When business owners hit a bad quarter, the instinct is to fix the discomfort fast — cutting costs, pivoting, or blowing up the plan. But reactive decisions often leave the real problem unsolved. Before acting, diagnose what’s actually broken: a revenue problem, a debt problem, and a “wrong business” problem all require different responses.
I’m your speed bump before you “blow it all up”
This is the point in the year when a lot of business owners start having some version of an “oh shit” moment:
- “I don’t like these numbers, are we behind?”
- “Do I need to borrow money?
- “Our plan isn’t working, do we need to blow it up?”
We all have these moments — and they don’t feel good.
So our natural instinct is to get out of the discomfort as fast as possible by fixing what’s “broken.” We like that, right? Being decisive feels fantastic because you’re doing something.
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Depending on your specific situation, yes, taking timely, decisive action might be the right call. But when you’re uncomfortable, your first idea is often the one that makes the icky feeling stop the fastest. Being reactive, unfortunately, often leaves the real problem unsolved.
So I’m here today to put a speed bump between you and momentarily soothing decisions that might actually make your situation even worse.
“I looked at my financials, and I’m behind. What should I do?”
Hello, Q2 review. Mine wasn’t so great. I knew we were behind our financial plan, but our quarterly business review (QBR) showed just how far behind we were and what ground we needed to recover.
We’re still profitable. We just haven’t grown at the rate I expected — but I also know why. It’s not a problem with how our team is functioning. I had a lot of medical stuff happen during the first half of the year, and I wasn’t able to do the sales activities I needed to do. (Which is why I expanded the team in the first place.) But I’ll be honest — it’s hard to not go for the largest marketing and people costs first when you miss your goals.
So if you look at your numbers and your first instinct is panic, do not act. Sit on it for a few days while you consider your options. Because that urge of “I need to do something right now” is how a lot of business owners blow up perfectly good teams, only to set back their growth by months or years when they need to take back more day-to-day operations while they look for a replacement.
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Take a beat to determine what problem you actually have.
For example, are you spending a lot more than you expected to deliver the same product or service? Or are your operating costs okay, but you’ve just had a short-term sales miss that can be made up through some hustle?
Those require different responses.
If you need help diagnosing where your financial issues might be, read this article. It walks through the process I use with my clients to evaluate cash leaks, pipeline, offers, and the macroeconomic big picture for your business.
“Should I borrow money?”
As always, the answer is a big ol’ maybe.
I think about this as good debt vs. bad debt. Good debt is generally used toward investments or activities that will generate revenue or growth, or it gets you through what you know is a short-term dip. Bad debt is borrowing for activities that won’t return at least a breakeven amount to you, and instead digs you a bigger financial hole. Bad debt keeps an underlying problem alive without giving you a realistic way to pay the money back.
Hiring for revenue activities is what I would consider good debt. You often have to put the money in before you get the money out. I recently hired someone knowing I would need to cover a shortfall for two or three months before that role could contribute to revenue.
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I could have said, “I need three months’ coverage in the bank before I can hire the person who helps me make the money.” But it would have taken me several months to get there, and I would have been making the operating problem worse in the meantime. Would I have hired her? Probably not. And I’d be stuck in the same problematic place.
Borrowing can also make sense if your pipeline is healthy. You can see the shortfall correcting in the next couple of months, and you need help to get over the hump. Or you have a contract and you need to start working on it, but your payment terms are 60 or 90 days out.
If you decide to borrow, get a real credit line from a credible bank or financial partner. Do not take the loan from the person texting about pre-approved money. Make sure it’s not a merchant cash advance, which often has predatory rates and the underlying right to take your business if you miss a payment.
“This isn’t working. Should I blow up the plan?”
If this is where you are, my first question to you is: how far off are you?
If this is a situation you can see correcting in six to eight weeks — you just need a bridge — don’t blow anything up, just focus on building that bridge. You may be behind on the plan, but that doesn’t automatically mean the plan is wrong.
It’s different if your business is financially healthy but you just aren’t enjoying it. Maybe your role changed and you expected to feel more fulfilled by it. Maybe you’re doing well but now you hate coming to work every day.
That’s a different conversation. Ask yourself:
- What is the business you actually want to be in?
- What options do you have?
- How do you proactively move toward something better while you continue to make money?
You don’t have to immediately stop everything and start over. You can figure out how to move from one version of the business to another without turning off the revenue.
Then there’s the third possibility: you tried something new this year and the response hasn’t been what you expected.
This is where you ask yourself: is this the right offer?
It could be pricing or the product itself. It could be the way you are talking about it. It could be the audience or the timing of the market. It could be a lot of things.
🔎 Read more: How to build a values-based business without compromising in the name of growth
Again, our first instinct is often, “This isn’t working, let’s do something else,” when it should be slowing down and getting curious about what’s actually going on.
Keep in mind, when you’re only accountable to yourself, you don’t have a speed bump in place for those “this sucks, fix it now” urges. So get yourself a speed bump: a strategist, a trusted adviser, or an entrepreneur friend who’s been through it. This minor delay before acting will confirm your thinking is right, or help you get past the discomfort and onto a more constructive path.
