Business Turnaround podcast

When a business is in trouble, one of the first places to look for improvement is in how efficiently labor is being utilized. Labor costs are often one of the largest expenses for a company, especially in blue-collar industries. If your team isn’t operating efficiently, it could be draining resources and holding the business back from profitability. Let’s explore how you can approach this strategically in your turnaround.

No one starts a business with the intention of walking away. We pour our hearts, energy, and resources into our companies, and when things start going downhill, we fight tooth and nail to save them. But sometimes, despite all the effort, the best decision for the future of the business—and for you as an owner—is to step away. The key is recognizing when that time has come.

In a business turnaround one of the most impactful decisions you’ll make is who you bring onto your team. The right hires can transform a struggling company into a thriving one, while the wrong hires can keep you stuck in crisis mode. Hiring in a turnaround situation isn’t like hiring during a growth phase. Let’s talk about how to approach hiring during a turnaround and what qualities to look for in people who will help you rebuild and grow.

Dealing with employee challenges can be one of the hardest parts of leading a business turnaround. As leaders, we want to protect the people who’ve been with us, who’ve contributed to the business and its culture. But the truth is, not addressing employee issues can make things far worse—not just for the company, but for the entire team.

When you’re in a turnaround situation, cash isn’t just king - it’s your lifeline. Determining your cash runway, or how much time you have before cash runs out, can be the difference between making a successful recovery and watching your business slip away. It gives you a concrete timeline and lets you plan, prioritise, and make the necessary adjustments to keep the doors open.

When a business is in distress, the instinct is often to do more—try new things, add more services, expand into different areas. But, when your business is in survival mode, doing more often leads to greater complexity and higher costs. What your business really needs is less. Less complication, less waste, and fewer unnecessary activities. Simplifying and focusing on efficiency can be the keys to turning things around. But why Efficiency Matters in a Turnaround?

When your business is in distress, you can’t afford to make decisions based on gut feelings or past experiences alone. You need hard data, and more importantly, you need a vision of how different actions and scenarios will impact your company’s financial future. This is where forecasting scenarios becomes so valuable.

When we think about turning a business around, the first instinct is often to focus on growing sales. The fastest way to profitability though is often found by cutting costs. This isn’t glamorous, and it can be uncomfortable, but when a business is on the edge, cutting expenses is one of the quickest levers you can pull to extend your cash runway. It’s about survival first, and profit second.

Turning a business around is an intense process. The stakes are high, and the pressure can be overwhelming. As leaders, we often get so focused on saving the company that we neglect our most important asset—ourselves. But as Jim Rohn famously said, "Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live." This applies just as much to our mental well-being as it does to our physical health. In a turnaround, you need to be at your best, and that requires taking care of both.

When we think about turning a business around, the first things that come to mind are cutting costs or improving efficiency. While these are important, the supply chain is an area that can be significantly improved during a turnaround and have a profound impact on a company’s recovery. Your supply chain directly affects almost every part of your business: production, inventory, delivery, customer satisfaction, and, of course, costs.