Our biggest advantage when we speak to clients is our experience and the fact that we’re outsiders. That combination allows us to see things that owners and employees just can’t see. They’ve been in the trenches for so long that their perception is skewed; when we come in we can spot problems right away because we can see the bigger picture. We have a clear view of the forest while all the owners see are the trees.
The funny thing is, the problems we see seem obvious to us. They’re often staring owners right in the face but they can’t see them. Our first impressions often provide the most immediate boost in terms of value. We have spoken to some owners who have made a change or altered their strategy within days of speaking to us.
It’s All About Perception
If we could give you one piece of advice about optimizing how your business and maximizing your value, it would be to look at the business with the eyes of an outsider. However, it’s not that simple. The reason you can’t see these issues is because you can’t see your business in that way. You are stuck deep in the forest and all you can see are the same old trees.
The problem for most owners is that you didn’t build the agency as it is; it grew over time. Along the road, you changed things or added practices that you hadn’t planned for at the beginning. Your agency became a different entity to the one you started. That kind of growth is natural, but it can be dangerous if every change is made in isolation.
Make Holistic Decisions
At some point you chose to add to a department. You made that decision based on the activities of that department and the market at that time. The decision may have worked well. However, that decision may ultimately mean that your other departments now take up less time and revenue, so what happens if their markets change? Many owners will continue to operate reactively.
That often leaves them with a forest filled with a lot of unique trees or an agency that doesn’t work as effectively as it could. Unless you take a step back and try to look at the agency as a whole, every time you make a decision, you will never get an image of the whole forest.
This is why it is so easy for an advisor like us to come in and point out five problems in a very short period of time. There are a few things you can do to avoid this situation. Get regular checkups on the business as a whole, look at the entire business when you make decisions on a single department and do your best to focus on the forest, not the trees.
