Real Business

Today came the announcement that president Barack Obama is pledging more than $50bn (£32bn) to rebuild America's roads, railways and airport runways. The UK must take note.

Richard Baister, the entrepreneur behind Velocity Drinks, on why shutting down Business Link is a "huge own goal" by Mark Prisk and a blow to the country's small businesses.

The economic difficulties we’re facing at the moment are not going to be fixed by a magic spell or the wave of a wand. The next best thing the coalition can do for business is provide as much consistency as possible in terms of governance and a regulatory framework. No big changes. No messing. Just leave entrepreneurs to it.

In my last column for Real Business, I had some choice words for the management of Halfords and their ridiculous parking contractors. Since then, they have decided that I do not, after all, have to pay a parking fine. All very well, but there should never have been any debate in the first place: I went into their store and left within the time allowed – and still got a ticket.

The nation is in the midst of a retail breakdown and everyone is trying everything to attract and retain their customers. Everyone, that is, except Halfords.

I like to give the government a hard time as much as the next man – and in a tabloid society it is almost a sport. But even I have to admit that we’ve taken government bashing too far.    

Night in, night out, half of the country is illuminated by businesses with huge coloured signs across their buildings. Don't they realise the disastrous effects on the environment?

The government is doing entrepreneurs no real favours right now.

Opinion is divided on how the economy will fare in 2009. Most people are prophesising doom and gloom, with the downward multiplier sucking us all into oblivion. However, a less publicised school of thought says that with change comes opportunity.

There are redundancies all over the place at the moment. Even for those of us not directly affected, there's just no getting away from it in the media.

Everyone knows sex sells. Everyone knows the economy relies on things selling. So I was baffled when I read that the EU is considering stopping advertising that uses this age-old formula for success. Madness!

Almost four months after starting at Velocity, our receptionist, Laura, left the business. We'd just paid a recruitment fee to find her but weren't entitled to any reduction or rebate. As a result, we felt pretty hard done by... until we found out she was pregnant.

I just can’t understand the big fuss over The Apprentice. Admittedly, this comes from someone who sees an evening in front of the television as a method of torture rather than a haven of relaxation, but even still..

A modern day wise man told me that it’s never the big things that truly annoy people, it’s the small things that really get to them. And I reckon he was right. Here's what gets my goat in the business world.