The Lazarus Business

I met a great chap recently. He runs a successful business, has done for 20 years, and works with global businesses. He knows his onions. He knows his onions so well that big corporates use his company to improve their profits. Nice.

His material is outstanding and his ethics sound as a pound. And this great, great guy got scammed by one of his salespeople over the course of a number of months, 'selling' programmes to new clients. Invoices were raised and the sales guy 'helped' by delivering them himself to the clients.

Clients who (and you've guessed it) had never met him and never signed up for any business. It nearly took my friend's company down. Fortunately, they rumbled it but it cost time, money, downsizing and a lot of sleepless nights.

And here's the lesson. When your business is small and you are involved all over the place, you can see into the furthest corners of it. You know what is going on where and when and why. As you get bigger, you have to delegate and that's when most businesses run into problems.

Trust is essential in business but no good in management. Without tight systems and checks, stuff slips through and that stuff can kill you off. Profits are only on paper until you collect them.

So many businesses really don't know what goes on in those dark, dusty corners. If you don't, expect to be surprised. On the other hand, spend some time and a bit of money to make sure you never get caught out by trusting assumptions.