For small businesses Christmas isn't coming yet

As the weather turns cold and every place that sells food begs you to come in and book for Christmas, small businesses must keep on striving for old and new customers to make sure that Christmas won't be cancelled!

We've lurched from hot dry summer to cold wet autumn in the space of a few days (at least, we have in good old Surrey), but we cannot yet turn our thoughts to the festive season.

There may only be 79 shopping days until Christmas (which equals the actual number of days until Christmas in modern times!), but more importantly there are 57-and-a-half working days until Christmas!

So, TV adverts, pubs, restaurants, garden centres, shopping centres and shops - give it a rest. Start your campaign for Christmas on 1 December and respect the rest of us. Do you think people don't realise Christmas will be on 25 December this year? Let them plan for it without being bombarded.

Not all businesses have their peak season in the weeks leading up to Christmas. For many of us it's a period of working hard to seal deals and grafting to earn a crust.

Being told it's Christmas in October is tedious.