An Ally’s Advice

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This is Dumb. Don’t Do It.

When I go into a failing business and discover a once running enterprise with an idiot at the helm, one of the first questions I ask myself is, “Is this guy family?”

Leaders have a real predilection for putting idiot family members in charge of key parts of their operations.

Napoleon installed his family members as heads of state across Europe, and monarchy for millennia have been based upon familial succession. But there’s a good reason that none of these monarchies still exists (and don’t feed me a line about the royal family of Britain or Monaco – this is just sustained wealth and fairytale fantasy): because at some point every family breeds idiots.

In the rare case that a son is as capable or more so than his father, that rarely lasts for a third or fourth generation. Sure, people can be groomed and educated, but at some point, the son will like other things, be an idiot or plain not care. And when that day comes, down goes the business.

If you want to build a business that is sustainable through the generations, don’t make your offspring a prerequisite of those generations. I’m not saying they can’t be involved, but you better make darn sure that they’re both capable and desirous of the position.

One place that problems tend to arise when fathers and sons do business together is in compensation, especially when selling the business.

I had a mechanical engineering company in New York where the son was stealing from his father’s business because he wasn’t getting a high enough salary. As a family member wouldn’t you believe that the son felt entitled to the business’s money, no matter how much or little he’d worked.

When we confronted good ol’ Charlie, who resented that upon his father’s passing his mom had been made CEO, he took a kitchen knife to his mother. We averted bloodshed and she got a restraining order, subsequently kicking him out of the company.

We were in the middle of trying to sell the company, and you better believe that this charade ruined the sale.

Do not put idiot family members in charge of your company or parts of your company. It takes a unique father and a unique CEO to balance both a family and a business. If you value your business and respect your family, think long and hard before mixing them at the leadership level.

Do you do business with your family? How does that work for you?

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What Wally the Walrus can Teach us about Effective Process Development

Processes. Oh, processes.

How easy they are to ignore. How easy they are to let languish.

But don’t.

If cash is the blood of a business, departments are the organs and personnel are the cells, then processes are the bones. You must build your business on efficient, effective and solid processes.

What do you do when a customer’s order is going to be late? How can you track all of your supply usage and reordering supplies? How do you set a new vendor up in your system?

Your business rests on the foundations of these processes running correctly, and they should be consistently evaluated, adjusted and strengthened. Think of that evaluation as drinking milk and giving your business the calcium it needs.

Hire Someone? Yeah – Hire You!

Many people hire consultants to come in and tell them how to enact more effective processes in their daily business management. Consultants often have great solutions that they’ve designed or a commanding understanding of best practices, but before resorting to this route consider being your own consultant.

As the leader of your business, you should know how things run. You should be in touch with the people who work at your business at every level. You should be asking them questions about the kinds of issues they see or when something seems to consistently work incorrectly. You should find out what they do and how they do it. You should ask them if they think there would be a faster or smarter way of doing something that wouldn’t compromise other important principles (like quality, customer service or another step in the process).

And then you should put that information together and consider a reevaluation and a strengthening of the processes that govern your business. If there’s something happening that doesn’t have a process and keeps occurring in an erratic manner, put a process in place.

Zoey’s Zoo

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you run an online retail store called Zoey’s Zoo in which you sell various animal figurines directly to customers but also to various zoos and theme parks around the country (first, I hope you have separate processes for dealing with your B to B and B to C customers). What do you do when Wally the Walrus figurines are no longer available in the largest size but you get an order for one? Do you pull the product from your website, backorder the item, or contact the customer whose order will most certainly be late? As you bypass the order number and continue fulfilling orders that are in stock do you have a system for returning to this unshipped order?

If you are Zoey, you need to have a process for what happens when a product runs out of stock. You need a pipeline for pulling the product from your website, informing customers with outstanding orders, checking on the status of any incoming inventory, and then making sure that Wally the Walrus is purchasable again when it’s back in stock.

This may seem like a basic example and an easily constructed process, but it’s just one small bone among hundreds that make a body stand tall and a business run efficiently and effectively.

Consider the processes at your business. Evaluate and reevaluate.

Stand Tall.

What do you find to be the most difficult element of process creation and management?

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5 Benefits to Calling an Insolvency Attorney

As managing partner of GGG and the Turnaround Authority, I get the pleasure of providing guest posts by our other partners. The following post is by our newest Partner, Vic Taglia.

