BKB Accountants Ltd

It’s tough out there at the moment.

And if you’re running a business and wondering whether it’s just you feeling the squeeze, it really isn’t.

We're having more conversations now with business owners who are looking at the numbers and asking whether the stress, time and responsibility involved are still worth the return. In some cases, businesses are simply closing. In others, recruitment has stopped altogether.

The common theme we keep coming back to is wages as a percentage of turnover.

For a lot of businesses, that figure has crept up considerably over the last couple of years. Employers’ NI, wage increases and general staffing costs have all played their part, but the important bit is what it’s doing to the margin left behind.

And that’s the number business owners need to look at. Not just turnover. Not just whether sales are up. But how much of that turnover is now disappearing on wages compared with 12 or 24 months ago?

You might be surprised.

There’s plenty of talk from Westminster about being “business friendly”, and hopefully some positive action follows. But while we wait for that, businesses still have to deal with the numbers sitting in front of them today.

So if you haven’t properly reviewed your wage-to-turnover ratio recently, now would be a good time. And if you want another pair of eyes over it, get in touch with our Poole or Wimborne offices: https://bit.ly/461296b

And that’s a wrap on the 2026 cricket season! 🏏

We’ve been proud to sponsor Broadstone Cricket Club again this year and, even managed to get the BKB logo onto these rather snazzy shirts.

Some of you will know there’s a bit of cricket played in the BKB team with Ali being captain of the Broadstone Cricket Club 4th team, so this is one sponsorship that was always going to be close to home.

Well done to everyone at Broadstone on another great season - players, volunteers and everyone else who gives up their weekends to keep a cricket club running.

Now for a few months without checking the weather forecast every five minutes.

Here’s to more runs, wickets and hopefully plenty more success next season!