Tunnel vision can be a dangerous condition
The main issue the business faced was around cashflow. Due to the pandemic, most of my client’s customers had ceased trading. Meaning the regular income levels, which the company was used to receiving, were simply not coming in.
He had done the right thing in taking out a bounce-back loan and even spent it wisely paying suppliers and HMRC, but some serious cash flow issues still remained.
Being unsure how to tackle the situation, one “advisor” had suggested shutting down the company. This planted the seed of closure in the owner’s head. Which continued to grow and grow, blocking out any other thoughts, until all he could see was the single option at the end of the tunnel… closure.
That is how dangerous tunnel vision can be. By not seeing what else is going on around you, your mind is fixated on one (often negative) outcome being the only possibility.
After going to speak with an insolvency practitioner and being given the information he needed around liquidating the business, the inevitable ending was in sight. Thankfully, there was still time for the end to be rewritten.
Like so many business owners I have worked with, my client told me how the situation impacted his mental health and home life. He struggled to sleep, and his wife was also finding the whole situation overwhelming, with the insolvency practitioners putting pressure on to ‘sign on the dotted line.’
Why would you give up in 48 hours what you had worked six years to achieve?
After having several frank conversations with my client, looking through his finances and order sheets, we began developing a plan to get out of this predicament. Finally, we could see a positive solution. This was where we needed to start getting the wheels of change into motion.
Now I must say at this point, by approaching me for help, it doesn’t guarantee that your business will succeed. What it does guarantee is that we will try everything possible to make sure you have a business to build back up. Brick by brick if we need to. And if we can’t turn it around, you know we will have tried all we can, with every option being explored. You can dust yourself off. Pick yourself up. Learn from your experience, and go again with my support and mentorship so that your new company will be trading and sustainable quickly.
We spoke with the bank to extend the businesses overdraft to give ourselves some immediate breathing space.
Next, we began looking at my client’s customer base: what was he offering? Remember, as a supplier to the hospitality industry, his main customers were closed due to COVID19 and demand had dropped. So then, which other businesses could benefit from his services?
We found an opportunity to diversify his customer base and, guess what, it opened up a new market that hadn’t even been considered before.
We now had breathing space and potential for growth. Once we had renegotiated the terms and conditions of deposits with customers, which improved the business’ cash flow, the financial fog that had clouded my clients’ mind for months, finally began to rise.
