Alastair Mackie is the founder and managing director of WasteSync, a Strathaven-based company building offline-first software that lets weighbridge teams record waste movements even when the mobile signal drops out.

Digital waste tracking becomes mandatory for permitted waste receivers in England and Wales from 1 October 2026, with Scotland following in January 2027, and WasteSync says it passed all 14 of DEFRA’s test cases in July and has been approved to connect to the live system. The former Lloyds Banking Group manager and Strathclyde MBA graduate also won the Strathclyde Inspire 100 competition in June. He tells Business Matters why software has to earn its place at the gate, and why unglamorous industries are worth a founder’s attention.

What do you currently do at WasteSync?

I call myself MD, so it is founder, products, selling, growing and joining the dots. In a nutshell, my job is taking an operational requirement and turning it into reliable software that teams on a busy waste site will use every day without complaint, without stopping trucks and without incurring fines.

I lead our commercial strategy and long-term vision, run customer discovery and track shifts in UK environmental legislation. As an early-stage founder, my role changes by the hour, moving from commercial positioning to the granular detail of how a weighbridge operator inputs tonnage on an uneven yard.

Waste management is massive. It is essential national infrastructure, yet vast swathes of daily operations still depend on physical clipboards, crumpled paper tickets and siloed spreadsheets. Crucially, waste facilities and transfer stations often sit in connectivity blackspots where standard mobile signal drops out entirely.

If software requires constant 4G or 5G to function, it fails at the gate. We built WasteSync from the ground up to be offline-first, meaning crews can log movements, verify loads and store records uninterrupted, with everything syncing automatically the moment a connection returns.

I spend a substantial part of each week on site visits and calls with weighbridge teams, local authorities, independent carriers and compliance managers. I work backwards from their daily operational friction. Where does poor connectivity halt throughput? Which steps in the waste transfer note lead to errors? Who holds the budget, and what concrete outcome makes their shift easier? Software must earn its place on the ground.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

A mix of wanting to build an independent business and spotting a broken, overlooked industry problem worth fixing.

My career was never mapped out in a neat straight line. I took a law degree in Edinburgh, realised early on that my natural strengths lay in commercial execution, and moved directly into advertising sales. That gave me an early education in cold outreach, negotiation and how clients make purchasing decisions.

After serving as a director in an SME and completing an MBA at Strathclyde, I moved into financial services. I spent over a decade in senior management and private banking, working day in, day out with regulatory governance, risk management and audit-ready data.

The catalyst arrived when I was leading AI and digital innovation initiatives at Lloyds Banking Group. Looking closely at automated workflows and modern data pipelines, I saw how much friction could be removed from traditional, paper-choked sectors. As a father of two, that sparked my entrepreneurial drive.

I wanted to move from watching digital transformation unfold inside a corporate institution to creating an independent venture where accountability rested squarely on my shoulders. I was searching for work that brought together commercial viability, intellectual challenge and tangible societal utility.

When I looked at waste and resources, the market gap and timing were incredible. Upcoming digital waste tracking mandates and other regulations, rising supply chain audit standards and decades-old paper habits meant operators needed better tools. WasteSync was founded to turn that regulatory headache into an operational advantage. You know the massive fly-tipping you see on the news? We are part of the solution to that.

How is WasteSync preparing for the digital waste tracking deadline?

In July we passed all 14 of DEFRA’s test cases and were approved to connect to the live Digital Waste Tracking system. Records are captured on site, even with no connection, and filed automatically to DEFRA and SEPA once the signal returns.

In June we demonstrated WasteSync to a Scottish local authority and an electrical waste processor for the first time. Both watched it capture a load offline, and both agreed to pilot it.

Who do you admire?

Naval Ravikant’s ideas helped crystallise how I approach building a business. My co-founder, Iain Baxter, introduced me to The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, which gave words to principles I had spent years circling: developing specific knowledge, taking direct accountability and creating leverage that outlasts your daily hours.

It is an exceptionally grounding framework for any founder, shifting the focus away from vanity metrics and towards durable, compounding value. Naval is the man.

