As a Commercial Consultant, my business is partly translation.

How understanding Rabbie Burns helps this Commercial Consultant clarify your business!

Now that January is well and truly over and along with it the all-important 25th of the month. Well that is if you’re an unapologetic Scotsman who considers the 25th January as, if not more, important than that of any other month. Burns Night of course.

Burns Night is a famous tradition that celebrates the love of haggis and of course , the works of Rabbie Burns himself.

It’s a time of year when I find myself in demand as a ‘speaker’ and am often asked to deliver the Immortal Memory speech and / or read out a poem out by the man himself. For me its ‘Tam O Shanter` because I was born in a small town very close to Rabbie’s birthplace and have visited most of the places mentioned in the poem – a marvel in the eyes of a small child.

Problem is the lowland Scots spoken by Rabbie is unintelligible to most people, even many Scots! So One year I translated the first few verses of the poem into Geordie and delivered it at a Supper in Newcastle. Went down smoother than the whisky and got a laugh into the bargain.

Struck me – this is what I do for businesses like yours. As a paralegal I take the complex, difficult language of legalese and simplify it for understanding. As an engineer, I take complex problems, deconstruct them and present you with simpler solutions to get your business working effectively again.

I am proud of my Scottish roots, my time in the Royal Navy, as an employee and in academia all of which have helped make me what I am today. It’s helped me develop a skills set that not many people possess, that can make a real difference to you having a business that works and survives or one that struggles and dies.

So what is it to be – survive and thrive or struggle and die?