James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » Today has been a good day. Given that it is only five past eleven as I write this one might argue that I'm counting the chickens before they've hatched but nevertheless I say it again - today has been a good day. I woke up this morning, came down stairs, picked up the post and there in amongst the guff were three beautiful cheques, encased in perfect brown kraft envelopes.
All these cheques are for orders that have already been sent out, one in particular comes from a stockist that has been somewhat laxidasical in their attitude to prompt payment. Several polite but firm conversations and a duplicate invoice have been required. However today all was forgiven of said stockist and following on from this blog I'm saying farewell to the munchkins and following the yellow brick road all the way to my bank.
The bank you may be suprised to hear is one of my favourite places to go. As so much business is done via card and on the internet, almost all our out goings are paid for in the virtual realm. No cash transactions and very little cheque writing. All this means that the bank does not hold negative connotations for me. I check and manage all our accounts online and so it is the misleadingly labelled 'favourties box' that holds most of my dread where money is involved.
The consequence of all this is that I really only go to our bank when paying money in. This ladies and gentleman makes a huge difference. Like Pavlov's dog, conditioning has now taught me that going to the bank equates to sales and can be rewarded with happy feelings and a positive spring in my step. My palms do not sweat, I feel no shame, I walk in head held high and say these magical words 'Hi, I'd like to pay some cheques into my account please.'
Bliss.
I wonder whether Dorothy felt this content on her way to the emerald city.
But I think I know that the bank isn't my final destination, it's just a plesant stop-off along a much longer road to business glory. Dorothy just wanted to go back home, we, as business entrepreneurs want to go much further than that. We want to reach a destination that is always changing as we continually change our own goals.
Of course the path to success is filled with both mental and physical roadblocks but if we can just remember that we have the heart, the courage and the brains already within us we can't possibly fail.
Can we?
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