Stop running your business on guesswork

Read time: 2 mins

Hey there!

We’re a few weeks into our series on building a more valuable business, and enjoying the opportunity to link the value levers we’re covering with wise words from smart, powerful women.

This week’s quote comes from Marie Curie:

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.”

Hard to argue with someone who pioneered research into radioactivity, became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and then became the first person to win two.

Marie Curie spent her life studying things most people couldn’t see, didn’t understand, and were probably very reasonably nervous about.

Which isn’t a bad metaphor for business systems and reporting.

Because business mess feels much scarier when you don’t understand it.

Missing processes.

Numbers you don’t trust.

Reports you avoid because you’re worried what they’ll show.

Cash flow questions you don’t really want answered.

Client issues, team problems or profit leaks that make your stomach turn, so you ignore them for “just one more week.”

Every business has issues that feel uncomfortable to look at.

But if you want your business to be more valuable, you need to take inspiration from Marie Curie and start understanding them.

Because what you understand, you can improve.

And what you improve becomes easier to manage, easier to hand over, and less risky to a future buyer.

So this week, we’re looking at how to make your business less messy, less scary, and much easier to run.

How to build better systems and reporting, the Marie Curie way

1. Make the invisible visible

Marie Curie studied things most people couldn’t see.

That’s where a lot of business problems live too.

Not in the obvious blow-ups, but in the hidden gaps:

• The follow-ups that never happened
• The jobs that quietly blew out
• The client issues no one escalated
• The leads that disappeared because no one owned them
• The profit leaks that only show up months later when cash feels tight

If you want a stronger business, you need to make the invisible visible.

That starts with simple reporting.

Not dashboards with 47 tabs.

Just a regular way to see the important things, like sales, cash, margin, delivery, team capacity, client issues and overdue actions.

Because once you can see what’s happening, you can actually do something about it.

Ask yourself:

What do we currently only find out about when it becomes a problem?

2. Stop relying on memory

A business that runs on memory is fragile.

If everyone has to remember the process, the client detail, the follow-up, the deadline, the exception, and what happened last time, things will eventually fall through the cracks.

Not because people are bad.

Because people are human.

So put in a few simple systems to help your humans out:

• Checklists
• Templates
• Shared notes
• Task lists
• Standard ways of doing things
• Clear handovers
• A regular meeting rhythm

It’s not glamorous stuff, but neither is missing something important because it lived only in someone’s head.

Ask yourself:

Where are we relying on people remembering things that should be built into the system?

3. Use reporting to find the real problem

Reporting is not there to make anyone feel bad.

Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

Good reporting helps you understand what’s actually happening, so you can fix the right thing, e.g.:

• If sales are down, is it leads, conversion, follow-up, pricing, or the quality of opportunities?
• If profit is down, is it underquoting, rework, delivery delays, scope creep, or team productivity?
• If clients are unhappy, is it communication, expectations, quality, timing, or handover?

Without reporting, everything is a vague problem, and vague problems are hard to fix.

With reporting, you can stop guessing and start improving.

Very Marie Curie: Less fear. More understanding.

Ask yourself:

Where are we guessing, when we should be looking at the facts?

4. Keep systems simple enough to use

This is important.

The goal is not to create a 97-page operations manual that everyone loathes or ignores.

The goal is to make the business easier to run.

A good system should help people do the right thing more consistently.

A good report should help you make better decisions.

So, if your systems are too complicated, they won’t get used, and if your reporting is too detailed, no one will look at it.

So start with the basics:

• What needs to happen every time?
• What are the key numbers we need to review?
• What decisions need to be made regularly?
• What does the team need to know?
• What would help us spot issues earlier?

Simple and used beats perfect and ignored every time.

Ask yourself:

What is one system or report we could simplify so it actually gets used?

⭐ Bottom line

Systems and reporting are not about making your business more corporate.

They are about making it easier to run, easier to improve and easier to trust.

So take inspiration from Marie Curie.

Stop fearing the mess.

Understand it.

Then build the simple systems and reports that help you fix it.

And if you want help making your business easier to run, improve and eventually sell, please get in touch.

We’re here to help!

Speak soon,

Lynne & Steve

P.S.

Next week, we’re looking at another big value lever, smart tech and automation, because the right tech should make your business easier, not give you twelve new passwords and a small emotional breakdown!

 

 

TLDR

• Simple systems and reporting make your business more valuable.
• Build them by:
  • making hidden problems visible
  • stopping reliance on memory
  • using reporting to find the real issue
  • keeping systems simple enough to use
• Take inspiration from Marie Curie, understand the business so you can improve it.

And if you want help with this, check out our Business Consulting services page, or get in touch with us here.

 

P.P.S.

Know someone who’d get value from this? Feel free to forward it on, it might be exactly what they need to hear right now. 😉