Welcome to the Business Abundance podcast, providing
the tools and knowledge to help small business
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www .businessabundance .online. Hi, everyone.
Welcome back. Today, we're going to be talking
about something that most business owners face,
not when, but what to do when things go wrong.
They do go wrong. And it doesn't mean that you've
failed. It means that you are human and you're
working on something real. So let's chat about
why resilience matters. Ian. Oh, that's exciting,
isn't it? Well, just accept that it's going to
happen. If you're if you're not failing or you're
not making a mistake, you're probably not trying
anything new in your business. So it's not a
bad thing. Michael Jordan missed a few shots
in his time. Oh, that's a beautiful analogy.
Very nice. Yeah, got a lot of. game winners as
well. If you don't take a shot, you're not going
to hit a shot. So be prepared for that and fail
forwards and fail often. Yeah, but it's not just
about pushing through it. I wouldn't think it's
about making sure that you're bouncing back.
Be prepared as I do my little scout salute. If
you're in business, you're taking risk. It's
how you calculating that risk and what you're
willing to take. And there will sometimes be
circumstances out of your control. So how do
you Be prepared for that. How are you going to
insulate your business against a downturn in
the market or a catastrophe like a global pandemic?
I was thinking something smaller. I just quickly
wrote down a few categories. I haven't finished
them yet, but just for the people that are a
little bit worried about their business already
and stress about it, sorry, in advance. The things
that can go wrong, running out of cash, people
disappearing, not having a location to trade
from anymore. having no access to do what you
do, or clients not being able to find you anymore,
another competitor coming in, technology changing,
government changing the rules, cyber security,
someone stealing all your data and cutting you
out, or selling all your clients information,
not having internet access, the systems that
you use not being available anymore. How much
time did you have for this list? There was hardly
any time. And then you've got like the environment,
things like weather and stuff as well. Of war.
Can everyone feel the anxiety levels rising?
How many people have just gone, hey, that's me.
Oh, that's me. That's also me. Key person goes,
or you have a health issue yourself. Yeah, there's
lots of fun things in those categories. Goodness
me, sorry. Anyway, I apologise, that was off.
Pretty good podcast topic there, Zane. This is
going to be fun. I am not depressed right now
at all. We hope everyone leaves a little bit
optimistic. Clients not paying you. Yeah. Once
you've already done the work. Uh huh. Yep. Team
member quitting on the lighter note, maybe a
marketing campaign flopped. These things will
probably feel really heavy and maybe even personal,
but it's about what you do in result to that.
Because we've seen all these things happen in
consulting where they're... Cash flow dries up,
systems crash, employees walk out. Customers
pay $100 ,000 to the wrong person's account.
Oh no. Wowee. Ouch. Lucky other person. But I
think the key thing there is it's not if that's
going to happen, it's when that happens. Because
if you have a business that lasts a decade or
more, or even short. Things go wrong. Things
will go wrong. It's not if they're going to go
wrong, things are going to go wrong. Yeah, but
it's not a reflection necessarily on the business
owner, so I feel like... Sometimes it is. I say
sometimes. I always say, will you end up as always
a direct result of all the decisions you've made
along the way. We have outside factors that affect
our lives, but will we end up as sort of choices?
They have definitely affected, but we make choices
along the way still. Yes, yes. But I mean, if
you're constantly taking these personally, then
you're going to end up... being hurt, you've
got to just turn around and make actions. If
you're taking anything in business too personal,
you probably need to re -evaluate your life choices.
Who else are running a business? I mean, a business
is like a baby to some business owners. You should
be able to also detach yourself emotionally from
some outcomes. I love how you've just gone, you
should be able to to some nice, nice set of people
are not going to do. Yeah, and that's probably
wake up. It's their livelihoods. As someone who
was very attached to the first iteration of the
business and couldn't understand why people wouldn't
pay or they didn't do this and you're attached
to your product and you're attached to this,
speaking from experience you can be very emotionally
attached and the more emotionally attached you
are the harder it is to move through it. Yeah,
I think it's just channeling in the right way.
