Being a Business Owner

If your tax code changes, you'd assume HMRC tells you and your employer straight away. Right now, that's not always happening, and it affects both sides. I've seen the same issue crop up across multiple employers and...

Thinking about going to IdeasFest? Here's an honest, first-timer's take before you buy a ticket. I went for the first time this year, and it was a genuinely mixed experience: some of it brilliant, some of it...

A stranger on LinkedIn decided a business owner's £90,000 turnover wasn't "healthy." Yet they had no context of what it actually took to get there. A comment thread about VAT registration turned into one accountant...

Episode Title: Five Regulatory Changes Hitting UK Business Owners All At Once Description: Right now, UK business owners are facing several major regulatory and legislative changes landing at once, each one separate...

Saying no to a potential client can feel like leaving money on the table. But sometimes it's the smartest decision you can make. Software that used to do one thing well is now trying to do everything at once, and...

Earlier this year, I emailed my clients to explain a new partnership between two platforms I use, Xero and Anthropic, the company behind an AI tool called Claude. I gave every client the choice to opt in, opt out, or...

Every big opportunity I've taken this year started the same way: nerves, doubt, and almost saying no. Saying yes to a speaking event outside my comfort zone led directly to becoming a fractional CFO for a growing tech...

I've got an announcement, actually two! I'm handing the Blackline reins over to my co-founder Tom, and taking on a fractional CFO role I've never done before. Neither decision happened overnight. One is about knowing...

Nobody warns you that growing your business also means growing yourself. After speaking to thousands of founders over the years, I've noticed the same thing holds almost every business back at some point: confidence...

Three days before my biggest talk yet, I turned to my husband and said I couldn't do it. I'd said yes to speaking at the ICC in Newport, my biggest stage yet, and by the Wednesday before, I was ready to back out. This...

I recently spoke on the biggest stage I've ever stood on. ICC Newport, a session on AI in finance, and I was terrified. This week's episode is a bit different. Instead of talking to you directly, I'm sharing some of...

A friend of mine, who's self-employed and runs a few different businesses, text me last week and said, "Lex, I know you'll understand this stuff, but what the heck is MTD and where do I even start?" So that's exactly...

I burst someone's bubble on a prospect call recently. And I felt terrible about it. They'd set up as a limited company specifically to protect their business name. It made complete sense to them. The only problem...

Growth in business is exciting. But nobody really prepares you for what happens to the relationships around you when you start to level up. In this episode I'm getting honest about something I'm seeing play out more and...

Someone waved a £50 note at me at AccountEx. So naturally, I stopped. What followed was a conversation that didn't sit right with me...and the more I thought about it, the more I realised why. In this episode I'm...