We wrote a few weeks ago about when to hire a turnaround consultant.  The same answer applies here:  Sooner, rather than later – and there are good reasons for this.

First of all, a good insolvency attorney has seen it all. In some ways seeing him is like going to confession. You tell him your problems, he says it’s okay, he’s seen this before and he can help you. This only works if you see your financial advisor before your business is dead. You will be surprised how much better you sleep after engaging these experts, just like sleeping with a clear conscience.

On the other hand, if you wait too long, all you will see is St. Peter at the gate directing you to the lower floor.

Here are some key benefits of calling:

1. If you wait too long to see an insolvency attorney, you will only find the bankruptcy judge converting your case to a liquidation. Like St. Peter, bankruptcy judges have a sense of equity, can make quick judgments based on their extensive experience, and are rarely overturned.

2. If you see an insolvency attorney soon enough, he can help you find a financial advisor who can help restructure your business before the situation becomes deadly.  (Of course, I recommend you find a turnaround consultant even earlier than the attorney so you can avoid this problem entirely.)

3. A respected insolvency attorney can help you with your creditors, particularly if the creditors’ lawyers are calling, writing, or threatening you.  The other side recognizes that you have faced the severity of your problems and called in an expert.

A respected turnaround financial consultant can help you here, too. The other side (the bank’s special asset department or the creditors’ lawyer) are specialists, and they recognize your hiring a specialist as a good sign. This can save time, because both sides talk the same talk. Saving time in this situation can help save your business.

4. Engaging an insolvency attorney and financial consultant sooner rather than later can also speed you through a “prepackaged” bankruptcy filing. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that prepackaged filings have become more common in the past few years because they enable the various stakeholders—unsecured lenders, senior lenders, employees, equity holders and other parties—to negotiate early and to see what they will receive. The Bankruptcy Court then applies its imprimatur to the reorganization plan and business goes on, avoiding the significant delay and cost which would stem from settling contested matters in court.

5. Early consultation with expert insolvency counsel can put your mind at ease. Insolvency attorneys can tell you what your creditors can and, just as importantly, cannot do. They might be able to minimize your personal liability to your creditors and help structure your affairs to maximize your control of the future.

Insolvency, bankruptcy and debtor rights form a specialized part of business and law. The most effective lawyers and financial advisors here have become expert in these matters. The people who specialize in this high pressure, high stakes part of American business are generally smart, hard working and relentless. Isn’t that who you want on your team when your very survival is at stake?

Have you ever been through insolvency filings or consulted an insolvency attorney? What were your experiences?

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No More Fixed Rate Loans for You, My Friend

As managing partner of GGG and the Turnaround Authority, I get the pleasure of providing guest posts by our other partners. The following post is by our newest Partner, Vic Taglia.

Have you tried to get a fixed rate business loan lately from a “too big to fail” bank?  Has the bank said it only offers variable, floating rate loans?  Has it then offered to introduce you to its affiliated company that can help?

No More, My Friends

If you answered yes to these three questions, you are not alone. Many smaller borrowers find that the traditional 15-year fixed rate mortgage on their factories, warehouses, offices, etc. can’t be had from their long-time lender.

With interest rates at all-time lows, you can understand why a banker doesn’t want to fix his return for 15 years, just as much as you do want the fixed rate option. Bankers really need to limit their interest rate risk in these days of aggressive regulation, and avoiding long-term fixed-rate assets is one sure way to do so.

Their Friend Isn’t Your Friend, My Friend

But I don’t write to pity the TBTF banks.  I write to alert you to one of the pitfalls of this “affiliated company that can help” offer.

Most banks are part of bank holding companies, and big bank holding companies have investment banking subsidiaries. These investment bank subsidiaries can sell the borrower an interest rate swap contract that effectively swaps the borrower’s obligation to make payments based on variable rates for an obligation to make fixed payments for the life of the contract.

For example, a borrower may get a 15-year floating rate loan at prime plus 2% for his factory. At today’s rate that is 5.25% and will change the day the bank announces a change in its prime rate. For a million dollar, 15-year amortizing loan, the monthly payment at 5.25% is $8,039. If the prime increases to 8.25%, the loan rate rises to 10.25% and the payment increases to $10,900, an increase of 36%.

(For those of you with short memories, the prime rate was 8.25% from June 29, 2006 to September 18, 2007. Yes, four years ago, the prime rate was 8.25%.)

