In a turnaround, most owners instinctively push for efficiency. They want better margins, smoother processes, faster decisions, leaner teams. On paper, it makes sense. The problem is that efficiency only works in a system you actually control. And in most distressed or underperforming businesses, control is already gone — even if the owner doesn’t realise it yet.

This is what happens when a business grows beyond the owner’s ability to personally hold everything together, but without the systems, structure, or leadership depth to replace them. On the surface, nothing dramatic happens. There’s no single crisis. No headline event. Just a slow, grinding sense that everything is slipping at once.

When SME owners talk about cashflow problems, they usually talk about symptoms. Late payments. Overdraft pressure. Stressful Fridays. Suppliers chasing. Payroll anxiety. But very rarely do they talk about the real cause. And the real cause is almost always poor working capital design.

When margins come under pressure, most business owners react the same way. They panic. They slash. They freeze spending. They cut staff. They cancel investment. They squeeze suppliers. And they call it “being disciplined.” But in reality, that reaction often finishes the business instead of saving it. Cost discipline is not about spending less. It’s about spending intentionally.

In blue-collar businesses, growth is often treated as proof of success. More contracts, more clients, more machines, more vans, more people. But growth without structure doesn’t create strength; it creates fragility. The business becomes larger, heavier, and slower, while profitability quietly disappears. False growth is when a company looks like it’s winning from the outside, but is quietly weakening from the inside. 

The Cashflow Mirage is a psychological trap disguised as operational success. It tricks owners into believing the business is healthy because the team is working flat out, machines are running, phones are ringing, invoices are going out. On the surface, everything seems alive. But underneath, the financial oxygen is thinning. And you only realise it when it's almost gone.

Every business decline I’ve ever stepped into, whether it was a manufacturing shop, a transport company, a care provider, or a retail chain, had the same deeper root cause. It wasn’t the market. It wasn’t the staff. It wasn’t the competition. It was always something the owner couldn’t see, or refused to see, until it was almost too late – Blind spots.

A profit leak is one of those things you can feel in your bones long before you see it in the numbers. You look at your bank account at the end of the month, you look at your sales, and you think: How on earth are we this busy and still not making money? That moment – that frustration – usually means your business has multiple small leaks that together create a massive silent drain. What makes profit leaks dangerous is that they hide behind movement.

You know exactly what I mean. That moment when you walk into your business and realise that everything is happening… but nothing is truly under control. Jobs are being done, orders are going out, and people are busy, but you couldn’t confidently tell someone what your margin was yesterday, what your waste rate is this week, or which customer is quietly draining all your profit. Operational fog is not chaos. It’s worse.

Retail lies to you. It gives you the illusion of success through footfall, transactions, even a spike in gross sales. But none of that matters if your cash flow is negative, your payroll is bloated, and your best-selling item has a margin of 5%. This is what I call operational vanity. The business looks alive. But underneath, it’s bleeding out.