Mike “Hutch” Hutchinson, Breathe coach and financial expert, shares his thoughts.
“We all seem quite happy shuffling around in our cars with just a few dials on the dash board. Most importantly, I guess, are speed and fuel. In fact, it would be worth testing it, don’t you think? So tonight when you drive home, why not gaffer tape up a couple of dials and see how it goes for a week or two. In fact, why not tape up the lot?
It may not be so odd as you think, as my experience shows that many of us drive our businesses like that! I mean, can you imagine owning a car for a whole year and not once knowing how fast you are going, whether or not the car is overheating, if we have any fuel left in the tank? I understand that there is a shed load of information that could be gathered from the car, like the amount of brake fluid left in the cylinders, the precise amount of water in the fluid washer bottle, or perhaps the number of times you have used the rear screen heater whilst in a built up area. It’s like that in business too. There’s loads of stuff going on, all of the time, but only limited amounts that you really need to know. So can you get where I am going with all this?
Talking about getting where you are going – how many of you have GPS in that car? A quick show of hands – yep, about 85% of you. I think GPS is brilliant. You just plug in the postcode and off you jolly well go. In fact, when the road you thought you were taking turns out to be closed, somehow it recalculates a new route and keeps you moving. It even works out what time you are going to arrive. That is just amazing. So for about 200 quid, you get this little box and pop it in your 10 grand motor and you now exactly where you are all of the time. Incredible.
I wonder if anyone has thought about GPS for business?
I mean, I’m guessing here, but if you run a dental practice that turns over, say, £500k, then what is that worth? (At this point I dust off my business valuations guide, search out my Corporate Finance manuals – throw them straight out of the window and apply the foolproof percentage valuation model. It’s a belter! And it works like this – (MBA’s, watch this space). Turnover £500k, valuation, say 85% – that’ll be £425k then)!
So is it right that you should spend all day every day driving a business worth nearly half a million quid with nothing to tell you how fast you are going, whether you have enough fuel in the tank to get where you think you need to go, other than you don’t know where you are now, so there is absolutely no way you can arrive on time, if you knew what the time was!!
But if you did have the chance to pick 3 dials what would they be (no Breathe Business Clubbers allowed to answer this bit, you already know) – how about Income, Wealth and Time?
Income – how much money you are making (and keeping) annually.
Wealth – how much you are worth (net of debts etc).
Time – how much free time you are enjoying
Well, how do your dials look right now? And how cool would it be just to be able to glance at them from time to time to see that they are all in exactly the right place, or at least you have a strategy to get them in the right place – using some kind of business GPS?
Yeah, very cool. Anyone want to know more?”
If you would like to know more about how Breathe can help you develop the right dials for your business and help you get to where you want to get to, then please contact Ernie on 0845 299 7209 or ernie@nowbreathe.co.uk