I think sometimes having an emotional attachment
is good as long as you have retained perspective.
That's the word. That's what you're saying. If
you attach for emotion, you get perspective,
but you can still have emotion and have perspective.
Well, emotion means you care. Yeah. It gives
you some motivation, which is always handy. But
anyway, we're going to talk about lots of things.
I think the main thing is when you do face some
challenging circumstances. Adversity. Yeah. Have
a look around. Look at the direction you should
go and keep going. Just always keep going. So
when we're talking about strategies for dealing
with these risks, I think there's some key fundamentals
that you need to have in place before you even,
you even try and make big changes. So that might
be knowing your, well, it is knowing your numbers.
So you need to be able to understand where you
are financially at any point in time. So that
means tracking income and expenses. Clear reporting.
Yeah. Yep. If you haven't done that, that's where
you start. And then focusing on cash in and your
profit. So I think we've experienced a lot when
people think they're making profit, but they're
not making cash flow. Yes. Or on the... They're
not making profit too. Yeah. Well, there's that.
Yes. But they think they're making money. they're
actually not, they didn't realise and then six
months down the line. Once a few hundred thousand
dollars is not there anymore. Yeah. So we need
to be able to see those numbers so that you can
see if those changes are actually making any
positive impact and you've also got to understand
where it is that you're starting. And then hopefully
maybe past you had created a bit of an emergency
buffer. I mean, that's the hope. And then, yeah,
what's an emergency buffer? I think a lot of
people, it depends on the business and what your
risk appetite is. Good combo of words there.
I like that. But, you know, for a lot of people,
if you can go, what's my monthly expenses? So
let's say we weren't trading at all. We didn't
have any cost of sales because we're not selling
anything, but we're not going to income from
sales. Just what's two months worth of expenses.
If you had that as a buffer, you're probably
pretty good. Because then if you're fluctuating
a little bit when people pay you or not pay you,
you've got more than enough room. And worst case
scenario, an event like COVID, you're going to
be able to use that buffer to go through it.
Most people would spend the money well before
there, but depending on your risk appetite, you
might want four months in the bank, you might
want two months in the bank. But one's probably
a little bit too little, but good. Two's probably...
quite good for a lot of businesses. So like Z
said, you've got to know your numbers and what
you have and what you don't have. But then you've
also got to know what should you have. So with
your list of things that could possibly go wrong.
Not extensive, but quite large. What's the common
theme among them all? I think just flying by
the seat of your pants. So most people don't
really have a plan, they're too busy working,
doing stuff because they need to because it's
cheaper for them to do it than somewhere else
and someone else and all of those different reasons.
I'll do it faster, I'll make more money, whatever
it is, doesn't matter, everyone's got their reasons.
But no one ever focuses on the risk of something
going wrong, which would stop their income. And
I think if they thought about that a bit often,
a bit more frequently, then they would probably
make a few changes in your business, which would
actually solve a lot of the other problems they
have. But because no one sort of thinks about
that, oh, should be right or I don't have time
to do it, nothing will go wrong. You end up just
doing everything yourself. And, you know, so
I think the flying by your seat or your pants,
not having a plan and, and expecting nothing
will go wrong is probably the biggest issue rather
than, you know, but for some people it's cash.
And I think most small businesses fail due to
lack of funding. That's probably reasonably well
known and studied. people blame the economy and
rents and we've talked about this before, or
whatever it is, it's not them, but generally
don't have enough money. Is there a little bit
of that ostrich putting their head in the sand
kind of thing as well? If I don't look at this,
it'll maybe go away, like your Kodaks and your
Blockbusters out of the world? Maybe. But yeah,
I guess we're talking about risk mitigation,
not so much. Well, that is a risk too. So that's
competitors coming in or change of technology.
