Doug Stuart

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19/10/2026

One fire. Two workshops. Everything gone.

Ryan has welded and repaired our skips for nine years. Twelve years of tools, machinery and hard work went up in one night, without full insurance.

Next door, Charlie, who works for me and has raced bangers for charity for years, lost everything too. That includes the car he was building with his son, young Charlie.

I’ve set up two fundraisers to get them back on their feet:

🔧 Ryan: £5,000 for welders, a plasma cutter and tools so he can keep working
👉 https://gofund.me/f44437089

🏁 Charlie: £3,000 to replace 2 banger cars, compressor, welder, steel, cutters, tyre machine, general banger stock and tools so Charlie and young Charlie can get building again.
👉 https://gofund.me/2f17f1b18

If you can give, thank you. If you can’t, a share means just as much. These two have helped plenty of people. Let’s help them.

18/10/2026

I’d rather hire a good attitude with no skills than a skilled person who brings everyone down. I hire for attitude and train the rest.

You can teach someone to drive a machine. You can’t train a bad mentality out of someone.

Picture a busy yard: lorries in and out, machines running, everyone working hard. It only takes one driver being moody, moaning at people and dragging their feet to pull the whole site’s productivity down. Others start to follow, and it spreads through the team fast. Customers feel it too.

It works the other way as well. One really upbeat person can lift the whole team and everyone’s output with them.

In a service business, you don’t please the customer by sending someone who complains. You keep your team happy and working well, the customers get the benefit, and so does the company.

Whether you’re buying a business or running one, look at the team. It’s only as strong as the people who bring the rest down.

17/10/2026

I was sent a council’s financials for its skip hire service. The question was simple: is it competing fairly with private companies like mine? That means every cost covered, with no public money subsidising a trading operation.

Here’s the problem. Their own figures: revenue £104,100 minus costs £101,000 is a profit of £3,100. But the surplus they reported was £4000. The following year it was out again by £1000 the other way.

If the sums don’t add up, how can they show full cost recovery?

The same questions went to a neighbouring council. Their written answer: they don’t track whether the service makes or loses money. One shared member of staff, no separate cost recovery check.

So how does a council know it isn’t undercutting private businesses with public money, if it doesn’t keep the records to find out?

A private company has to cover all its costs and make a profit, or it closes. A council can absorb losses across a budget and carry on.

Every figure here came from the councils’ own written responses. The rules on cost recovery should apply to everyone picking up a skip, and that’s all I’m asking.

16/10/2026

Owning a business doesn’t mean you can switch off. If you need total disconnection to feel OK, employment is probably better for you, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I’m on holiday right now and I’ll take a message or a two-minute call if something’s urgent. That’s not me complaining, it’s just how it works.

What most people get wrong is that it’s not about being glued to my phone out of fear. Five years ago, a holiday like this would have been impossible. I was there every day, firefighting. When you’ve got 30-40 staff and you keep doing that, you become the bottleneck for the whole business.

Now I’m at the point where it’s a glance at my phone here and there to check nothing big is falling apart. I still think about work all the time, but I’m not needed every second of every day.
That’s the goal.

15/10/2026

Running a business in the UK right now is like war.

Some of what I’m dealing with right now:

- The council on one of our sites wants the planning updated, and they’re saying they might refuse it. We’ve spent £20,000 on solicitors and traffic surveys already, and there’s still more to come.
- Constant back and forth with solicitors.
- The usual cash flow worries. It’s coming up to winter, and it’s always fine, but it’s always on your mind at this time of year.
- Diesel prices through the roof, with no help from the government.
- Work that’s up, down, left and right, so you barely know whether you’re coming or going.

Every day in business is a battle. It’s not glamorous. It’s tough, it’s hard, and it’s constant.

I want to help people run, grow and buy businesses. I mean that. But if you’re not cut out for dealing with these fights constantly, don’t do it.

That’s enough for a Wednesday morning. I’m off to play golf. ⛳

14/10/2026

Everyone’s doing dropshipping. I’d rather own a waste company.

Trendy businesses trend for a reason, and trends die as fast as they start. Everyone starting the same thing at the same time means you’re all racing to the bottom.

Buy a company that’s already running and working well and you’re not in that race.

Boring and profitable beats exciting and trending every single time.

13/10/2026

You don’t need to be good at all three pillars in business. You need to be good at one.

Finance. Marketing. People.

I’m very good at the finance, not bad at the marketing, not bad at managing people. I still hired someone ex-military who’s far better at the people side than I am.

Being good at business isn’t being good at everything. It’s knowing where you’re weak and putting someone strong there.

Starting out? Work out which pillar you’re really good at, get better at it, then employ or partner for the other two.

12/10/2026

Profit isn’t cash flow. Mix them up and you’ll buy someone else’s problem.

A business can show a strong profit on paper while the bank account sits empty. Accounting tricks, unpaid invoices and heavy stock can all make the profit look high.

Cash flow is the money actually landing in the bank, and what’s left at the end of each week. When you buy a business, it’s what covers the debt repayments and what you can take out from day one.

And watch the adjusted EBITDA a seller hands you. It always looks bigger and better. It still isn’t the money left in your account after payroll, suppliers and loan repayments.

11/10/2026

Four ways I’ve funded buying a business. Which one fits your deal? 👇

1. Seller finance. The seller funds the deal. It works when there’s nothing in the business to borrow against, or the accounts don’t look strong enough for a bank. It’s also good for topping up other methods.

2. Asset finance. Probably one of the easiest. In skip hire we’ve got lorries, machinery and skips to borrow against. The company gets the money on the day of the buyout, the seller gets paid and you walk away with the company.

3. A bank loan to the company. Ask the bank what they’d lend the business. The seller takes the money out on the day of the sale and you’re left with the shares and the loan.

4. Straight cash. The rarest of the lot, even though people think it’s the only way.

Same outcome every time: you end up with the business. The right structure depends on the company, its assets and its accounts.

Not financial advice. Get your own accountant on any deal.

10/10/2026

I wasn’t supposed to be driving today. That changed an hour ago.

Our mini digger was out on hire with one of our lads on it, digging out for a new driveway. The slabs in the way meant he’d have to stop, or someone had to come out and grab them.

So I left the office and ran over to Isleham.

I’m definitely not the best grab driver on the fleet. The digger driver kept rounding the pieces up into a nice pile for me though, and we got it loaded.

Next day the contractor sent me a picture of the finished driveway with the gravel on. 🚛

Got a pile holding up a job? skipeast.co.uk



Address

Last Resort
Ely
CB63QD

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 5pm
Tuesday 7am - 5pm
Wednesday 7am - 5pm
Thursday 7am - 5pm
Friday 7am - 5pm

Telephone

+441353649770

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