The Pitfalls for My Friends

We can see why no one wants to take the risk of interest rates increasing if he can avoid it. And the banks have a special incentive not to do so — avoidance of regulatory criticism. So their investment banks developed interest rate swaps. Great idea, but beware of a few potential pitfalls.

First the accounting for these derivative contracts is complicated and changes every month.  As interest rates increase and decrease and the present values of the cash streams change (as they will as time passes), the differences must go through your income statement and be recorded in your company’s equity. Some borrowers ignore this during the year and have their CPAs figure it out later.

I realize this is just paperwork and has little impact on your business (remember Cash is King), but it will impact your financial ratios, possibly hurt your covenant compliance and give you one more thing to explain in your financial statements.

More potentially troubling is that your obligation to make these fixed payments is for the life of the swap contract, not the life of the loan. So what happens if someone offers you a bunch of money for your business and you want to retire? Great, right?

Not so fast. You must pay off the mortgage note, but you still have the obligation to pay the fixed mortgage payment, every month, for the remainder of the swap contract or buy your way out of the obligation.

So read the fine print, negotiate an early maturity for the interest rate swap or even buyout prices in the swap contract. And ask yourself just how much you are willing to pay to trade one type of risk for another.

Have you gotten involved in one of these situations? What has your experience been?

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5 Foolish Faux Pas of CEOs in Crisis

While preparing for my speech on “How Not to Hire a Guy Like Me: Lessons from Past CEOs’ Mistakes,” I realized that it was worth sharing a few of the biggest faux pas CEOs make along with a few of my more colorful anecdotes.

What follows are the 5 things CEOs in crisis do that you want to avoid as the leader of your company or organization.

1. They Act Like Deer in the Headlights

In crisis situations, it’s amazing how many CEOs and company leaders act like deer in the headlights. They just freeze up and wait for the impending SMACK!

I was working with a guy whose company had entered a crisis. In the midst of this crisis, his very time-sensitive catalog that directly generates 80% of his 65 million dollar annual revenue within 90 days had to go out. It was hours before the catalogs had to be postmarked and mailed, but in order for this to happen we had to have $10,000 – immediately. In a cash crisis, this guy, worth a few million, wouldn’t take $10,000 out of his own pocket to pay the postage. If anything went wrong, he was personally guaranteed on 40 million dollars. He would have been totally wiped out had he defaulted, and all he had to do was personally put up $10,000.

I was brought in within hours of the deadline and convinced him to put up the cash. This was the first of many critical decisions amongst endemic problems, but thankfully, this incident established trust and a working relationship that led to a successful restructuring plan.

2. They’re Only as Smart as the Last person They Talked to

Many CEOs (and people for that matter) are only as smart as the last person they talked to – especially in a crisis. They cease being able to think for themselves, whether out of the hope of being able to pass the buck or because anything and everything sounds better than what they’re doing.

At a non-profit educational institution, the president was kicked out of office for various well-deserved reasons, resulting in a crisis of leadership, and the interim president kept changing the restructuring plan with every person to whom he spoke. He’d announce firings and closings almost daily, and then backtrack when someone objected, subsequently calling those he’d fired to tell them to disregard the two week notice they’d received. Back and forth he’d go like this, only spouting the last thing someone else said to him.

The only smart thing he did without changing his mind was hire me – and I fired him six weeks later. In restructuring, you generally get one plan to move forward with – it’s a house of cards and you don’t want it to fall from a lot of movement. Keep your plan conservative and reasonable, and don’t be as smart as the last guy you talked to.

3. They Can’t Check Their Egos at the Door to Admit Mistakes

The president at an electronics parts manufacturer found some cost accounting discrepancies that meant he was selling products under cost. Though he didn’t tell the bank, perhaps thinking that his Ivy League Ph.D.s would save him, the truth emerged a year later when his cash flow continued to deteriorate until the bank noticed. If he’d set his ego aside, spoken to the bank and brought in a professional early, he’d still be president, but the bank gave him the boot and brought me in. He lost everything because his ego got in the way.

