Once, at a management report meeting, I asked: “What are you going to do to increase sales?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resistance was touchable, even through a screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I understand it. I know that feeling. I know how I can resist. Financial statements tell a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story is about every decision you have made, every habit, and every thing you avoid confronting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every action in the business ends up in the financial statements. And also every inaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know the self-talk when you need to call the client with the overdue account. The story you tell yourself about why today is not the right day. But you keep on hoping they will pay eventually. And in the meantime, the stress is building up, because you need to pay suppliers and salaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have seen the impact of taking money from the till with the promise of paying it back. It always feels reasonable in the moment. Just this once. Just until the payment comes in, the consequence is always the same. Cash flow issues. And the business owner says, ” But the sales are good, why can’t I pay what I need to pay?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have sat in meetings where we discussed how to turn a business around. And when the conversation reaches hard decisions, like reducing employees, the resistance arrives immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to confront the hard truth. We need to be willing to look at every expense without the blinkers of comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just last week, a client told me they needed to keep a staff member on as backup in case the person assigned to the task was sick or on leave. And then they needed a backup for the backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked one question: Can the business afford the salary expense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The silence that followed was the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am not preaching from behind the door. I also had to look at how my habits influence the numbers in my business. I am not a routine person. I like variety. And it shows in my own numbers. The consistency of doing my own financial reporting on time \u2014 that is the habit that trips me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did play the blame game, and believe me, I used every excuse in the book. I have to respond to clients immediately. I must do this now. But in the end, I had to be honest with myself when answering this question: what sits behind the issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I am not willing to look at the habit\u2014the real reason my own reporting is not done\u2014I will keep hitting my foot against the same stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so will you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your brain’s job is to protect you. Anything unfamiliar is dangerous, so your brain guides you toward the familiar. Every time you avoid looking at the statements, avoid the difficult conversation, avoid the decision you already know needs to be made \u2014 your brain is not failing you. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growth only happens when you are willing to step into the uncomfortable. To face the unfamiliar until it becomes familiar. To look at the numbers and ask not what the economy did, but what you did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are willing to seek the answer to this question, what lies behind the issue? You have a power, no recovery plan, no bailout, no better economy or market condition can provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that power is the ability to change your money story. One step at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have seen the impact of taking money from the till with the promise of paying it back. It always feels reasonable in the moment. Just this once. Just until the payment comes in, the consequence is always the same. Cash flow issues. And the business owner says, ” But the sales are good, why can’t I pay what I need to pay?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,23],"tags":[39,49,40],"class_list":["post-7675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-finance","tag-hartbeespoort","tag-national","tag-pretoria"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"magazine-7-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-1536x1020.jpg",1536,1020,true],"magazine-7-slider-center":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-936x897.jpg",936,897,true],"magazine-7-featured":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"magazine-7-medium":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-720x380.jpg",720,380,true],"magazine-7-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pexels-pressmaster-3851254-675x450.jpg",675,450,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Gerty Green"]},"category_info":"Articles & Advertisers<\/a> Finance<\/a>","tag_info":"Finance","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7678,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7675\/revisions\/7678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelife.digital\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}