Page 21 - How To Avoid Going Bust In Business

When my rental car business was on its beam ends I was working between 12 and
16 hours a day seven days a week. In reality I was making lousy decisions, ill
thought-through plans. I created situations that increased the problems. Like not
attending to things such as repairs and maintenance with the result that breakdowns
kept happening, resulting in higher costs, loss of customer confidence, wasted time
putting out bushfires of my own making.

There’s a theory that says if your business model is wrong, working like hell at it will
only make it worse.

Put another way - if you are in a hole, stop digging.

Long, long hours are mostly counter-productive. After about 14 hours straight you
brain starts to shut down. That’s when mistakes happen. Injuries occur . . . all
manner of mishaps.

By and large if you can’t solve the problems in 10 to 12 hour days then they are
probably beyond salvage.

Similarly the seven day a week thing. At a maximum keep it to six and half. You
need time to allow the mind and body to regenerate.

If you are doing the seven-day week stint then your time to brain-fade each day is
even shorter. You probably can’t do 12 hours without loss of competence.

Ultimately the only way out of the mess – certainly in the medium to long term – is to
find creative ways of doing things better and smarter.

You won’t get those creative ideas when your brain is whacked out with fatigue.

Under stress it can be difficult to get to sleep. Trust me, I know that feeling. Develop
a regular sleep approach. Stop work at around the same time each night. (I’m
assuming here that you are working like a nutter night and day). Go to the toilet,
clean your teeth. Whatever. But do it in the same routine every night. Get into bed,
maybe read a little bit. Then shut down. Do not, repeat, do not, REPEAT , DO NOT
(get the message?) start to worry about money and the business. It’s an absolute
waste of time and nervous energy. You will never achieve a thing grinding away at
the problems in the middle of the night.

There’s a time to address the issues and that’s during the day, refreshed after a
break and a good night’s sleep.

If you find yourself niggling away at the problems, say to yourself “This is nuts. I
can’t fix anything at this time of night. I’ll deal with in the morning”.

Worry is an incredibly corrosive emotion. It is entirely negative. It achieves nothing.