I also lean heavily on classic commercial fundamentals. Dale Carnegie remains the gold standard for understanding that business is built entirely on trust, listening and treating people with respect. Brian Tracy’s rules on prioritisation keep me focused every morning. When you run an early-stage company, incoming demands always exceed available daylight, so deciding what not to do is just as important as the tasks you complete.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

I would not change the core path, because every chapter contributed directly to the founder I am today. Law trained my analytical discipline and contract awareness. Commercial sales taught me resilience and how to listen to clients. Banking gave me a deep respect for governance, risk and data integrity. Modern tech showed me what software can achieve when applied with discipline.

I should have trusted my gut and backed myself sooner. Corporate life provides regular income and stability, and it is easy to become comfortable in those patterns. Eventually, you must confront what truly motivates you and take the leap.

I also would have put rough prototypes in front of paying customers even earlier. It is dangerously tempting for founders to sit in a room refining product specs in isolation. The fastest way to learn is getting dirty boots on site, watching someone use your interface and letting real operators dismantle your assumptions. That direct feedback prevents you from solving problems that do not actually exist.

What defines your way of doing business?

Commercial discipline, technical defensibility and trust. Coming out of private banking, data integrity is non-negotiable. In our sector, bad data is worse than no data.

That is why our competitive moat rests on building the best data foundation in the industry. By solving the tough engineering problem of reliable offline capture in harsh operating environments, we ensure the data feeding compliance reports and downstream systems is accurate, complete and auditable.

I strip out technology buzzwords and empty marketing claims. I care about whether our software saves an administrator two hours of manual rekeying, eliminates duplicate records and protects a licence holder during an audit. Grand ambition is easy to pitch, but quiet execution, engineering reliability and delivering on your word are what build an enduring company.

I need to give a nod to agentic engineering and AI in general. I am a heavy user, and I believe this is the gold rush we have been waiting for. We are in the era of ideas, which is exhilarating, and scary too, but let us focus on the good parts.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Do not wait for complete certainty. If you wait until all the risks disappear, you will never launch. Any meaningful venture begins with imperfect data, so pick a sensible next step, test it and adjust as you learn. Action consistently generates clarity, where standing still only creates doubt.

Second, fall in love with the problem rather than the technology. Identify who feels the operational pain, calculate what it costs them every month, and make sure they have both the authority and the budget to pay for a solution. A clever piece of software without a willing buyer is merely an expensive hobby.

Finally, give yourself permission to reinvent your direction. You are never trapped by the degree you chose at 18 or the corporate ladder you climbed in your thirties. If you can combine your hard-earned experience with an unglamorous real-world problem that demands solving, back yourself and make the jump. And do you know what? Unsexy industries are cool.

Banks will not be allowed to reclassify instruments between trading book and banking book for regulatory arbitrage with the intention of achieving lower capital requirements, according to the RBI’s directions on minimum capital requirements for market risk.

The directions, issued on Monday, aim to align the market risk guidelines with the revised Basel III framework, while ensuring simplicity of regulations, and providing flexibility, and ease of adoption.

The directions are applicable to all commercial banks, except small finance banks, payments banks and local area banks.

RBI said the directions will take effect from April 1, 2027, ensuring sufficient lead time for banks.

“A bank shall not reclassify instruments between the trading book and the banking book for regulatory arbitrage, i.e., with the intention of achieving lower capital requirements,” the central bank said.

It further said that banks will have to use the simplified standardised approach (SSA) for computing risk-weighted assets for market risk.
The risk-weighted assets will be determined by multiplying the capital requirements calculated under the framework by a factor of 12.5.RBI also said the specific risk tables for interest rate risk have been revised to align with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) guidelines, which also provide a more concise and clean treatment.

On debt mutual funds/exchange traded funds (ETF) held in the trading book, it said the capital treatment has been revised to ensure capital computation is based on the underlying risk drivers while ensuring sufficient guardrails.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will present President Donald Trump with a U.S.-China artificial intelligence-related agreement, two sources told Fox Business Network White House correspondent Edward Lawrence.

The agreement will open a “hotline” for direct communication on AI, similar to the direct line of communication the military has, enabling either side to have a direct line if any AI-related problems arise, such as hacking, national security concerns, rogue AIs or other issues.   

