Every now and then we approach our EBA Experts to answer some of your pressing questions as entrepreneurs and business owners. Here’s Greg Brown clarifying the tricky problem of holiday entitlement when your staff work irregular hours.

If you are the kind of person that can sit or has to sit for many hours at a time at your desk, take a few a moment to assess how you sit at your desk and make some changes were necessary asap to feel better and perform better.

I’m a big fan of the Virgin brand, and of Richard Branson. He’s colourful and he’s built a brand around this simple brand idea: we can do anything in any sector as long as we do it with a consistent attitude. And that attitude, in case you hadn’t noticed, is about being a bit funkier than the competition, a bit more relaxed, a bit irreverent, a bit sexier, and a bit more interested in how the customer actually feels. I’ve never flown with Virgin Atlantic but people tell me the airline embodies that approach.

One of the massive differences between a successful entrepreneur and a novice is the ability to spot a great business opportunity and many people believe that you have to have an amazing or original idea but I suspect fewer than 1% of all businesses start that way.

The cost of sickness absence to UK plc is significant (over £13.2bn at the last count). How much does your business contribute to this figure? Is it higher than you’d like it to be?