Queue the Dragon Lady of El Paso: his wife and executive VP. Upon arrival, my first goal was to build loyalty and get buy in, and an opportunity dropped into my lap. The assistant immediately asked for twenty bucks to buy coffee and toilet paper. “Huh?” I asked. Apparently, in the interest of the budget, the company was rationing coffee and toilet paper. The Dragon Lady was losing millions on her left side while hoping to limit enough toilet paper and coffee for 60 people on her right side to balance out the equation. I gave the assistant $100 and told her to buy the biggest can of coffee and pack of toilet paper she could find, telling the other employees, “compliments of Lee.” From then on, they loved me. I had full buy-in, no one lost his job and we sold the company in full six months later.

4. They Don’t Depend on Their Key Subordinates

I hire people who are smarter than I am. I have no problem with people making more money than I do or being smarter. I view myself as a catalyst for positive change. However, I was brought into a company at which the CEO did not share this sentiment.

The CEO had created a generous sales commission structure, and the Sales Manager did a great job  for the company, meeting and exceeding goals. Resultantly, he made twice as much as the CEO in his first year on the job. When the board refused to give the CEO a raise to exceed the Sales Manager’s salary, the CEO attempted to lower the sales team’s commission structure, thereby dis-incentivizing them, even though they had been very successful on behalf of the company.

After the CEO forced a changed pay structure, the Sales Manager quit and went to work for a competitor. The board of directors found out and fired the CEO. While this echoes the sentiment of the ego problem, it also highlights the issue that CEOs fail to utilize good talent and rely on key subordinates.

5. They Don’t Get Buy-In

Buy-in is so important, and the CEO who isn’t getting it is looking for trouble because nothing goes forward for long without buy-in. At WYNCOM the CEO didn’t want any bad news, and he never wanted to hear what anybody had to say. He therefore didn’t have 100% of his team’s focus to make his wishes a reality. Subsequently, he lost 8 million dollars in 2 years.

As a CEO it’s important to know which way you want to go, and though a business is no voting democracy, you shouldn’t be handing down dictates from on high either. Have a conversation with your people, and let them tell you what they think. Even if they disagree and you still go the way you want to go, you can incorporate their feedback and by doing so, get their buy-in and support.

All I did when I became CEO of WYNCOM was act as a catalyst and seek others’ input, Thus, we went from an EBITDA of negative four million to positive four million in 12 months. In fact, we saved a half million dollars in postage just because I listened to someone.

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Never Complain, Never Explain

As managing partner of GGG and the Turnaround Authority, I get the pleasure of providing guest posts by our other partners. The following post is by our newest Partner, Vic Taglia.

Never Complain, Never Explain

Henry Ford II, the founder’s grandson and Ford Motor’s president or chairman for 34 years, is credited with this saying, though he may have been preceded by Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th century British prime minister. While few of us have Mr. Ford’s money or attitude or Mr. Disraeli’s political philosophy, this advice is nonetheless well worth heeding.

Explanations = Back Pedaling

I have found that when I have to explain anything to my banker, my wife or my vendors, I seem to be backing up.

If I have to explain something, it is generally because something isn’t clear on its face, which means I have failed to make some issue so crystal clear that even a caveman can understand it.  Not to confuse my banker, my creditors or my dear wife with cavemen, but if I have to resort to an explanation, I am in a bad place.

Avoid Explanations

If the notes to my financial statements are not so clear then my creditors have to ask questions and I have to explain, which means I am wasting time that could be used to get better pricing, longer terms, market intelligence or just running my business.

If I have to explain to my banker why the existing financial covenants need adjusting, I am backing up. Explaining non-compliance with anything my banker wants makes more work for him. It also makes him start to ask what else is wrong. It distracts him from getting me more money on my credit line. He’ll have to write some report instead of playing golf with me.

If I have to explain to my wife why I’m late for dinner (again) or why my American Express bill has some peculiar charge from QAT Consulting Group (ask Elliot Spitzer), I am going downhill fast.

Definitely Don’t Complain

Complaining is even worse. Your wife and banker may be sympathetic to your plight, but they are only human, and they have a limited amount of patience for people who don’t measure up or can’t deliver.

I always tell folks I have a limited amount of sympathy and patience, and it’s reserved for my children. Try to save whatever sympathy and patience your wife and banker have for really big problems.

In short, try to measure up to their expectations, deliver what you promise and avoid situations that you have to explain.

When has explaining in your life been indicative of larger problems?

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Liquidity versus Solvency: A Lesson in Lacking Money, a guest post by Vic Taglia

As managing partner of GGG and the Turnaround Authority, I get the pleasure of providing guest posts by our other partners. The following post is by our newest Partner, Vic Taglia.