President Trump will make a thumbs up or thumbs down decision on the deal this week before his meeting with President Xi, the sources noted.

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President Donald Trump has been an outspoken advocate of AI, as the cutting-edge technology proliferates and rapidly advances both in the U.S. and abroad. 

“AI is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful, possibly as much as 25% of our Country’s GDP. We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!” the president declared in part in a Saturday Truth Social post.

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While the U.S. and China are economically connected through trade, the two nations are generally viewed as rival economic and military powers on the world stage.

In part of a Sept. 14 Truth Social post, Trump declared, “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so.”

TECH POWER PLAYERS LAND SEAT AT TABLE FOR HIGH-STAKES DINNER WITH TRUMP, XI

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Trump is slated to greet his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews, and spend time with Xi on Thursday and Friday as well, according to the White House.

Sprive, a fintech company that helps homeowners pay off their mortgages faster, has closed a $10m series A funding round, taking the total it has raised to $15m.

The company, which is backed by three investors from BBC1’s Dragons’ Den, said the money would be used to increase its marketing spend and accelerate customer acquisition and revenue growth.

The round included existing investors Channel 4 Ventures and Ascension. New investors were Wealth Club, Active Partners and Rank Ventures.

How the app works

Sprive was founded in 2019 by two former Goldman Sachs bankers. Its app offers users cashback when they spend at retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, paid through digital gift cards. The cashback is then put towards the user’s mortgage.

The app also scans the market for cheaper mortgage deals and alerts customers when it is the best time to switch. The company said it is connected to 16 UK lenders, including all of the high street banks and the major building societies.

According to the company, annualised monthly spend through the app has risen 35 times since January 2025, to £328m. It has 567,000 registered users and supports £42bn of mortgages.

Sprive claims to have saved its users more than £300m in interest. The company said it had recently become cashflow-positive and has an annual revenue run rate of more than £18m.

The Bank of England’s mortgage lenders and administrators statistics put the value of outstanding residential mortgage loans at £1,746.1bn at the end of the first quarter of 2026.

Dragons’ Den deal

Jinesh Vohra, Sprive’s co-founder and chief executive, pitched the business on Dragons’ Den in February.

He secured investment from Touker Suleyman, Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones. The three invested a total of £50,000 for a 5 per cent equity stake, shared between them.

Vohra said the new funding put Sprive in “a strong position to step up our marketing push significantly and accelerate both customer acquisition and revenue growth”.

“Given the cost of living crisis, with mortgage rates going through the roof and borrowers being pushed into extending their mortgage terms in cases well into retirement, the ability to use your weekly shop to reduce your mortgage interest, and ultimately the term of the loan, is hugely appealing,” he said.

“Over time, these payments can really add up,” he added.

In July, Business Matters reported that UK mortgage rates had returned to a one-month high as oil prices reached $100 a barrel, with Rachel Springall of Moneyfacts telling the publication it would be “incredibly frustrating for borrowers to see rates rise back up”.

Wider funding picture

Sprive’s round is smaller than the largest UK technology deals this year, which included Isomorphic Labs’ $2.1bn series B and Nscale’s $2bn series C. UK tech funding reached $15.3bn in the first half of 2026, up 84 per cent, although the money went to fewer companies, with investors making larger bets on a smaller number of businesses.

Other UK fintech firms have also raised money this year. In April, the British Business Bank invested $20m in 9fin as part of a $170m series C round that gave the financial data platform a valuation of more than $1bn.

An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut a fiber-optic line in New Jersey, triggering a telecommunications outage that forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to pause flights across parts of the Northeast, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday afternoon.

“An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey which caused a telecom outage and forced FAA to pause flights in the Northeast,” Duffy wrote on X.

Duffy said flights were resuming at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), while flights into Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Teterboro Airport (TEB) remained paused.

“This incident underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent disruptions like this in the future,” he said.

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As of 3:07 p.m. ET, the FAA’s website showed active ground stops at EWR and TEB, while JFK, LGA and PHL were operating under ground delays related to the equipment outage.

Earlier Monday, the FAA told Fox News it was pausing flights into Philadelphia International, Teterboro and Newark Liberty International airports due to “issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON.”

