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Stop Hiding in the Work

This one is mainly aimed at us blokes.

There is something funny about how a lot of us run businesses. We will get up early, drive all day, deal with staff issues, shift gear, chase bees, sort vehicles, handle landowners, fix what broke, and tell ourselves we are doing what needs doing.

Then someone asks a simple question:

How much honey do you need to sell, and by when, to get through this season?

Sitting down for half an hour to look properly at whether the business is actually making money? Bugger that.

Suddenly there is something else that needs doing.

A yard to tidy. A truck to sort. A team member to call. A pallet to move. Any operational job that feels more urgent than sitting down and looking properly at the numbers.

But the number doesn’t go away because you avoided it.

It just waits.

This is where the pressure hides.


This work does not shout at you from the driveway or ring you at 6 am. The work that builds a stronger business over time.

This is one of those jobs.

Looking properly at inventory on hand, cashflow timing, receivables, and labour cost is not exciting work. But this is where much of the business pressure hides.

That is why the uncomfortable questions matter:

How much do I need to sell, by what date, to keep the business in control?

Not “what is the honey worth on paper?”
Not “what did we produce this season?”
Not “what do I hope the price will do?”
The real question is simpler and harder:

What has to turn into cash, and when?

As long as the number stays fuzzy, you can keep telling yourself the stock is probably fine, the slow payer will come right, the team’s labour hours are close enough, and the season will balance out once a few more sales land.

When the story changes

The moment you measure it properly, the story has to change.

And once the story changes, you have to make a decision.
That is the bit you are really avoiding.

You might have to ring the customer who is overdue instead of giving them another week.

You might have to tighten payment terms.

You might have to stop carrying a buyer who is using your business as their overdraft.

You might have to admit that labour is not being recorded well enough to know what sites are actually costing.

You might have to sell some honey earlier than you wanted because cashflow matters more than waiting for the perfect price.

None of that feels great in the moment.

But neither does drifting into the same cash squeeze every year and acting surprised when it turns up again.
 

Ownership starts where comfort ends

Your job is not to do the easy work first.

Your job as an owner is to find the uncomfortable job that is quietly costing the business, deal with it, and then move to the next one. Being comfortable dealing with the uncomfortable, until it becomes comfortable.

You do not need to fix the whole business in one afternoon.

But you do need to stop hiding in the work.

Open the report. Check the stock. Look at the receivables. Ask why records are missing. Make the phone call. Book the accountant. Sit down with someone who can help you make sense of it.

Be humble enough to ask for help.

That is not weakness. That is ownership.

Because the uncomfortable work you avoid today does not disappear.

It just becomes next month’s pressure.

Sort one thing now.

You will thank yourself later.