But the saying is if you sit on a... Railway
Staying still doesn't matter how far ahead you
are eventually get run over. Yep. So Yeah, I'll
talk about cash. We started a cash soon as I
worked the way through the list But having an
understanding what your business does need to
operate How much cash does it need how many other
assets doesn't need there's lots of ratios and
things you can use but Fundamentally just needs
to know what that number is and then do we have
enough or do we have access to it? And that goes
back to I Don't but we could do this this this
I don't. That means I have these risks. What
could I do to mitigate those risks? So perfect
world is we have enough. It's never perfect.
But we're talking about what to do when things
go wrong. Generally what your plan should have
been beforehand, because most things can be reasonably
foreseen. So we're going to run out of cash.
We're going to access this. Or we might run out
of cash in three months time. I'm really worried
about maybe we should apply for an overdraft
with the bank now while our finances are good.
before they go bad and our bank won't give us
finance because they're bad when we need it.
So the main thing is knowing the numbers, having
a plan there. I've found that two months formula
pretty good for me personally, whether it's business
or life in general. Having that two months of
capital available just in case helps a lot of
people sleep at night. It certainly does. I empathise
with the small business owners that, so for example,
it's a family run business and they have 10 people.
10 employees, and then all of a sudden their
cash flow drops. The knee -jerk reaction is get
rid of people because that's our biggest expense.
How do you combat that? Families aren't getting
fed then? That's awful. How do you combat that?
Well, because you can get rid of the non -essential
spending, but if they're saying, well, yeah,
if they're saying, well, the employees aren't
non -essential. That's just the easiest to hide,
but I don't know. It's a rough one, but it's
a factor. So if our clients stop dealing with
us or the economy drops or whatever happens,
how does our business, what can it do? It can
diversify what our people do. It can contract
out our people to other people. It can cut its
workforce. When that happens, we should have
a few different options we can choose from at
the time as appropriate. But at the end of the
day, if you've got 10 people working for you
and you can keep seven, or you go out of business,
probably got a duty of care to keep the seven.
Yeah, it's brutal. And that's pretty normal.
It's, you know, every industry's had that where
people lose their jobs and whatever. It's brutal.
But that's part of doing business, unfortunately.
But let's continue on the people front. So let's
say you have you have some key staff or some
really good electricians that work for you or
something like that, and then they leave. What
happens? Your entire business runs off their
back, then you're putting yourself in strife
because they're taking all the expertise and
the runnings of the business with them. They're
taking the value of the business with them. So
you're stuck in a loop, which is something you
definitely... You've got the jobs walked in.
Yeah. And you've got no people and your person's
just left. And you've quoted it out and now you've
got to get casual workforce. Well, if you get
them, you can get them. They are a rare commodity,
I've heard. With these scenarios, you've got
a bit of a probability of happening compared
to the impact, you know, which is something to
assess. So something could be super rare, like
pretty low chance we're going to lose all of
our skilled employees at one go. But if it did,
it'd be catastrophic. What do we do? Because
we probably should plan for that because that
would be catastrophic. Maybe there's a high chance
that we'd lose one person, but low impact. So
we probably still need to plan for that. So when
you have a few good staff, you get them doing
all the jobs because it's nice and easy and low
management. but maybe you need a plan of people
coming through and getting other people exposure.
Passing on the knowledge. Yeah. And becoming
less reliant on that person, which sounds so
mean, but I mean, yeah, for the sake of your
business. I know I reference the Trashy Below
Deck TV show often on the podcast, but I watched
one the other day and Captain Jason, the Australian
fella, he had a chief stew who was putting her
two stewed addresses, one on service and one
doing the beds. toilets and all that sort of
stuff non -stop because they were both that was
their strengths and she's like I'm the chief
Stu I want to make sure that the experience is
110 % and that's gonna be the best that's how
I run it and he made her most of the way through
they were getting upset but he made her halfway
through swap them because they needed both to
get better at the others and then a few episodes
later the one that was stuck downstairs and was
allowed to talk to any clients she was promoted
to the second Stu and the one that was only on
service which was sort of the glory job She was
actually like, oh, you know, I want to be the
chief show in the future. So this is horrible.
I'm not doing my job very well, but I'm going
to learn how to smash it. Yeah, cool. And that's
a good example of, you know, maybe you don't
train the people or you don't push them as far
as you need to because you've got people in place.