MAJOR AIRLINES CUT FLIGHTS AS HIGHER JET FUEL PRICES HIT CARRIERS

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Philadelphia TRACON lost its primary circuit, and when controllers switched to a backup system, they discovered a broken fiber-optic cable. 

Speaking to reporters earlier Monday, Duffy said “these are issues that aren’t new to us.”

“We know these problems can happen. We know these cuts can happen,” Duffy said, adding that the department has been working to upgrade FAA equipment and its telecom architecture. 

“As we work through all the new equipment, all the new architecture of our telecom, which is fans, it all takes money. That’s why we have a holistic view of everything, including how we rework our telecom,” Duffy said.

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Duffy said the work is being done before the department has secured all the necessary money, adding that “when we get the cash” the department will be able to hasten progress. 

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“But this is not shocking,” Duffy said of the equipment outage.

The FAA could not immediately be reached by FOX Business Monday afternoon for additional comment.

Tesla has reopened reservations for its long-delayed next-generation Roadster, asking customers to put down $50,000 weeks before the company unveils a redesigned version of the vehicle.

According to Tesla’s reservation portal, securing a spot requires an initial, fully refundable $5,000 credit card payment. Customers must then make a $45,000 wire transfer within 10 days to complete the reservation.

The renewed push for reservations comes nearly nine years after CEO Elon Musk first unveiled a prototype of the next-generation Roadster in 2017. Following years of delays, Tesla is preparing to unveil the redesigned vehicle on Oct. 1 at an event in Texas.

TESLA RAISES CYBERTRUCK PRICES ON 2 US MODELS

“New Tesla Roadster Unveil 10.01,” Musk recently wrote on social media platform X after Tesla posted a “Go for launch” teaser for the event. Musk has also said the presentation will be a “banger” and said during a recent appearance at the All-In Summit that the company needs a live audience to vouch that what they see “is not AI.”

TESLA FILES PLANS FOR PROPOSED $10.1B TEXAS SOLAR MANUFACTURING PLANT

The event could include a demonstration of a limited-edition Roadster equipped with cold-gas thrusters developed in collaboration with SpaceX, according to recent reporting. Tesla’s teaser imagery appears to lean into that possibility, showing the vehicle against a launch-themed backdrop.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
TSLA	TESLA INC.	374.65	+10.38	+2.85%

The Roadster program has reportedly evolved significantly from its earlier design. Tesla abandoned one approach based on Model S Plaid components in favor of developing an all-new carbon-fiber hypercar, according to The Information.

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Tesla originally unveiled the next-generation Roadster in November 2017 and said deliveries would begin in 2020. At the time, the company advertised a $200,000 base price, acceleration from zero to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds and a 620-mile range. Tesla also took $250,000 payments for a limited “Founders Series” version.

The vehicle never entered production as planned and has faced repeated delays in the years since.

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It remains unclear what Tesla will charge for the redesigned Roadster or how the company will handle customers who placed reservations years ago. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment about reservation priority or updated vehicle specifications.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Rejecting calls for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to ease the government’s debt burden, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said on Monday that such demands underscore the need for central-bank independence, Reuters reported.

Speaking in London, Goolsbee said fiscal policy and deficits should remain “background weather” for the Fed and matter only when they affect inflation.

“Should the Fed try to reduce the rates to make the deficit smaller or to make it less costly to increase the debt?” Goolsbee asked. “Let’s be a little careful with that. … Because I think that is the canonical argument” for central bank independence.

Goolsbee described efforts to push interest rates lower as government debt rises as a “monetise the debt” argument. Economists warn such a move could fuel inflation and backfire by raising market borrowing costs as inflation expectations rise, Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump has urged the Fed to cut its policy rate to around 1%, well below the current 3.75–4% range. Meanwhile, rising long-term Treasury yields are increasing the cost of financing annual deficits equivalent to about 6% of US economic output.

Strong demand may warrant faster Fed rate hikes
US inflation may no longer be driven solely by tariff and energy-price shocks, with strong demand also adding to price pressures and potentially requiring the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more quickly, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said on Monday.Inflation over the past 18 months was initially attributed to tariffs and then to oil-price shocks. Policymakers were inclined to “look through” these supply-side pressures without raising borrowing costs, expecting them to fade over time, Goolsbee said at an event hosted by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum in London.

