I was in Bilbao last weekend with my brothers. As they live in Cardiff and Tokyo, it’s not often we all get together.
Aside from, of course, fitting a football match in (Athletic Club Bilbao v Real Betis), we did visit Bilbao’s main tourist attraction – the Guggenheim. I have to admit that I’m not usually the biggest fan of modern art…but this was excellent.
The building itself is incredible. Striking, impressive, hard to miss… and the good thing is, it absolutely lives up to it once you get inside too.
Now, not every bit of it was for me. There was one piece that was, genuinely, a bin bag in the corner. I thought someone had just left it there… but no, there was indeed a plaque with the artist’s name and a full explanation.
So I can’t pretend I loved every single piece. But overall, there was a lot of great stuff. And it got me thinking…
A lot of businesses are great from the outside – busy office, busy team, decent turnover and plenty going on. Maybe even a few people saying, “You’re doing really well.”
And sometimes they are doing really well.
But not always.
Because what a business looks like from the outside and what it feels like on the inside can be two very different things.
The Guggenheim delivers on the inside as well as the outside.
A lot of businesses don’t.
From the outside, they can look polished and successful but, from the inside, the owner might be stressed, cash might be tighter than it should be, profit might not reflect the effort, and everything can feel far harder work than it ought to.
That’s something I see a lot.
A business that looks successful… but does not feel successful enough to the person carrying the weight of it. That’s often where the frustration starts. Because it’s confusing.
Turnover is decent, the team is busy, customers are coming in.
So why does it still feel so hard? Why is there never quite enough cash? Why does the reward not match the effort?
Usually, the answer is that something underneath is not working as well as it could be.
Margins may be too tight. Prices may be too low. Costs may have crept up quietly. Debtors may be taking too long to pay. Too much may depend on the owner.
Or the business may simply have grown without enough time being spent stepping back and improving how it actually runs.
That is why I think appearances can be dangerous in business.
Because if something looks good enough from the outside, it is very easy to leave it alone.
To keep going, to keep pushing, and to keep assuming that next month will somehow feel better.
But often the better question is not “How does the business look?”, but “How does the business actually work?”
Is it producing the profit it should? Is it producing the cash it should? Is it giving the owner the control, clarity and reward they hoped for?
Because if it is not, then it probably needs attention… even if from the outside it all looks absolutely fine.
And usually, once you spot what is really going on underneath, the fixes are more practical than people expect.
Not always easy. But usually clearer than they feared.
So here’s the question – Does your business only look successful from the outside…or does it feel successful from the inside too?
Or does it feel like a bin bag? If it does, let me know and let’s see what we can do to help.
Cheers
Jon
PS We’re hosting our Business Improvement Summit in Liverpool on 22 April. It’s for business owners who want more profit, better cash flow, more control and less stress. If that sounds useful, you can book here