Steve Finch pointed the camera at his smiling family.
Well, all smiling except his teenage daughter Madison who was scowling and had spent the last hour refusing to put on her matching Christmas sweater with a huge snowman’s nose.
“We failed miserably last year, so this year’s Christmas card has to be really special!” he shouted.
Last year had been a nightmare. Trying to take the picture then being upstaged by Buddy’s ‘reindeer’ drawn sleigh. Ending up in a frozen lake and having to spend days in hospital.
His wife Kelly squeezed his arm. “It’ll be perfect, honey,” she said.
“I know you don’t want to think back to all that nonsense between you and Buddy over the Christmas decorations, do you?”
Steve shook his head.
Kelly went on: “Something good did come out of it, though. Your business, the car showroom, and the rest of the businesses at the mall got together and took a long, hard look at your health and safety and made some big improvements. That would never have happened if you and Buddy hadn’t been in that ridiculous competition to deck the halls!”
Steve nodded.
“I know, you’re right. We would never have realised how unsafe some things could be if we hadn’t made up and started talking about them. We looked at employee safety, working at height with decorations, fire safety after the fire that destroyed our property, all sorts of issues.
“We called Buddy’s friends at Penarth Management to advise us. They even told us about the new public safety law being brought in by the UK government to help stop terror attaches on public venues. It’s called Martyn’s Law after one of the victims of the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, Martyn Hett.”
Kelly nodded. “That sounds like a lot of work. A lot of paperwork. How have you dealt with it?”
Steve clicked the shutter and took the family picture. “Mango,” he said.
“You’ve eaten lots of mango? Well at least you’re all getting your vitamin C!”
Steve laughed. “No, the online compliance software is called Mango. It lets you access the documents you need from wherever there’s an internet connection and everything is stored in the cloud.
“The whole shopping mall is now compliant and we have the paper trail to prove it whenever it’s needed. No extra fire risk from piles of paper.”
Kelly smiled. “That’s great, honey! Glad to hear it. Now we gave all the elements we need for a peaceful family Christmas.”
The family heard the sound of hammers banging and rushed outside. Buddy had built a Christmas themed candy cane slide from his bedroom to the front door.
Kelly gasped in dread. She saw her husband’s eye twitch…
“Steve, remember that peaceful family Christmas!”
You can find out more about Martyn’s Law (the Terrorism (Protection of premises) Bill) here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/martyns-law-progresses-as-government-publishes-draft-legislation
Find out how Mango’s online compliance software benefits your retail business. Book a free demonstration which will be delivered via Zoom. We can help you achieve the ISOs you need, too. Call Penarth Management on 029 2070 3328 or email info@penarth.co.uk