Nothing makes me cringe more thanall thesestart-up and SME 'romantics'.

They're everywhere: in the media, Government, across all sectors of UK Plc.

Their wild-eyed, Blairite enthusiasm for everything and anything relating to start-ups and SMEs makes me want to set myself on fire.

Good at the theory

The irony is that many of these SME romantics haven't even set up their own businesses.

They write articles and books about business and know everything you could possibly know about running a small or growing business.




And those romantics thathave set up their own businesses, in my experience anyway, tend not to be that successful.

They're sheep in wolf's clothing.

Together my arse

Now don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for so many owners of start-ups and SMEs, but where these people are different is that they don't harp on about this SME "we're all in it together" bollocks.

They just get on with it and focus on making money so that they can live the life they want to lead.

Selfish bastards

Because the reality of business is that we're not all in it together. There's no such thing as a start-up or SME community.

The vast, vast majority of start-up and SMEdirectorsare selfish bastards who want to make as much money as possible, and usually at someone else's expense.

That's the way life is, and always has been.