Hardly a conversation around the dinner table takes place at the moment without mention of ‘Brexit’, the horribly-entitled name given to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Will it be soft or hard? What impact will the snap General Election in a few days have on the outcome?

The Prime Minister has told us that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, earning the congratulations of many for seeing through the country’s wishes as expressed in the referendum nearly a year ago, but striking fear into the hearts of many others that this is an exit at all costs. We’ve seen some strange results at the ballot box over the last twelve months, but unless the opinion polls have it horribly wrong, Mrs May will be returned to power in early June with what she sees as a proper mandate from the country for us to leave the EU. For the PM and her team, the hard work starts here.

There will be many elements to the negotiations, but it will be immigration and trade that occupy the majority of the headlines and presumably most of the government’s negotiating time. So what is there that we can do to help whilst negotiations are in progress? Answer – absolutely nothing. We had our say at the ballot box a year ago and now we are powerless to affect what the government does for the pound in our pocket. At least it will be a pound not a euro!

I don’t think the 27 other EU countries will be terribly keen to tango

We all work hard, whether within our business or at home to balance the books. We don’t like times of uncertainty because it doesn’t enable us to plan. In fact, we don’t like anything outside our control, but we have to accept that it is for others to determine, for example, the rates at which we pay our taxes, the interest that is charged on our mortgages and how much our British pound is worth when we try to spend it abroad.

That’s ok, because all of these things are a function of the government’s economic and fiscal strategy. It’s all done according to a plan. We might not like that plan, but at least we have a clear picture of what it is.

For the next two years that plan is on hold while the PM and her team try to persuade 27 other EU countries to dance to our tune over the terms of Brexit. I don’t think they will be terribly keen to tango and we all know it takes two to do that.

Small businesses and many of our larger ones too all over the country are urging the PM to make it a ‘business-led Brexit’, with as good a free trade agreement as we can get, which will enable exporters and importers alike to continue to operate as similarly as they do now with our European neighbours.

If the PM didn’t have a hard enough job running the country, she will need to bring her ‘A game’ to the negotiating table if our pockets are not going to regret the triggering of Article 50.