Search moving to ai
Apparently the future of advertising is no longer Google and is moving to ai chatbots. Here’s the results of a Chat GPT search:
🎈 Top Balloon Arch Delivery Services in the UK
- Balloon.co.uk • Coverage: Nationwide, including Nottingham • Specialties: Air-filled biodegradable arches suitable for both indoor and outdoor events • Pricing: Starts at £275 for the arch, plus £95 for delivery and setup (excluding VAT) • Notable Clients: Experience with large-scale installations, including 43 arches across the UK in one day
I wonder how long it will be before Amazon somehow becomes the top result?
In general Google search become junkiefied like an Instagram timeline. In the beginning it was a simple list of results with maybe 1 ad. Now it’s a page of junk.
The cleanest results at the moment come from Kagi & DuckDuckGo.
balloon.co.uk Down for an hour
Website down for an hour (balloon.co.uk). Traced the problem to Idaq.com who have hosted the domain name for 25 years (& balloon.uk).
They don’t provide hosting for the website, they point the domain to the server.
Did a bit of digging and their latest reviews were not looking too good so I requested to transfer the domains to Godaddy.
I can understand a server going down but I can’t understand how a DNS forward can stop. It even broke my emails.
Amount Falling Due Within One Year
I’ve been self employed since 1990. At the time of writing this that’s 35 years.
I’ve learnt that over time markets change and when you’re running a small business you need to adapt quickly. What was once a trending product can soon become outdated or out of favour with your clients.
In my early years of business I was obsessed with sales. Starting a business from scratch means it’s easy to beat the previous year’s turnover (especially if you take virtually nothing the first year). When I had growth I felt indestructible and became over confident.
Now days when I get my set of accounts the first thing I look at is “The Amount Falling Due Within 1 year”. It literally says what it does on the tin and it’s the liabilities your company has to pay within the next 12 months.
These usually include:
- Money owed to Suppliers
- Overdrafts
- Payroll expenses & PAYE
- Rent/Mortgage & taxes
- Portion of long term dept due with a year
- Cars & Vans (& in the old days fax machines & photocopiers)
After a period of over confidence and growth my total amount falling due stood at £125,000 around the time of the millennium. I looked at this and realised that £10K a month was going out the door no matter what. I provide a product that is not essential and when the country takes a nose dive (like 2008 banking crash & 2020 COVID) my sales take a hit.
I decided that over a period of time I’d concentrate on this number and focus on substantially reducing it on every year’s accounts. Some years I failed but ultimately I believe this mission kept me in business when things got tight and other well established party companies fell by the wayside.
From 2007 I kept a spreadsheet of the number:
- 2007 - £79,684
- 2008 - £68,923
- 2009 - £73,919
- 2010 - £77,424
- 2011 - £38,956
- 2012 - £35,955
- 2013 - £49,977
- 2014 - £62,735
- 2015 - £59,158
- 2016 - £49,174
- 2017 - £43,060
- 2018 - £22,144
- 2019 - £17,746
- 2020 - £15,521
- 2021 - £13,835
- 2022 - £36,792
- 2023 - £37,110
- 2024 - £24,123
I find a set of accounts fairly confusing and despite 35 years of business I still get confused between creditors & debtors. Focusing on the “Amount Falling Due” section gave me a simple target to beat. I became less obsessed with turnover and profit & loss. I decided that if I made a loss in some years I could ride the wave as long as I kept control of those direct debits.
