I'm a father. She's 6 now. She wasn't always though. I was a stay at home Dad with an 11 week old baby. My wife was out of the house for 12 hours each day. Yes, it is tough and, as a man, I am missing 2 amazing assets that can provide huge amounts of comfort (to the child, mainly, as my wife tells me) and distraction. Yes, it was tough. This isn't about that. This is about the fun times, the "out and about" times. They were great....mostly. Right up until that glazed expression fell over your gorgeous little girl's face and you knew that you had to start planning your route to the toilets.

As always I like to start these open ramblings about the washroom services industry with a little trip back in time. Truthfully we don't have to go that far back to get right back to the major sea change in the commercial hand dryer industry. From the earliest incarnation, created by AirDry back in 1921, that blew air down onto the hands, but was triggered by foot, through to 1948 when George Clemens did the job that AirDry did not do and pushed the hand dryer into the public consciousness (and also invented the electric toothbrush).

Roughly 50% of us have little or no involvement in this market yet it is the 2nd largest competed keyword for washroom services businesses. One of our biggest issues in selling sanitary bin service contracts is the lack of understanding regarding the legal obligation for businesses to provide this service.

With a total market value of £6,800,000,000 (no I didn't fall asleep with my finger on the '0') the UK waste industry is big business. 70% of all waste is processed through just 6 companies. It seems, from the outside, to be a well-managed industry with a healthy relationship between government and corporate business but how well does it transfer down to the small business? What opportunities are there for small businesses to take their share of the remaining £2.04 billion?

Tampons! Sanitary Pads! Periods! As most of you know, there is a proposal to tax our female sanitary products so they fall in line with the European Union rules that see them taxed at 5% VAT. Apparently our feminine hygiene products are a luxury item and they're taxed accordingly. As you reach towards the sanitary waste disposal unit, kindly placed there by your friendly washroom services supplier, I'm sure you catch yourself thinking "I'm so glad I treated myself this month to some of those luxurious female sanitary products.