The Chancellor spent weeks saying he was listening to small businesses. Two days after the budget, Charlie isn't convinced, and Matt wants to know what he was expecting.

In this bonus episode, recorded the Friday after the 28 October budget, Charlie leads and calls it the nothing budget. His case: the National Living Wage up 3.9% to £13.21 with nothing to offset it, the Business Asset Disposal Relief lifetime limit halved from £1m to £500,000, the main writing down allowance cut to 12%, income tax thresholds still frozen, and nothing for hospitality on VAT.

Matt plays devil's advocate. He came in expecting worse and finds things to like, including small business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure rising from £12,000 to £18,000 rateable value. They argue about foreign investment, whether you can inflate your way to growth, and why Founders' Relief looks generous on paper and narrow in practice.

Then Claude's Question of the Week. Take one measure from Wednesday, apply it to your own business. Did anything make you more likely to invest, hire or stay put? Matt's answer is the most honest thing said all episode, and his one change pitch might be the best policy idea in it.

📊 National Living Wage rises 3.9% to £13.21 from April 2027, with the 18 to 20 rate going to £11.27

🧠 "It could have been worse" is not a growth plan, and nobody runs their own business that way

💷 The BADR lifetime limit halves to £500,000 from April 2027, so selling up gets dearer for many owners

⚖️ Rates relief for small retail, hospitality and leisure premises now reaches £18,000 rateable value, but most other small firms get nothing

🎯 The answer both hosts land on is the same as ever, keep doing what works and grow through it

(00:00) A late start and a Friday budget special

(05:47) Matt's week in the Netherlands

(08:50) A washing machine of a week

(10:23) Win of the Week

(15:58) The Nothing Budget

(19:35) Could have been worse is not a win

(21:04) What did you actually expect?

(23:46) Is foreign investment good for Britain?

(27:39) Only 3.9 percent on the living wage

(29:34) Can you inflate your way to growth?

(33:38) The low value imports change

(34:56) Small business rates relief threshold

(36:21) BADR, allowances and frozen thresholds

(37:40) Founders' Relief and employee trusts

(42:08) Multi-site and losing rates relief

(43:50) Exits and delayed gratification

(45:42) Wages, welfare and hands tied

(47:26) The only answer is to grow

(50:34) Claude's Question of the Week

(53:03) Swap the budget for one change

(56:07) Circle of concern and council tenders

(58:22) Wrap up

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Employing someone on the minimum wage now costs a business £28,309 a year. Ten years ago it was £14,940. Over the same decade, prices rose 41%.

Matt leads episode 93, and it starts with a morning that fell apart. Charlie is five people down from a small team, holidays, sickness and a parents' evening all landing at once, and he's loading the van himself. Matt makes the case for more people on fewer hours, and they get into Swiss army knives versus defined roles, and why a relaxed leave policy suits the business you were but not the one you want to be.

From there it's a Telegraph piece on a 150-year-old New Forest business fighting to survive, and whether that's down to policy or standing still. Charlie blames business rates and city-centre parking. Matt answers with a tale of two butchers.

Then the numbers. The UK tax take, 33.1% of GDP before the pandemic and forecast by the OBR to reach around 38% by the end of the decade. Matt builds the full cost of a minimum wage employee, 2016 against 2026, wages, employer's National Insurance and pension, and sets it against CPI. Charlie says young people deserve good pay, but it has to be relative. Matt goes further, and his reason starts with his first job carrying plates in an Italian restaurant.

📊 A minimum wage employee cost £14,940 in 2016 and £28,309 in 2026, up 90% while CPI rose 41%

🧠 Your leave policy suits the business you were, not the one you want to be

👥 More people on fewer hours beats a tight team on 50-hour weeks

🎯 When times are good, run the business as if they're not

⚖️ When an entry-level hire costs nearly as much as an experienced one, young people lose the first rung

(00:00) Charlie's spat his dummy out

(00:40) Five people down in one morning

(02:37) Annual leave and the business you want to be

(04:20) More people, fewer hours each

(07:02) Labour cost on a knife edge

(08:32) Finding another Swiss army knife

(11:41) Job descriptions and the catch-all clause

(13:55) Getting the owner off the van

(15:40) Are small businesses becoming unviable?

(20:04) Is the high street really dead?

(22:03) A tale of two butchers

(25:09) Episode 93 and the British Business Fact of the Week

(29:01) The government as the biggest shareholder

(30:59) 150k before you've sold a thing

(34:01) Ten years of employment costs vs inflation

(38:12) Why young people lose out

(43:04) Businesses are educators

(46:32) Apprenticeships: have you ever hired one?

(50:25) Win of the Week

(57:24) Claude's Question of the Week

(59:07) What should the country do?

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Your accountant tells you it's your most positive year in a while. Every headline tells you the country is going under. Which one do you believe?

Charlie leads this week with a simple question: is British business actually in trouble, or does it just feel like it? It started in his accountant's office, where everyone through the door that week had opened with the same line. Then the figures came out, and they were the best in years.

Matt gets there first from the other direction. A warehouse purchase, a new store having record days, and yet a September that finished slightly down on last year. Cue imposter syndrome. Did he earn this, or was it right place, right time?

Claude's Fact of the Week takes apart the 16,500 millionaire exodus figure. From there it's retailers warning on business rates, diesel at £2 a litre, what it now costs to employ a junior admin role in the UK against offshoring it to India, the new duty to tell staff about union membership, and who a business owner is supposed to vote for.

Then Claude's Question of the Week: would either of them ever get out, of the country or of the business? One answers without hesitation. The other finds out what Matt really thought of him when they first met.

📊 Matt's September rainfall ran at roughly half of last year's, and his September finished slightly down year on year

🧠 Good numbers and bad headlines can leave you feeling like you've missed something

⚖️ Hard is not the same as broken, and hard is where market share gets won

💷 A junior admin role costs roughly £2,500 a month in the UK with NI and pension, against about £1,000 offshore

🎯 Small businesses need to grow aggressively, bigger ones can afford to play defence

Chapters:

(00:00) Rain, cricket pitches and a dry autumn

(03:00) September rainfall, 143 percent vs 70 percent

(05:24) Matt's McDonald's pen

(08:10) Matt on imposter syndrome

(11:49) A down September and the fear of complacency

(13:26) Is British business broken, or does it just feel like it?

(16:35) Claude's Fact of the Week: the millionaire exodus figure

(18:00) Retailers warn on business rates

(21:10) Hard, not broken

(24:11) Living off our history, and two pound diesel

(28:24) What do the leavers know that we don't?

(33:09) Good numbers, bad headlines

(35:46) If anything, I'd like it to be harder

(36:40) Offshoring to India, the numbers

(39:26) The union letter rule

(40:42) Who does a business owner vote for?

(48:43) If the next five years are harder

(50:33) Wins of the Week

(54:50) Charlie's new unit, two weeks in

(58:37) Meeting the local MP

(1:00:15) Claude's Question of the Week

(1:02:24) From wet lettuce to entrepreneur

Follow Matt:

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Follow Charlie:

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