Business Turnaround podcast

Every business decline I’ve ever stepped into, whether it was a manufacturing shop, a transport company, a care provider, or a retail chain, had the same deeper root cause. It wasn’t the market. It wasn’t the staff. It wasn’t the competition. It was always something the owner couldn’t see, or refused to see, until it was almost too late – Blind spots.

A profit leak is one of those things you can feel in your bones long before you see it in the numbers. You look at your bank account at the end of the month, you look at your sales, and you think: How on earth are we this busy and still not making money? That moment – that frustration – usually means your business has multiple small leaks that together create a massive silent drain. What makes profit leaks dangerous is that they hide behind movement.

You know exactly what I mean. That moment when you walk into your business and realise that everything is happening… but nothing is truly under control. Jobs are being done, orders are going out, and people are busy, but you couldn’t confidently tell someone what your margin was yesterday, what your waste rate is this week, or which customer is quietly draining all your profit. Operational fog is not chaos. It’s worse.

Retail lies to you. It gives you the illusion of success through footfall, transactions, even a spike in gross sales. But none of that matters if your cash flow is negative, your payroll is bloated, and your best-selling item has a margin of 5%. This is what I call operational vanity. The business looks alive. But underneath, it’s bleeding out.

Let’s be honest –> Most blue-collar businesses, whether in manufacturing, construction, logistics, or field services, weren’t designed for what’s coming. They were built for muscle, loyalty, and know-how. Not for algorithms, automation, and 24/7 data flows.

If you run a factory, a construction firm, a logistics business, you know how valuable it is to have someone you trust. Someone who’s been there since day one. Who knows the systems. The clients. The way things were. But here’s the problem: That same loyal employee can also be the one slowing you down.

You’ve built this company. With your hands, your time, your weekends. You remember every supplier meeting from 10 years ago. You know how to fix the machines yourself if needed. Your people respect you. Or they fear you. But one day, something shifts. Sales flatline. Staff turnover creeps up. You feel like you’re pushing harder, but nothing’s moving. That’s when Owner Blindness kicks in.

Most business owners I meet don’t go bust overnight. They survive the big shocks – COVID, interest rates, raw material hikes... But what finishes them off? The slow, quiet drip of profit they never knew they were losing.

You know the one I mean. The one that’s been around forever. The one your team has an emotional connection to. The one your customers used to love... but now it’s just kind of there – barely moving the needle. And still, you keep it alive.

Momentum isn’t on your P&L. You can’t measure it on a dashboard. But every founder, every CEO, every operator who’s lived through tough times knows exactly what it feels like. When momentum is gone, everything becomes harder. Sales calls don’t convert. Staff move slower. Decisions get delayed. Emails sit unanswered. And then the worst thing happens: nothing happens.