But part of this risk mitigation is that maybe
we do need to challenge people a bit more often.
And reward the people that are like you don't
want your best people leaving. No. So I feel
like as part of that risk mitigation, you've
got to figure out how to keep them. Yeah. For
the sake of your business, obviously. It's another
strategy. Yeah. Yeah. It just, you don't want
to lose your best people. Correct. The question
I was going to lead to was identify why people
are leaving. Yeah. Yeah. That's also another.
And it could be, you know, a good example just
going off that and everything's complex is you
can go into as much detail as you want in every
single thing. There's so many things. But yeah,
maybe those two good people left because no one
else can do their role when they're away or it
always comes back to them. Yeah, too much responsibility.
Because we weren't stepping other people up to
replace them. They're leaving because everyone's
a mumpty. Or they just feel too much pressure
or burnt out themselves, which is not fair on
them. Long shifts or getting called back in because
no one else can do their job. So I know the people
that I've found that stress the most about their
businesses, they're thinking about all these
things and they get most stressed because they
haven't thought about or considered what would
happen. So sometimes we can be seen as overstressing
and sometimes it could be we just need to start
putting down, hey, we need these things in place.
It doesn't need to be urgent, but we need a bit
of a plan so we're working in the right direction.
Another interesting one with people like admin
people for small business are mainly because
a lot of small business owners have a bookkeeper
or an admin person that sort of runs the business,
as they will say it. And then other people might
say they don't, but we can't get rid of that
person because she knows all our fine answers,
or he. That more than once. Yeah, we can't really,
that's the only person that knows what's going
on. I can't replace that person because I might,
if I get rid of that person, they might dog me
in for blah, blah, blah. They end up being a
bit of a hostage for that as well. So sometimes
I think it's, you put the systems and processes
in place and people might be pushed back against
it in that scenario where someone might be a
bit nefarious. But it will be because they're
trying to. make themselves irreplaceable or demand
a greater pay rate or these are all risks for
the business, right? And you say, well, we actually
got to have that system frozen because what happens
if you're sick tomorrow and you're in hospital
for the next six months and then no one's got
a job? That's the argument. So I think just looking
at the people and the structure and how can you
cross train or how if someone's away, how can
you step in for each other? I think that's a
pretty good thing. And then you've also got a
well, what if workforce isn't available? What
do we do then? But just, you know, list the most
likely issues and look at the impacts. And if
they're probable, they could happen as a big
impact, then do you have a rough plan? Yeah.
Moving down the list, government. Changing of
rules. Those guys, it changes all the time. Yeah.
Well, it doesn't matter which country you're
from, but red tape and different governments
will have different strategies. Yeah, so many
industries stop right before election. it's crazy
how much doesn't happen right before election.
Yeah or people that say nothing happens when
it still is. Yeah well I mean yes but as in it
probably causes them to stop. I believe them
when they say like everything dies down because
they're not sure where to spend their money and
those sort of things. We'd have so much more
happening right now if those other guys were
in. Yes so yeah that could be a risk as far as
government makes a change and it is a negative
impact. We can also have a risk if there was
a positive impact, because maybe we weren't ready
for it. So the government's putting in some subsidies
for people to buy a certain product, and we're
not organized for it. That could be a risk. So
I think we don't have to keep up with everything
from the government, but it's worthwhile keeping
tabs on if certain things change or certain parts
that we do rely on. What happens if it's not
working in our favor? Technology is a huge one
at the moment with AI. You've got data security,
privacy. You've got, I think, every second ad
that comes across my YouTube feed at the moment
is these industries, these five industries are
going to die out in the next five years. Yep,
something great ad using fear as a motivator.
Gets the click through. But yeah, what AI are
we using to keep up with the times? So we're
not getting behind the eight ball? Are we protecting
our data? Do we have passwords that are secure?
