couple, he did a hundred and eighty.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, they're all his, were they?

SPEAKER_00:

So that's the amount he did.

SPEAKER_02:

What in January?

SPEAKER_00:

Not in January, although it's quite a lot of those.

SPEAKER_02:

And what's his job?

SPEAKER_00:

Tax.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I know, Phil.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, well done for doing your job in text.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, oh he didn't say it, I did.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, there you go. On that happy note, for those that don't know, Josh is also Jade's husband. Um, and yeah, he's not growing a baby, but he's having to put up with all the new clothes that uh yeah, Matilda's gonna be a well dressed child.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, we'll see you next week.

unknown:

Goodbye.