Lehman: From Illiquidity to Insolvency to Bankruptcy to Liquidation

You’re likely familiar with the Lehman failure of 2008. The business model of Lehman and other investment banks relied on leverage of up to 50 to 1 (a 2% capital ratio) and its creditors’ belief that the collateral pledged for these borrowings would maintain its value.

The investment bank business model relies on the market to provide liquidity to allow the investment bank to carry billions of dollars of securities. When Lehman’s creditors began to doubt the value of the securities already pledged, they demanded more collateral.

This led to a liquidity problem; Lehman couldn’t get the cash it needed to operate. When Lehman ran out of collateral to pledge, it had a solvency problem. Bankruptcy and liquidation followed.

Game over.

Understanding the Path to Illiquidity or Insolvency

An industrial business frequently relies on its bankers and other creditors to provide liquidity to operate through open accounts payable and lines of credit. That’s normal.

So long as the business cycle from purchases of raw material through production, distribution and collection remains on schedule, a business can continue to operate. If the schedule is disrupted however, a liquidity problem emerges. Now the business needs to find cash.

Working capital fixes include lengthening payment terms to vendors, offering prompt payment discounts to customers and finding external financing from a friend, a bank or a partner.

This will work until someone loses faith in the business and decides to stop participating in the extended payment terms, the prompt payment discount or the rolling over of bank debt. At this juncture, a new plan becomes critical.

What asset can the business convert to cash? What can it sell for cash now? Equipment, vehicles and real estate are all illiquid assets, but they all have value today—probably much less today than if you had six months to sell, but if you need cash now, you become a very motivated seller.

The end game starts when you discover that these illiquid assets are really illiquid.

Surviving Illiquidity or Insolvency

You can’t sell them fast enough or for enough money to save your business, for instance. If you collect all your receivables, sell all your equipment, all your real estate, all your inventory and still can’t cover your debts, you are now insolvent.

A liquidity problem can lead you to a reorganization filing in the bankruptcy court. Your business can survive a reorganization, perhaps with different owners, employees, and strategies, but insolvency will lead to liquidation.

Illiquidity can be temporary and fixed with relatively simple steps – but you must act quickly. First, identify what can be sold now, for cash.

Insolvency is more difficult; you need more capital, debt relief (forgiveness, payment holiday, etc.) or other more drastic help, and you don’t have a compelling story to attract this help.

Obviously you want to avoid both of these situations. Remember, though, you can survive illiquidity, but rarely insolvency.

What are your experiences with illiquidity and insolvency? Please ask any questions about these differences or what to do if they arise in the comments section below.

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My Greatest Magic Trick: Creating a Million Dollars in Cash Flow Overnight

So I’ve decided to share my coolest business magic trick with you. I can create a million dollars in cash flow out of thin air – and valuable as a million dollars is, there’s nothing like magically creating extra time.

Now, now, I know that a magician isn’t supposed to go revealing the way his tricks are done. It’s bad for business, and where’s the money in that!?

But what’s good for you is good for business, so I’ve decided to share.

Now You Owe 4 Million . . . 

First, let’s suppose that you have 30 day terms with your vendors and a million dollars in payables every month. Imagine that we’re just looking at the first four months of the year, January through April.

Over the course of those four months, then, the total payments are 4 million dollars.

Check out this picture:

So how do I create a million dollars?

And Now You Owe 3

All I have to do is extend normal trade terms from 30 to 60 days and suddenly you owe nothing in January!

That means that the million dollars walking out the door in January is still in your pocket. A million dollars has just been added to the positive side of your cash flow.

That’s right: in the four month period of January through April you’re now paying only 3 million dollars! You still owe that million, but by changing the timing of your payments, it’s been pushed back every month going forward.

Don’t Try This at Home

So why have I told you one of my greatest magic tricks and one of the best strategies of my turnaround success? Because the secret’s in the sauce!

My real talent is playing, “Let’s Make a Deal.” They don’t call me Monty Hall for nothing. The key – and hard part – to this magic trick is doing the right financial assessment and then successfully renegotiating with vendors to obtain extended terms and create that improved cash flow.

When businesses try to get vendors to give them an extra 30 days to pay a million dollars, vendors get agitated and concerned. My job is knowing what vendors need to hear, what makes them comfortable, providing them with the proper assurances and then making sure that those 30 days are used in the best possible way to ensure things get back on track by the second month.

