The Business GP – Appointment Three

Whilst this topic is very closely related and following on from Appointment 2 I felt it important to embellish further. 

The past is a great predictor of, well exactly that, the past.  It is no guarantee of future success, of event of future potential.  It has always been one of the most fundamental of flaws in large businesses where promotions etc have been decided on past performance.  I am not saying that past performance should not count for something, but do you honestly think, John Major, and now Gordon Brown were so inept that everything fell apart within weeks of taking over? 

Timing is everything; I have seen careers made by people leaving before the long term issues they have created come to light.  When things were going well no-one was asking any tough questions about the sustainability of what was being done.  The Beatles said it perfectly for me in the song ‘Yesterday’ – ‘Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.’

In business, like looking after yourself you should constantly check for signs that things are not right.  Ask yourself, how well you can plan your future revenues, or how good is my database looking and performing, or even how efficient is my business really.  All these things should be regarded as health indicators. They are not a definitive list but as with all things a few minutes a day spent checking various things will always help.  When was the last time you made a 5 minute call to your best customers, just to see how they felt things were going, or even spent time to ring an old friend to hear the ‘word on the street’.

Whilst very similar to the lessons of my last surgery I felt it important to highlight due to the level of questions the subject had raised.

For more information or to talk to Marc about your own business go to: www.thebusinessgp.com