04/09/2026
It’s tough out there at the moment.
And if you’re running a business and wondering whether it’s just you feeling the squeeze, it really isn’t.
We're having more conversations now with business owners who are looking at the numbers and asking whether the stress, time and responsibility involved are still worth the return. In some cases, businesses are simply closing. In others, recruitment has stopped altogether.
The common theme we keep coming back to is wages as a percentage of turnover.
For a lot of businesses, that figure has crept up considerably over the last couple of years. Employers’ NI, wage increases and general staffing costs have all played their part, but the important bit is what it’s doing to the margin left behind.
And that’s the number business owners need to look at. Not just turnover. Not just whether sales are up. But how much of that turnover is now disappearing on wages compared with 12 or 24 months ago?
You might be surprised.
There’s plenty of talk from Westminster about being “business friendly”, and hopefully some positive action follows. But while we wait for that, businesses still have to deal with the numbers sitting in front of them today.
So if you haven’t properly reviewed your wage-to-turnover ratio recently, now would be a good time. And if you want another pair of eyes over it, get in touch with our Poole or Wimborne offices: https://bit.ly/461296b