Failures in business don’t happen because of a large, unavoidable occurrence; they happen because a small detail was overlooked. Learn more here.

1. Failures don’t happen because of a large,
unavoidable occurrence; rather, they
happen because a small, easy-to-miss
detail was overlooked.

2.  A few weeks ago, I took my car in for a
routine service to the Lincoln service centre.
Everything went as normal, I waited while
the technician looked over the car… and
suddenly he calls me over. The car is up on
the rack, and he’s standing underneath with
a flashlight in his hands.
 He points and says “there’s a leak you need
to look at.” I look up, but can’t see anything.
He points to it, I still can’t see it. I’m
thinking he’s trying to get me to agree to an
unnecessary fix, but he then says, “You see
this pipe? OK, follow it all the way up, till
where it joins the pump. You see that? Now,
look at the joint? You see that shine? That’s a
leak.”

3.  And I was shocked. From the beginning, I was
looking exactly where we was pointing to -
but didn’t see what he saw. The metal bit
was shiny, I didn’t think too much of it. Turns
out, it was shiny because of a leak, and
that’s not what I picked up. It was not
urgent, but it would need to be sorted within
6-8 months. He gave me the options, I made
a decision, and it was all sorted. But what if
he hadn’t noticed it? What if I had continued
driving the car as normal, and suddenly had a
disaster while on the highway? I’d probably
have chalked it up to bad luck, but in reality,
it was the skill of the technician that picked
out the problem while it was still small.

4.  In business, it’s often the same. The failures
don’t happen because of a large,
unavoidable occurrence; rather, they happen
because a small, easy-to-miss detail was
overlooked. A mistake in how something is
priced. A drop in performance. A broken link
on the website. Over time, these leaks add
up to large-scale challenges and losses.
 The question, therefore, is: how do you spot
the leaks?
 There are three things I’d propose you do
regularly.

5.  First: Get your metrics in place
 Secondly: Keep your accountant close
 Thirdly: Change your perspective
Read more about these tips in the original
blog:
Top 3 Tips to Spot the Leak in Your Business