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Arrived Alive or Crashed in a Heap

Most of us have travelled in an aircraft these days, BUT do you ever consider what goes on behind the scenes as the aircraft thunders down the runway before leaping into the air at the start of every journey. Every safe and successful airline has in

Most of us have travelled in an aircraft these days, BUT do you ever consider what goes on behind the scenes as the aircraft thunders down the runway before leaping into the air at the start of every journey. Every safe and successful airline has in place a myriad of systems and procedures to ensure its staff and passengers depart and arrive safely.

So too for successful businesses. One of our roles as advisors is to ensure that business owners have the right systems and procedures in place so that they too have a successful and profitable journey. A safe air trip means that the aircraft must make certain reporting points along the way. So too for business, Tax, BAS, IAS etc. completed and lodged on time. Therefore, one of the characteristics of a successful business is a compliant business.

Before flight, the crew checks their hardware, the airplane – well the same for business – is all the business hardware in good working order? The crew checks the aircraft software, so too for business, virus protection, data breach protection, Backups, and disaster recovery. Aircrew use numerous checklists to ensure we have a safe flight including:

• Before start,
• After start,
• Taxi checks,
• Pre-take off checks,
• Take off checks,
• After take-off checks,
• Climb checks,
• Cruise checks,
• Pre-descent checks,
• Descent checks,
• Pre-landing checks,
• Landing checks,
• After landing checks,
• Shutdown checks.

The crew also have an operations manual and numerous checklists in case of an emergency – how is your business and your clients business setup?

So too for our business owners who need procedures for opening the business, running the business including bookkeeping, record keeping, sales, purchases, payroll, hiring, firing and closing the business daily.  Have you ever heard of brand or reputation recovery (documented procedures to be implemented in the case of reputation damage (Think Samsung S7)? A systemized, well documented business operation is far more attractive to potential purchases than a ramshackle operation. Next time one of your clients looks at you sideways (the glare!) when you are assisting or advising them about the need for systems and procedures just ask yourself (& them) – Do you want to arrive alive (& profitable) or crash in a heap – & we have all seen the crashes in business.