Jean Cannon

To me, a sustainable business is one that keeps on going with minimum drama, a sensible profit and a good lifestyle for everyone who works there, including the owner and that does not include having owners who are overworked and stressed in their business.

We have heard about the dreadful human cost and the houses lost but spare a thought also for the businesses and the consequent jobs lost. They have not had a lot of publicity. The recovery may well take years. How many won't recover? STOP and think about YOUR emergency planning even for things you thought were totally unlikely.

2010 was the equal hottest year recorded since man began recording temperatures 1880 and also the wettest and this is in spite of the big freeze n the northern hemisphere. 2005 was the equal hottest. A hotter world causes more evaporation from land and oceans resulting in a warmer atmosphere that holds and releases more water. The result is more violent storms and 100 year events becoming 20 year events.

The anecdotal evidence is that 80% of small business owners don't prepare a business plan and even less actually run their business from a plan. And if you do, you almost certainly concentrate on your strengths and opportunities and gloss over your threats and weaknesses because the plan is largely focussed on convincing the bank you are a good risk. Did you actually stop and think about risk? But that's another story.

Why even think of putting new housing development in polluted industrial areas? Just where is industry supposed to move? And what on earth would this cost? Doesn't it occur to some people that we actually do need some industry in this country? It really is helpful in producing wealth and employing people.

Systems have been widely used to standardise workplaces and turn people into not much more than cogs in a big machine; all in the name of efficiency. This is misuse! In this type of program the concept of continuous improvement is twisted into meaning continual standardisation. A real system is the basis of a sustainable business

Sustainable business makes a profit and continually improves while you look after your customers, provide a safe workplace and minimise your environmental harm.

Working with small business I meet so many inspiring people who passionately drive their businesses and who look for systems as a way to move their businesses forward and free up some time to lead a more balanced life. Most of them don't realise how inspiring they are

In the late 1980s I was working as a research marine biologist when my then husband had an entrepreneurial spasm and decided to build and sell computers. Like so many small business people we worked almost around the clock until I discovered quality assurance and we got our lives back