A New Year begins - what's your resolution?

Hi

Happy New year to you too.. It certainly did put a dampener on my site + Royal Mail strikes did not help 1 bit..

I bought myself a laser machine to try this year and see what I can end up doing with it.. Also seen the light with 3d printing and how affordable they have become, I am now toying with the idea of buying 1 of these as well as they both can be quite profitable you you know what you are doing.. They still intrigue me as to how they can print such fine detail.. Anyway not got any resolutions as such , but would love to find  a job that doesn't require driving as am getting to old to be doing long distance now  

I know, we send out a lots of paperwork, vehicle stickers, and packs of review forms for our Trusted Trader business. Not only do the prices keep going up, you then get disruption or missing post  

I'm fascinated with those laser printers! The kids use them in school, but it seems like something out of a sci-fi film to me! I was watching a YouTube video recently showing a recent British Army exercise, focusing on the attached REME (Engineers), and in their mobile workshop, they were trialing 3D printers to fabricate replacement vehicle parts in the field. Amazing stuff.

They both are. But it's the learning curve you have to go though, but luckily material is cheap to buy as plywood is good enough to learn with I am hoping to go onto glass, like mirrors and glasses.. But time will tell if I can or can't get to grips with it. 

Now that we are six months into the year, I'd love to hear where everyone is with their resolutions. 

Well I've definitely stopped watching the news on terrestrial TV, and haven't missed anything. Instead I get excerpts from  Sky, AlJazzera, Beeb and others on YouTube, more focused on my interests, rather than absorbing doom and gloom around the globe which I can't do anything about.

Business wise has been an incredibly busy year with our largest ever growth, hence my total lack of focus and attention on the forum  

The bit I don't understand is why? The outlook still isn't overly rosy, inflation is still high, Ukraine war rolls on, the Government seem to have slowed down on the self manufactured drama front, but there is a whiff of change in the air.

Most of my contracts are with local authorities, so I suspect things have finally stabilised post-pandemic, and the new way of doing things, staffing levels and budgets has stabilised so decisions are being made.

But talk to small businesses daily and the cost of doing business is still high, tradespeople are still battling with materials, recruitment across the board seems challenging, and I know a number of people that have had enough and are retiring early.

How about anyone else, how have the first 6 months gone? As planned, better, worse? Why?