A blind eye can lead you down a blind road. I have experienced this first hand. To some, this saying will make sense in all aspects of life. To a business owner to eventually becomes a grim reality that is too often caught late and makes the recovery a never-ending challenge to overcome.
In business, this usually starts when the business owner does not take the time to review the company books on a daily basis, leaves it to a business manager to do it, yet fails to entertain the advise of the business manager. The business manager is looking at the numbers daily, sometimes 3-4 times per day. They know what needs to be done. They go to the owner with advise and are turned a deaf ear to. Why does this happen? In my experience, it was because the changes that were being requested were ones that would effect the company in areas of spending and personnel. Two area to which some business owners are sensitive to. Day by day the business manager watches the company heading in downward spiral and realizes that there is not much that he/she can do about it, so they ultimately choose to resign from the company.
This leaves the owner is a precarious situation. As now that owner is forced to run their company in a way that they had not had to in the past. The blinders come off. They are now seeing the books right in front of their face. They are seeing the lack of income, overage on expenses, the heavy payroll and the debt. A road that they were blinded to before. Now, they are stuck with the challenge of saving their business.
Blindness is one of the reasons that 96/100 business fail in the first 5 years. As a business owner, I challenge you to remove the blinders and put your numbers in front of your face on a regular basis. Review them with your business manager, accountant and advisors. Then and only then, can you make the necessary decisions to ensure your success.