Pain can be a powerful tool for change…
One minute, you’re driving down an icy road in the middle of winter, hands gripping the wheel confidently.
Your eyes gaze steadily at the road in front of you. Feeling increasingly confident, your foot presses harder on the accelerator.
Suddenly, a barely visible ice patch puts you in a tailspin! Your body jerks this way and that as you strain to punch the brake – to no avail.
You hear a sickening crunch, and the scenery around you becomes a swirling blur of white…
Until, just as suddenly as the chaos began, your car comes to rest against a guard rail.
All you can think is: I’m so glad to be alive!
And one thing’s for sure.
Next time you drive down an icy road, you will never, ever press the accelerator again like that.
Just like a serious car accident can make you a more cautious driver, a brush with financial failure can change your entire approach to business.
We see it with some of our clients.
They have owned previous businesses which spun out of control financially…
…..or couldn’t see that they were in trouble until too late, because they didn’t have a clear view of their true financial situation.
They tend to be ruthless about their financial management, precisely because they have experienced the crushing pain of business failure.
Trust me, when you feel first-hand the catastrophic effects of bad financial management…
…you never want to go there again!
And just like the world’s most prepared driver can still crash in hazardous conditions, you can be the best at what you do and still see your business fail, if the financials are shaky.
In fact, it’s quite a common scenario.
I’ve seen many passionate business owners successfully grow their start-ups to £1 million or £2 million turnover…
…and yet still have no idea what good financial management looks like for a company that size.
And it can cost them dear.
They make poor decisions, because they are relying on gut instinct, not numbers to guide their business…
They spend too much in their effort to expand, and end up stretched financially….
Their cash flow is like a roller-coaster, causing them no end of stress and misery.
Worst case scenario, the business that seemed to be doing so well has its future thrown into doubt.
Don’t ever allow your company to get to that point.
If you are turning over more than £1 million, you need to institute robust financial management right now.
The choice is entirely up to you:
You can learn the hard way that tracking cashflow, getting reliable numbers and using them to guide your decisions for your business are essential to survival…
… and risk losing control of the ship in order to truly understand the immense value of proper financial management.
Or you can get the right systems in place now, and avoid the failure and defeat that comes from financial neglect and mismanagement.
In the US, such failure is often viewed as a learning experience and one more step toward success.
Many entrepreneurs are taken more seriously with a notch or two of business failure on their belts.
It shows investors and stakeholders that these business owners have learned the hard lessons necessary to run and scale a business effectively.
Here in the UK, for better or worse, there is a greater stigma around losing your business…
Investors and customers are more wary of putting their money in the hands of a driver with a crash record.
Our mission at Insight Associates is ensure that you do not need to experience that sort of failure in order to perfect your financial approach.
Email me today or call us on 01279 647 447, so we can help you bypass the financial learning curve in your business…
…and do things right the first time around.
