Learning from Others’ Mistakes in Business Growth

Key Business Lessons: Financials, Employees, Growth & Exit Strategies

In today’s busy business world, watching what went wrong for others can save you a lot of time and money. It also helps you find opportunities you might miss if you’re not paying attention. Many magazines, podcasts, and trade journals share advice on improving people, processes, and culture, but often, the best lessons come from seeing what didn’t work.

What Do These Have in Common?

• Business publications like The Wall Street Journalor your local Business Journal
• Trade magazines and industry journals
• Podcasts focused on business or leadership

These sources often share stories about financial management, attracting and keeping good employees, growing a business, and planning a smooth business exit. Here, we will look at three recent examples and share easy tips for small and mid-sized businesses.

So, let’s look at three recent news stories and explore the real-world takeaways for lower middle market businesses. These examples hit on:

• Financial management
• Attracting and retaining good employees
• Operational dependencies

They’re built with purpose, clarity, and a plan that turns vision into action. That’s what OneAccord delivers: a tailored path to help your business grow, scale, or exit with confidence.

Whether you’re navigating stalled growth, operational challenges, or preparing for a sale, our proven process provides the structure, leadership, and hands-on execution you need to move forward.

Source: WSJ

There was a well-known company that got into big trouble with their financial management. They had serious cash flow problems, messy records, secrets, and even some dishonesty. They were spending more than they earned, had rising debt, and a culture of hiding things to cover up issues. Because of this, trust with their banks broke down, and things got worse fast.

Key Lessons:

Transparency is critical.
Their troubles stem largely from opacity. Think: deficit spending, mismanagement, unsustainable debt, and a general atmosphere of suspicion. So bad that one of their banks cut ties.

Business Point:

Having strong financial systems and accurate financial reports isn’t just for taxes — they are the backbone of your business. Without them, you’ll get stuck in panic mode when problems happen. Good financial management and checking your numbers regularly (like sales, profit, margins, and cash flow) make all the difference.

If you don’t keep an eye on your financial management, you might end up like George. I share his story at the start of my book, If They Can Sell Pet Rocks, Why Can’t You Sell Your Business (For What You Want?).

The quick version: George’s balance sheet was a mess. His income kept jumping up and down — like waves in the ocean. I told him, “Nobody will want to buy your business.”

Auditor resistance.

They hired a former Deloitte expert as an internal auditor, but he faced a lot of resistance — sabotage (including a break-in and stealing computers) and leaders ignoring his advice.

Business Point:

This hits close to home. Many business owners get advice but hold back from making changes. You might hear, “Switch from a C-Corp to an S-Corp,” or “Improve your pricing.”

But delaying action costs you money and time — and it lowers your business value. Whether it’s advice from your CPA, sales expert, or operations consultant, the key is to listen and act.

Mixing Personal and Business Finances:

George also got sloppy with his finances. He started living an expensive lifestyle and didn’t keep his personal money separate from his business.

Business Point:
Always keep personal and business finances apart. When it’s time to sell, poor financial hygiene makes buyers less confident and can lower your business growth price.

Paying personal expenses from your business might seem easy, but it’s a mistake. The tax savings on $100,000 of personal expenses is only about $37,000 — plus state taxes. But if you sell your business for 4 to 6 times earnings, you could be leaving $400,000 to $600,000 on the table.

Wealth vs. cash flow.

George’s company owned a lot of stuff — like machinery worth millions. But having all those assets didn’t fix his cash flow problems.

Business Point:
Owning $5 million worth of equipment doesn’t mean your business value is $5 million if you’re only making $500,000 a year. Buyers want a good ROI — return on investment — not just assets.

Source: Factory Jobs Go Unfilled Amid Push for U.S. Manufacturing – WSJ, May 20, 2025

Right now, the U.S. has over half a million unfilled manufacturing jobs — that’s about 500,000 jobs waiting for the right people. The National Association of Manufacturers says this is the biggest challenge for the industry today.

Key Lessons:

• Making your workplace attractive is vital: Maintain clean, safe environments, offer flexibility, provide clear career paths, and pay competitively.
• Business Growth Strategies: Investing in these areas builds a loyal workforce—the backbone of operational success.
• Business Point: Your employees’ quality directly impacts your firm’s value. Long-term commitment and growth opportunities encourage retention, fueling business expansion.

Source: Trump Overhaul of Air Traffic Control System Will Cost Billions – Seattle Times, May 9, 2025

The U.S. air traffic control system is old and expensive — they’re still using floppy disks! Fixing it will cost billions.

For small businesses, ignoring operational efficiency and not updating systems can be just as costly. Investing in modern tools and processes can save money and help your business growth stay strong.

Key Lessons:

• Operational Efficiency: Falling behind on technology and processes diminishes business value, while investing wisely in automation and modern systems can boost capacity and profitability. See our resource on operational excellence.
• Two success stories:
  • Implementing ACH and credit card payments led to significant savings and faster transactions.
  • Automating production reduced costs and helped expand contract opportunities.
• Culture matters: Investing in people and systems, and staying agile, allows small businesses to outperform larger, sluggish institutions. Learn more in our webinar on strategizing growth.

Back to air traffic control:
Andy Kessler (WSJ) said the fix is already here—GPS, broadband, AI, VR…all underused. The lesson for small businesses? You can move faster than governments or global institutions. Take advantage of that agility.

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