Good passwords. Yeah, I saw someone log into
something earlier today and and it came up in
giant red through the password system that this
has been compromised. And the person panicked
and like, oh, that's bad. I said, it's not that
account. It just means that password's on the
list. I've had that happen to me. And you probably
use that password for everything. And the person's
like, yep. Oh, cool. Well, it might not be now,
but it could be your bank. It could be this,
it could be this, it could be this, it could
be all these things. Because as soon as someone
goes, oh, that's that email and they know your
other emails, they're going to try that password
for all the different things that they want to
get into. And that's how your Facebook account
gets hacked and all that sort of stuff. So two
-factor authentication is... Yeah, so what risks
do we have in that regard? Do we have anything
for managing our passwords? Are we typing everything
in or are we using the same password for everything?
Well, if you are, you're probably about 20 years
behind the cyber security. That's me. You've
got platforms, you know, Google and Microsoft
that have a lot of in -book security. You've
got two -factor authentications to minimize these
things. You've got insurances, but... That's
reimbursing you from a massive disruption. But
for most businesses, losing all your data and
not having access to your systems or your clients
all knowing their data's gone to whoever in whatever
country. Not ideal. And then you've also got
the people that just work from paper as well
and have all of their notes and all their client
files in their office. Rackets in there. Yeah.
Done. Fire. Done. Yep. Fire. So many different
things. It used to be you had your NYB file and
the USB stick back up and the backups never restored.
Yeah, so yeah, physical stuff, not just technology.
Beautiful thing about those risks are they are
all within your control. Well, somewhat. You
can change your passwords. You can not just have
paper. You can choose to cast up old mate, burn
down your office. Yeah, that's brutal. You have
some impact on what might happen. You do have
a bit of control of the charts or the effect
it will have. The mitigation of it as well. And
it can be, oh, internet goes down. We rely on
the internet for phones. Most people's phones
work through the internet now. So, okay, well,
do we have a backup that kicks in like a cellular
internet in the office that automatically as
the internet's down, bang, kicks up, you know,
can be quite as simple as that. But again, look
at what... your business users in those areas
and what would happen if it wasn't working. Next.
Bad debt. What do you mean by bad debt? Debt
that's not moving you forward? Unpaid taxes?
No. Bad debts when we were writing off people,
money people owe us. Got a bit of counseling
there. Everyone would have heard of someone that
went out of business because it's guided by me.
I got 20 cents on the dollar when they went bankrupt.
Yep. Yep. So do we have accounts? Do we have
account agreements? Do we have personal guarantees?
Do we have security on anything within companies?
What's our debtor follow -up? What are our general
rule of thumb for how far we let people go? How
much can we absorb? Do we have the buffer? Yeah.
Some people are like, oh, I needed to deal with
them because I wasn't making enough money. I
just needed to work. Well, if 50 % of your income
is coming from... Yeah, 40 % of your clients.
Yeah, as in diverse for your client base. Yeah.
So risk mitigation, diversify on the client base
and maybe we've got one client, we just need
to understand when that client goes, we shut
down the business. That's what we do. It's a
good run. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's if you're
struggling and then you've got some bad debt
with some clients and you're like, oh, we rely
on them to do it. It's like you really need to
look at, well, we need to fix the issue. We're
struggling and we need to assume that we don't
have that client because if they don't pass,
we're definitely broken. And if they do pass,
we're still very reliant. So yeah, credit management.
If you're finding it a huge issue and you're
going to go broke, if someone doesn't pay you,
you need to look at diversification and definitely
profitability, like your pricing or your model.
Don't be complacent. Yeah. But that should be
in your budget to allow for some loss. It's brutal
when... Someone can't pay, for example, super
for their employees or their wages, but it comes
back. They say, oh, we don't have money in the
account, but they actually have a ton of debtors.
And if they just change from 60 to 30 day credit
terms, they'd be fine. Yep. Yeah. That's a sad,
sad turn of events. Yep. Know your numbers. When
things like weather, so something we can't control
so well, but let's say you're, you know, you're
a roofer. You probably can't do too many roos
in the rain. But if you've got 20 roofers working
for you, what do you do when it rains? Because
it rains a lot in some places. Or it's too hot
to work on a roof in other places as well. Could
you diversify your business model? Could do.
