The $60,000 Lesson That Built a Billion-Dollar Business
He called me because his second-in-command had seen my work at her previous employer. He was a founder. Early days of what was then a promising startup — the kind of business that has energy and momentum but not yet the systems to match. He was also furious. Sixty thousand dollars had gone into a […]
What’s stopping you from getting the results you want?
I’ve asked that question in one form or another across more than 400 projects over four decades. The businesses are different. The industries are different. The people are different. The answers are always a variation of the same three things. Every operational problem I’ve ever seen comes back to errors, time, or the absence of […]
My Nephew Could Build That In A Weekend
I understand the instinct completely. You’ve been shown a solution. It looks like a spreadsheet. Maybe it has some formulas, a few dropdown menus, a button or two. And somewhere in the back of your mind, a thought forms: “My nephew could build that in a weekend.” I don’t take offence at that thought. I’ve […]
The Key Person You Cannot Afford To Lose
I was sitting in a client’s office not long ago. He was walking me through his monthly process — the manual steps, the spreadsheets, the workarounds he’d built over the years to keep things running. It was exactly why I was there. We were going to automate it. Halfway through the conversation, I stopped him. […]
The Cost Nobody Is Calculating
Imagine you are buying a new car. Different brand, different make to your last one. Every knob feels wrong. Every display seems to be in the wrong place. The indicators are where the wipers used to be. But you love the car. It drives like heaven. And within a few weeks, you’ve adapted. The muscle […]
The $1M Hire You’re Not Ready For
So, you’ve decided to hire. Brilliant. Your business is growing. You need the hands. The candidate is excellent. The salary is $120,000. Now let me do some quick maths with you. At 12–15% margins, a $100K employee needs to generate $1,000,000 in revenue just to break even. That’s before you factor in desk, equipment, onboarding, […]
Your Business Is Paying a Tax You’ve Never Seen on Any Invoice
There is a tax your business is paying right now that doesn’t appear on any invoice. No supplier sends you a bill for it. No accountant flags it at year end. But it is there — every single day, in every single business — quietly draining time, money and the patience of your best people. […]
Your Business Doesn’t Have a Software Problem
A client called me last year convinced he needed a $120,000 software platform. He had already spoken to three vendors. Demos booked. Proposals on the desk. A nervous CFO. I asked him one question: “What exactly is broken?” Silence. Then: “Well… the reports take forever. Data is everywhere. My team spends half their day copying […]
Improve Your Data Quality To Cut Cost In Your Business
You might have heard the saying, “the quality of your questions determines your life” and I want to translate this into business and say, the quality of your data determines the quality of your business. Even more so, when cutting cost is your priority right now…Then especially you need to work on the quality of your processes and data. Please […]
How Disparate Systems Can Break You
Today, I want to talk about Disparate Systems. I always need to make sure that I’m not saying desperate systems because they also make you sometimes desperate… 🙂 In this case, I mean disparate meaning: they are stand alone systems they are not talking to any other system And the moment you install these kind of processes in […]