I find myself writing my last post of 2018 and wondering where the year has gone. My mother told me once that when you have children life speeds up and I think the same can be said for business, they are, after all, our other babies.

This year has been one of continued uncertainty, but what we can say going into next year is come the end of March we should at least have a clearer idea of where the UK will be going forward. This will at least enable us to plan for the longer term with greater clarity.

But for most businesses, our core market is the UK and whilst we will see an impact, in the medium to long term, our markets will probably change very little. The main impact will be how competitive the market place becomes, with businesses fighting for every piece of work and every customer. Finding that one thing that differentiates your business will be more important and making the difference to your customers will be the focus.

Over 2018 I have been fortunate to be involved in launching the UK’s first CSR accreditation programme, CSRA, aimed at helping those businesses with a clear CSR strategy to gain better recognition for their work and in so doing, raise their profile. The benefits to those who have already achieved the accreditation and been tangible with higher profiles, new business wins and easier recruitment of new staff.

For me 2019 will be about educating businesses on the benefits of CSR and working with my clients to ensure they are getting the maximum value from their CSR and using the activity to raise their profile and ultimately deliver incremental business.

Before then though, we have the small issue of Christmas and the New Year and whatever your religion it gives us an opportunity to spend time with friends and families, time that we often do not get throughout the year. So, my best wishes to everyone and whilst you are having well earned down time, take a moment to think about those less fortunate and if you see someone, homeless on the streets, take the time to stop and buy them a hot drink and a something to eat, it will make a difference.