Because they're non -time sensitive work that
they could be doing elsewhere. Can my roofers
build fences? Yeah. Is there a certain type of
prep work that we do off -site that we'd normally
do on -site? Might not be as efficient, but it
would make the next job faster. can we be smart
about how we do our hours? Maybe we do 10 -hour
days or 12 -hour days instead of 8 -hour days.
Flexible working -range strategy. Allow for the
lack of productivity and pricing. What if you
do a 12 -hour days, do three of those a week,
plus a little bit, instead of five 8 -hour days?
So, okay, we're going to be flexible, we're going
to work three days and we're just going to try
to get them right. They'll be big days, but we're
going to have a lot more days off and we're not
going to be affected by the weather as much.
As much as weather's not controllable, you're
going to know seasonally, generally, when it's
going to be, here's seven days of 40 plus, you
probably don't want to be roofing. Yeah. It's
like the wedding industry. Yeah. I mean, it all
sort of shuts down over winter. Supposed to be
lucky if it rains. Well, great example, what
are wedding venues do for a wedding? A wedding
doesn't change day. No, they will get a marquee
or something similar. But there's always a wet
weather plan. It does cost you more if you need
a marquee put up at the last possible second
or they'll... build a building or a small colour.
Or there's a lot of places have, here's the outdoor
spots. There's three different ones for different
wind conditions and there's an indoor one too.
And you get the whole place. So yeah, spot on.
That's a good example. And then charge 50 % more
than what it would be for another function. Going
off the pricing before, that's worth more than
a venue that doesn't have a weather strategy.
Correct. So it's actually interesting because
some of these things we can talk about, we have
these systems in place. We have these mitigation
plans for risks, which means we can assure with
more certainty that we're going to deliver for
you. That sounds good, doesn't it? Yeah. So that's
a high price premium. There's someone that's
like, oh, I don't have a don't have a occupational
health and safety process. We'll just, you know,
we'll be right. Yeah, that bamboo scaffold will
do the job, won't it? Yeah. Oh no, that will
be fine. The weather will be fine. Don't worry
about it. That's different too. The weather is
scheduled to be fine, but if it doesn't, we do
this, this and this. Interesting one there. So
competitors, what sort of risks do we have from
competitors? They come in and innovate and Kodak
and Blockbuster again, just putting your head
in the sand and going, ah, they're coming in.
That digital technology is probably never going
to take off. I'll be right. Yeah, my mom kind
of went to the government regulation. So for
example, if they have entry incentives to your
industry. And then all of a sudden you've got
20 new competitors and you're just happy doing
what you were doing. Locally here, they had the
liquor licensing rules. So venues needed to apply
for the license. It was shaped like 12 months,
a long time before they opened and people were
complaining about it. I said, well, if you want
to go into that industry, that's part of the,
you know, factor that in. But they're like, we're
paying 12 months of lease before we can get our
license. because we need to, you know, and they're
like, okay, we're going to change rules. So you
don't need any of the licenses to start now,
but you've got to be working on getting the next
in the months afterwards. So now a lot of those
venues are going to pop up. Great example. Yeah.
Yeah. I feel like when it comes to competitors,
you've really got to dig down in what makes you
different. You can't assume that you are. If
you're building a house, you're just building
a house. That's the same sort of concept as we're
talking in one of the other episodes about your
value base. Pricing is you've got to know what
it is that you're actually delivering. The same
thing turned around though, you can't assume
because you've got a USB and you're fantastic
at what you do, the clients aren't going to leave
you with it. Yeah, you've just got to knuckle
down and hope that what you're doing is... is
right. But then you've also, I mean, that's why
we always come up with a higher, higher purpose
is because you've got this set. You want a niche.
Yeah. This is what you're trying to aim. It doesn't
matter what that process looks like in order
to get it. You've just got to be able to adapt
because in the end, this is what you're trying
to achieve. The more you niche down, the better
off you'll be. In my experience, not everyone
can be Coca -Cola where your audience is anyone
with a mouth. But in saying that we have, you
know, we have a niche, for example. and then
four people jump in, we're going, gee, this looks
good over here, let's get in on that. That's
fun. Okay, what do we do? Be better. Can do.
