How to keep the business wheels turning

The problems most companies have relate either to money or people. To make your business excel, you need to get both right. Get both wrong you will probably go bust. Unfortunately, most companies have one or the other wrong and flounder as a result

Keep and eye on the money pressure monitor

An oil company used to advertise that without oil, a car’s engine is useless. They called it liquid engineering. In a business, for oil read money. Money is what keeps the business wheels turning, day after day. But like the oil in your engine, you mustn’t take it for granted. If an engine loses oil, it will cause damage many times the cost of what it would have cost to replace. If your business unexpectedly runs out of money, the damage to your reputation and your operations will be equally devastating. So it pays to keep an eye on the money pressure indicator to make sure it doesn’t run low.

Sometimes it will need topping up, sometimes you need to replace the money all together for example, if you are running a business on short term money (overdraft) rather than long term finance (loan or share capital).

If you have the right business idea and especially the right people, there’s no difficulty finding fresh money. Like oil, it’s a commodity; all you have to do is negotiate the price.

Is it time to remove the nodding donkey?

If money is equivalent to oil, people equate to the engine of your organisation. Without them, nothing works. The gear box, the electrics, the transmission and the running gear and can be likened to the various business departments: Sales, Marketing, R&D, Production, Operations, Finance, HR and Logistics. However, if these functions don’t work in unison, the car won’t be reliable or economical and will eventually break down.

As with a car, if a component isn’t working, you shouldn’t hesitate to replace it. Some components, such as the nodding donkey, can probably be removed all together. You know who they are!