However, supply-driven inflation has proved persistent, while evidence suggests that robust demand is broadening price pressures. Goolsbee said booming investment in artificial intelligence could lift prices across the economy, while elevated services inflation indicates that the problem extends beyond the latest oil shock.

“If the through line is that it’s coming from overheating demand, I think the implication is the rate response is more aggressive and more and more front-loaded,” he said. Recent economic data and discussions with businesses suggest “that some of it maybe is coming from overheating demand.”

“If demand overheats, there is no ambiguity about how the Fed needs to respond,” Goolsbee said, referring to the potential need for higher interest rates. He added that AI investment could be “spilling out of its own lane and raising aggregate output beyond what the economy can absorb.”

The Fed raised its policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point last week. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh subsequently highlighted the strength of consumer spending, business investment and other demand-side indicators.

Policymakers also removed language from their policy statement attributing elevated inflation to “supply shocks that have driven price increases in certain sectors, including energy.” The revised statement simply said, “inflation remains elevated”.

(Disclaimer: This article is based on inputs from agencies. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The Bank of England has secured Capitol House in Leeds to replace Yorkshire House, with a move planned for late 2028. It previously announced plans for at least 500 staff in the city by 2027.

The Bank of England is preparing to launch a new office in Leeds as it continues to strengthen its foothold in the city.

Britain’s central bank has secured a long-term base at Capitol House in Bond Court, Leeds, which it says will accommodate its “growing headcount” in the city and ultimately replace its existing premises at Yorkshire House.

The Bank currently employs just under 300 staff in Leeds, having previously announced ambitions to grow its West Yorkshire workforce to at least 500 by 2027. The relocation to Capitol House is scheduled for late 2028.

Bank governor Andrew Bailey said: “The Bank’s new office in Leeds is an important milestone in our long-term commitment to the city. We have seen first-hand the value of the exceptional talent, expertise and fresh perspectives that Leeds and the wider region offer.

“Moving to Capitol House strengthens our presence across the UK and helps ensure the Bank better reflects and represents the people, businesses and communities we serve.”

Tracy Brabin, mayor of West Yorkshire, said the move would support efforts to drive growth across the regions.

She said: “The Bank of England putting down even deeper roots in Leeds is a powerful endorsement of our Northern Square Mile, and signals a national belief in our region’s economic future.”

She added: “The Bank establishing a permanent base in Leeds won’t just be good for the people of West Yorkshire – it will help ensure that the future of our national economy is shaped by voices from across our regions and nations.

“That is how we’ll deliver good growth in every postcode and build a stronger, brighter UK economy that works for all.”

The enhanced presence in Leeds also forms part of a wider restructuring of its property portfolio, known as its location strategy programme, which will see it renovate its historic Threadneedle Street headquarters and reportedly close the neighbouring Moorgate site.

The Bank stated the Threadneedle Street renovation is “designed to allow consolidation of the Bank’s property footprint in London by end-2028”.

The Bank originally opened a Leeds branch in 1827 under Thomas Bischoff, who served as the Bank’s first agent.

It operates 12 agencies throughout the UK, working from a network of offices in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Fareham, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham.

Filip Pesek is the founder and CEO of DonnaPro, a Slovenia-headquartered agency that places EU-based executive assistants with founders and chief executives in the UK and across Europe.

The company says it rejects more than 99 per cent of applicants, can have an assistant ready to start within nine business days and keeps 91 per cent of clients after a 60-day trial. Pesek previously ran a marketing agency and spent years managing assistants of his own before building the model. He tells Business Matters why the assistant is only half the answer, what he would tell his younger self and the ten-day test every founder should try.

What do you currently do at DonnaPro?

I am the founder and CEO of DonnaPro. We take the admin off founders’ plates so they can get back to running their companies. Every client gets an executive assistant based in the EU, hired, trained and still managed by us.

The assistant is the part you see. The team behind her is the part that makes it work. It is why 91 per cent of our clients stay on after the 60-day trial.

