A COUPLE of useful warnings from two small business owners, which I thought I’d share with you. The first, a local trader with a van, told me about his experience when he innocently forgot to tax his van.
“I’d insured it, MOT’d it, serviced it, but because no reminder turned up in the post completely forgot to tax the van.” One clamp and a fine later, the local trader suggests making a note in your electronic diary, or organizer, about the tax renewal. “Believe me,” he says. “I wouldn’t want to go through that again.”
The second, who runs his own micro business, this time with a rather upmarket BMW 7 Series. I bumped into him the other day and he told me this salutary lesson. “I got a minor mark on the rear wing. I hate that sort of thing, so I took it to my local BMW dealer. Do you know what they wanted to charge me just to touch it up? £850! I am not, he said walking out of the dealer’s smoked glass doors, a mug.”
Quite right. It’s much easier to use one of the mobile smart repair agents. The one I’ve used before is Chips Away. But there are plenty of others. They come to your house or business, do the job efficiently, and leave your car all sparkly. And the cost? For small marks, around the £100 mark. Which is rather better than the scandalous £850 from BMW.
Small business owners share their experience
