Having a company is not easy, it takes a lot of care so that everything is perfectly well done. Managing finances, people, and also knowing how to deal with the unforeseen, which we know sometimes happens!
The way you face the unforeseen events will make all the difference in your company, because we know that in one of these uncalculated situations the company can be bankrupted.
Do you know that product that was sold from a batch with problems that you could not imagine? Or that service that for some reason had a problem and you had to take action? These are losses that you will have to deal with, and the big question is, how?
Many of these losses are due to lack of experience of everyone involved, and right from the start it may seem to be considered a loss, but sometimes if you evaluate it well it can be characterized as an investment.
In a company, it is interesting that in the planning you have a reserve balance for these eventual problems, 5% of all your income is already enough, because this should be part of the cost structure of your service or the products you sell.
This year I have had some experiences that I consider an investment, and I will share them with you:
LACK OF SENSE OF SCOPE
In the technology and service area, there are many things that we cannot predict, such as differences in scope. Technology companies that do not follow a scope or follow it too closely tend to have problems, because they end up hurting not only the company but also the client. In other words, if you are not, be malleable, you may lose the client, but if you are too malleable you take the loss on yourself.
In one of the projects that took place this year, I happened to be too malleable (those who know me know that I love helping others). The project was quite large and I was wanting to do everything correctly so as not to harm the partner company or the name of the person who recommended the project. So I assumed several mistakes that were not necessarily part of our service and this made the delivery of the project take much longer by not following a scope, and in this case, if the deadline is longer than planned, the cost is much higher.
In the end, the defense of the partner and the indication worked out well, but I ended up hurting my company. In this situation I learned that scopes were born to protect everyone involved in the project, that old story that any change will change the requested scope is the most pure truth.
So, despite the loss, it was a great investment in future projects, because this type of situation will not happen again.
INVESTMENTS THAT DID NOT BRING RESULTS
During the year we invested a lot in people, we hired with the objective of teaching them, because we believe in that phrase "to have experience you must first have an opportunity". But only 5% were successful. I learned that it is worth teaching, but for those who have a great will to learn.
Willingness to help others
I helped and help a lot of people, but when you do it too much it impacts as a loss. What have I learned? That I really prefer losses to stopping with my life mission.
LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN CONTRACTS
All contracts need to have a "risk" area. When you are too small you end up not seeing risks, after all everything is an opportunity. But when you start to grow, everything has risk, and I didn't foresee this and had to pay for it.
Learning is expensive, so everything we did this year, had a high cost in mistakes, whether with services, people, or negotiations. Everything you do to learn has the upside that in the future you will have the knowledge to go through similar situations and deal with them better.
In short, be prepared financially, because your company will have to pay to learn, but seeing the positive side of it will do you good.
Did you learn from your mistakes this year? Comment with us and let's talk!
