Business X-Ray 

Why fix something that isn’t broken?

It’s always been done this way. What we do works.

So, indeed, why fix something that isn’t broken?

Who can blame a business with responsibilities vying for attention, choosing to put self-examination on the to-do list in favour of dealing with the more pragmatic matters such as keeping the wolves from the door?

Checking for profit gaps, leaks in expenditure or squeezes can all be dealt with later. That’s for businesses that measure their risk of breaking, for those that aren’t working as efficiently as expected, for those that are aware improvement translates as beneficial, for any who feel constrained, restricted, muffled away from attainment and for those that use plan-strategy-review because shift happens;  introspection is a preventative measure.

The evolution of a business dictates that to ignore the financial oil keeping the wheels turning is tantamount to a part of it becoming dysfunctional and potentially breaking

As…
The business production is con-nected to… pro-ducts

The pro-ducts connected to the … s-ales

The s-ales connected to the …turnover

The turnover connected to… mor-ale

The morale connected to … customers

The customers connected to … satisfaction

Satisfaction is the heart of a business.  Therefore dried-out business bones need a strong leap of faith, willing to bring  them back to condition and once again able to wrap around the heart of the business… and strong leaps of faith working favourably towards a business’s stress testing are a bit thin on the ground.

Not a good situation for a business to be in and one which is frustratingly, so often, preventable.

The cashflow through a business might not be broken but as it’s frequently not on the surface, visible, only when quality controlling or internal audits show up any areas of breakage or potential breakage the relevance and importance or such an audit is apparent. Identifying gaps to efficiency and profit, aiming to save money, spend less money, pay off/get out of debt should be part of the businesses regular routine primarily as specific introspection therefore any problem areas can be addressed, implemented straight away and completed within a reasonable time; leaving nothing overhanging to add to a to-do list.

No amount of marketing can turnaround a business in decline, new products or services are restricted  and value for and within the business is subject to being the root cause at the heart of a ‘broken’ business.

Lenders don’t transform businesses; change comes from within a business.

(Image credits:  ralphbijkerPaolomastrangelo,  SUF.    Article credit: Copyright SUF)