My role has changed a lot as we have grown. In the early days I did most things by hand, from sales to recruitment to whatever needed doing that week. Now we have a lot of assistants and a proper team on the corporate side.

So my work has moved to people, strategy and making sure the systems hold up as we keep growing. If DonnaPro cannot run without me sitting in the middle of everything, I have built the wrong thing.

Two things I am keeping for now. I still take a lot of first calls with founders, and I still do the final interview with every person we hire.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

It started with my own problem. Then our clients confirmed it.

I have worked with assistants for years, going back to when I ran my marketing agency. Some were great, some were not. Whenever one left, replacing them landed on me. I had to find someone new, train them and work out again how we would work together. I spent a lot of time managing assistants who were supposed to be saving me time.

Eventually I got it down to a science. But even with a great assistant, the company still had a bottleneck, and it was me. That was not because of her. It was because I had not built the systems underneath. Between making the assistant relationship work and putting out fires across the company, I never gave the business the structure it needed.

Then two things happened. People around me saw how I worked with my assistant and started asking where I found her and how I trained her. And at the agency, we were doing our job well. We flooded our clients with leads, and all the admin that came with that growth landed on the founders’ plates.

That is when it clicked. I had one problem, which was no systems. They had two: no systems and no assistant. And the assistant part is where most founders get stuck, because they end up doing what I did, spending hours managing the person who is supposed to save them time.

So that is the part we take away. With DonnaPro, we hire, train and manage the assistant, so the founder gets the time back without the management work. Our assistants come from the top 1 per cent of assistant talent in the EU, and they have our whole team behind them. We reject more than 99 per cent of the people who apply, and those who get through have two weeks of intensive training before they start with a client.

That support is why they often help put simple structure in place along the way. Better processes, clearer handovers, fewer things living only in the founder’s head. We do not come in as consultants. But a good assistant with proper support makes a company more organised the longer she is there.

Who do you admire?

I admire a lot of people, and they come from very different places. What they share is that they are exceptional at something.

In business, it is the founders I meet who have built something with real value that does not need them in the day to day. They can run it from a high level, or step back completely if they choose. Plenty of people build big companies. Far fewer build one that does not own them.

Then there are people I admire for how they think. Charlie Munger is one. I will be honest, I know him more from Poor Charlie’s Almanack than from his investing, but that book changed how I make decisions.

And I have a lot of respect for athletes who stay at the top of their game. Lindsey Vonn is one who comes to mind. She retired, had her knee rebuilt with titanium, came back after almost six years away and won World Cup downhills again at 41.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

Yes. I would have started DonnaPro sooner.

And once I did start, I would have been braver. I would have taken on more capital at the beginning and made a bigger bet. I was careful, and careful felt responsible. But when the demand is clearly there, careful mostly means slower.

The cost of thinking small is that you rarely see it. Nothing breaks. You grow, you are reasonably happy with it, and you never find out what the bigger version would have looked like.

Most founders answer this question with a mistake they made. Mine is more about the risks I was too careful to take. If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be to dream much bigger, much sooner.

What defines your way of doing business?

Thinking long term, and actually living by it, which is the hard part.

When we hire someone, the plan is that they are still with us in five years. That changes how you treat people. If you want someone around in year five, you cannot burn them out in the first six months.

It shows up in boring, specific rules. Internal messages get checked once a day, not all day. Notifications are off by default. If something is really urgent, we call each other.

New people find this a bit scary at first, because they think being always online is what good looks like. It is not. Someone who replies to every message within seven minutes has spent the whole day reacting and no time thinking.

I try to run myself the same way. I have a son who is nearly five and obsessed with sport. I want to watch him play, not watch my phone while he plays.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Try this on yourself. Imagine you disappear for ten days, with no calls and no email. Does the business dip, hold, or actually run better? If it dips, you have found your problem, and it is not your team. It is the system you have not built yet.

Then stretch it to 30 days, then 90. When the company would be fine without you for 90 days, you have built a business. Before that, you have built a job with a team attached.

And stop confusing busy with effective. There is a line I keep coming back to: if you do not have an assistant, you are one. Somebody has to handle the work that keeps a business running. If nobody has been hired for it, it is you, and you are the most expensive person in the company to be doing it.