By Ross Martin, Accountancy Director at Hive Business.

If you have ever put off doing what you know you must until it’s forced on you, and you then regretted your inaction, join the club. Maybe you put off backing up your computer, then when it crashed you were forced to pay someone to retrieve your files and then buy the hard drive you knew you were going to have to get all along. Perhaps it was something bigger; did you evade the awkward issue behind a family misunderstanding until people got hurt and you had to step in anyway? We know eating a little pain now to avoid more pain in the future is the way to go, yet strangely we rarely do it.

Maybe the problem is that human beings can only do one thing at a time. If we were always thinking of the bigger picture we might forget to do the payroll, take out the bins, or get dressed. We can either make workaday choices one after the other or we can grapple with unwieldy questions affecting our future, but perhaps not both at the same time. It’s hard to reply to emails and take out the bins when you’re feeling philosophical, they don’t seem as important.

Obviously there are no end of tasks that an adult trying to make ends meet must successfully complete every day, and so most of us are forced to view reality through a short term filter most of the time, but problems can arise if this filter gets stuck on. Which can happen when we feel stressed. The existentialist, therapist and author Irvin Yalom would say that we don’t remove this filter enough because we’re running from four uncomfortable truths. These core truths, which the filter helpfully puts out of our awareness, are behind the existential anxiety we feel, and although they are painful they are healing to confront. These inescapable facts of existence are death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness.

Cheerful stuff, I know, but I think a version of this happens in SMEs. I certainly see a tension around freedom and responsibility among business owners — it’s at the crux of why they tend to use a ‘just in time’ approach to management, the same as waiting for a computer to crash before deciding to buy a hard drive. Every business owner I’ve ever spoken to has told me they want growth. When I’ve asked how they’d like to make that happen, whether it’s setting aside time to work on the business each week, or perhaps investing in marketing, very few respond by saying “yes, now’s the time, let’s do it”. What usually happens is they delay until the viability of their business is at stake. But of course then their options are curtailed and the opportunities for the best possible outcomes have come and gone.

We all know we are free to think strategically about our futures and yet we find it difficult to pull back from the continual and relentless issues that crop up every working day. Perhaps strategic management is rare among SMEs because smaller businesses are more reflective of normal human beings. There is evidence showing that even though all small business owners want their businesses to be successful and strive towards that goal every day, many don’t seek opportunities to develop their managerial skills. A number of studies have shown that small firms tend to be led by owner-managers who are strategically myopic and lack the long term vision needed to identify the future direction of their business.

If many dental practice owners lack vision, it’s certainly not terminal. It’s easily within everyone’s capacities to articulate where they want their business to be in five or 10 years and start thinking ahead to pre-empt cashflow difficulties, spending for year-end tax planning and all the paperwork that goes with running a practice. That doesn’t mean it’s comfortable. But you are free to do it, just as you are free to recline into your comfort bubble, short term filter safely on, and wait for reality to come knocking, because it will…

If you’ve been meaning to kick-start your business, let us help you with our Diagnostic Day which will provide a critical analysis and create a clear plan of action for you. Get in touch on 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.