Most people in business understand that mistakes are often an important part of the learning curve and as such can lead to a significantly stronger bounce back from the original error. However, there are ways to reduce your propensity to make mistakes. One of these is being mentored by a vastly experienced person who has almost certainly ‘been there and done it’ many times before.
Unfortunately, this does not always work out, as James White, the 13th winner of Lord Sugar’s the Apprentice programme on TV, found out. The recruitment company he formed on the back of the £250k investment, called ‘Right Time Recruitment,’ appointed a liquidator in the past week, owning close to £200k, including over £10k to the tax authorities.
It should be noted that Lord Sugar did resign from the company in 2020, leaving James to be the sole director since then. All of this goes to show that regardless of the business education you have, professional business advice can always be useful (and dare I say it, a good accountant might have stopped James from going from boom to bust in the manner in which he did!).
Callum McKinnon, M&S Accountancy and Taxation