But what does that mean? Don't rest on your laurels
just because you might have been the first one
into that market. You've got to, as you said,
put the railway tracks. You've got to keep moving.
So keep moving. But I think you can also have
a plan. Okay, suddenly we have three competitors.
What are we going to do with our clients? Can
we just have a product that we don't need to
launch right now? But when we start getting competitors,
we launch this product. It's all ready to go.
We don't need it at the moment. We're not going
to change our prices. It's going to be extra
value, but we're already super good value. So
maybe we have this particular thing, and if someone
jumps into our space, we launch that, and now
suddenly we're three years ahead of them again.
So it's probably like anything else. If that
happened, what could we do? It's not just be
better, but how could we be better and be a little
bit organized as to if that would happen? I think
that's the general gist of risk mitigation. Be
as prepared as you can be and be fluid without
being, you know, over the top. Yeah, I was going
to say in saying that you can have a you can
have a plan, but don't have a 40 page Excel spreadsheet
with every little detail of what it's going to
look like, because you can't plan. That's why
these these areas are so not vague, but I mean,
they cover a lot of things. But in the end, you
can't you can say my best employee, I'm so reliant
on them. that I need to figure out a way to incentivize
them to stay because I need them and then I will
also involve them in trying to make their job
less intense because I know they're gonna get
burnt out, I'll bring them in. You don't know
what incentivizing them is gonna look like until
you talk to them. But it's just making a note
of how you're going to fix that should it come
about. So I think everyone's business is different,
and as it grows, it has different risks or things
to care about. Like when you've got a one -man
band, you're not going to be cared about. You're
not going to care about competitors and a few
other things. Government changing the rules.
When you're bigger and established, you're going
to be more worried about things like that. But
the general process is that you just, instead
of going, she'll be right, just have a list of
what could go wrong. Don't focus on it. But if
there's any drastic consequences or... high chance
of something happening is worth having a little
bit of a plan. And the second part is that they're
actually communicating that within the business
because if everyone knows what to do, it won't
be chaos. And that's the whole fire evacuation
plan that everyone's seen. You know, you jump
on a cruise ship and we do a fire drill first,
the overboard, what happens if we're going to
sink? Everyone's done the plan and we all would
have done something before and gone, oh, under
door. I wasn't sure what was going to happen,
but when I was there, I felt like I'd been there
before and I knew what was going to happen. And
that's probably what we were aiming for. We're
not aiming for perfection. We're just aiming
for success. In saying that, like also look for
support because you're not going to come up with
all the ideas. I mean, most business owners get
into their job because they're really good at
what they do and they want to. They want to do
better for themselves. It doesn't necessarily
mean they're trained in all of the other nitty
-gritty aspects like figuring out cash flow.
So find the resource in order to help and then
lean on that advice. As long as it's good. The
last area that I want to mention is just, you
know, your personal side or, you know, something
happens to you. You know, you've got wills and
things like that. What happens if I'm not there
anymore? But, you know, if you've got business
entities, most people have companies or whatever
it is and they're the director of them. So now
if they're not there anymore, who can actually
do anything on behalf of the company? No one.
So I think it's just worth talking to the accountants
and lawyers to make sure that you actually have
a succession plan in place. And asset protection.
Yeah. Oh, goodness. Yeah. It's quite a complicated
area, but definitely asset protection and wills
and successive directors and all that sort of
stuff. Talk to your accountants and lawyers and
make sure that something does go wrong, that
the ship doesn't stop sailing. That's part of
your three fundamentals of accounting and I can
never remember them in order. Well, they don't
have to be in order. Asset protection is one
of the things your accountant should be doing
for you. All the other two. Tax minimisation
and good reporting. Here we go. All right. We'll
wrap it up there. Thank you everyone for listening.
If you do need help, reach out and we will see
you next time. Bye.