Remember, you have to keep to your negotiated deals. You don’t want this to blow up on you, and it takes a professional to see this process through because generally this trick is one piece of a larger successful turnaround and restructuring strategy.

Conclusion

In business there’s hardly anything so valuable as creating time, and if you can make money come out of that time to boot, you’re in great shape. My skills lie in putting people into great shape.

My golden formula is time + energy = value. I create the time and bring the energy, and with those two pieces in place I can provide value.

Have you ever tried to renegotiate your terms? If so, what happened? Have you ever tried this trick yourself?

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Quick Lessons from Unfortunate Signs

 

Today’s quick lesson comes to you from the sign you see above, which I spotted on a recent weekend get-away. I’m sure it didn’t take you long to spot the mistake, did it?

That’s right. It’s not a “collard shirt” like collard greens, the delicious veggie dish enjoyed in many a southern restaurant. It’s collared shirt, as in, my shirt has a collar so I look more professional.

This sign, on the other hand, does not look professional.

Everybody makes typos (myself included), but my hunch is that this isn’t a meer typo. If it were a typo, my presumption is that it would have been fixed by now since this sign was just printed on a piece of regular paper and hasn’t been laminated or anything.

So there are a few lessons to be derived from this sign, the most basic among them being, edit your work and get someone else to edit your work, too.

On a larger business scale, don’t do things poorly or half way. You don’t look professional and people don’t want to do business with you. Perhaps you recall my white board story about the company that wanted to move across the country and be operational again in a weekend. When someone isn’t “editing” your work, you end up with sloppy results, like error-filled signs and factories that don’t run properly. Neither gives other people the confidence to do business with you.

A shoddy sign implies shoddy workmanship for your products which implies shoddy management. That may not be the reality – you might be a great manager – but that doesn’t keep the public from feeling that way about you when you put things into the public sphere that are riddled with errors.

Don’t do half-baked work. It undermines your credibility and public perception.

Have you ever gone half-in and looked unprofessional? What would you have done differently?

 

 

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5 Warning Signs That It’s Time to Call the Turnaround Expert

As managing partner of GGG and the Turnaround Authority, I get the pleasure of providing guest posts by our other partners. The following post is by our newest Partner, Vic Taglia.
In business, it can be hard to see the forest through the trees, especially when it’s night time and you have no flashlight, the only supplies you have left are bubble-gum and a rubberband but your wife always tells you you’re no MacGyver, and the forest creatures are attacking you with cries of “blood!”
If you just said, “That sounds about right,” or “What the heck is this guy talking about” then you may want to read these 5 warning signs and see if it’s time to bring in some professional help.
  1. Fatigue – yours and your creditors. One late Friday afternoon, you’re beat, and you realize that you’ve spent the entire week talking to your vendors. You’re not placing orders or negotiating terms. You’re not swapping stories; you’re begging for extended credit terms. You’re pleading for deliveries without knowing how you’ll pay the over-90-day balances. You’re talking to the credit manager, not the sales manager.  And you have a new bank officer visiting Monday morning from some new department called “special assets.” This is creditor fatigue.
  2. You’re out of new ideas, and the old ones don’t work. You used to be able to cajole deliveries from vendors based on a promise, and you could make your promise reality. Not so anymore. Your product collateral looks old and tired. Your website’s most recent news refers to a 2008 press release about a new salesman (who you fired in 2009). And worst of all, you haven’t anything new to add that you want to share.
  3. A different look in your employees’ eyes. The old-timers wonder where your magic went. The newbies wonder how you ever got anywhere.
  4. Longer hours, less progress. You haven’t had a vacation in three years.  The lake/mountain/beach house is just a pile of cancelled checks and fond, but fading, memories. You’re missing ballgames and ballet recitals with your children. You haven’t had a nice dinner with your spouse since your anniversary; but maybe it was the anniversary two years ago. And the inventory in the warehouse seems to be growing in size and dust.
  5. Less cash, more debt, fewer receivables, more payables. You’re calling customers and finding they aren’t paying because your shipments are late/wrong/incomplete. Bankers’ reference letters refer to your account as “low five figure” as opposed to “high six figure.” You ask your CPA /attorney/friends for some advice on a new banker “who understands this terrible economy/insane competition/horrible cost pressures” better than the banker you’ve been with for ten years.

If any of these describe what you’re seeing, it’s time to call your friendly neighborhood turnaround professional.