One of the things about business is that nothing stays still. Markets shift. Customer preferences evolve. Technology changes the rules. What worked brilliantly five years ago might be completely irrelevant today.
This constant change keeps it interesting. But it makes it challenging too.
Change brings opportunities – new markets, new products, new ways of reaching customers. But it also demands adaptation. And adaptation demands resources, clarity, and the ability to make strategic decisions rather than just firefighting.
It’s a common pattern: established businesses that have built something very successful, find the ground shifting beneath them. Consumer trends move in a different direction. Competitors do things differently. Costs rise. Sales flatten or decline.
They know they need to adapt – maybe invest in new products, change their approach, pivot their offering. But they’re so busy defending what they’ve got, managing day-to-day operations, keeping customers happy, that they can’t step back to think strategically.
And they often don’t have clarity on their financial position. They don’t know if they can afford to invest in change. They’re making guesses rather than decisions.
That’s when businesses become vulnerable. Not because they’re badly run or lazy, but because they can’t see the whole picture clearly enough to act decisively.
Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t.
When nobody hits the brakes
Fired Earth collapsed into administration recently. All 20 UK showrooms closed. 133 jobs gone.
If you don’t know the name, they were a luxury tile and interiors retailer – the sort of place you’d go for £30-per-square-metre handmade tiles for your kitchen renovation. Founded in 1983, they grew from a farm in Oxfordshire selling terracotta tiles to showrooms in Bath, Harrogate, Cheltenham, Islington. Beautiful, upmarket products featured in all the design magazines.
They generated £15 million in turnover last year. And lost £1.6 million. The year before that? Also £1.6 million in losses.
The owner had been propping the company up for three years, pumping in cash while hoping for a turnaround. Eventually he realised the game was up. The administrator’s quote was brutal: “Fired Earth has been loss-making for some time. Its investor was not prepared to provide further funding in the absence of a viable turnaround strategy.”
Translation: everyone could see the problems. Nobody could fix them.
The Business Killers
There’s a turnaround specialist called Jeff Sands who’s won “Turnaround of the Year” three times.
In his book Corporate Turnaround Artistry, he identifies 23 ‘Business Killers’ – patterns that show up repeatedly in struggling companies.
Not mysterious bad luck. Not unforeseeable market forces. Identifiable, diagnosable problems that were allowed to compound.
Looking at Fired Earth’s collapse, several of Sands’ ‘Business Killers’ were operating simultaneously:
Killer #9: Falling sales. When revenue drops, waiting and hoping it’ll mysteriously recover isn’t a strategy. Fired Earth’s revenue fell 18.6% between 2017/18 and 2021/22. That’s not a blip. That’s a trend.
Killer #1: Failure to adapt. The retail landscape changed around them. Competitors moved to cheaper out-of-town locations. Fired Earth stayed in expensive high street showrooms with premium rents. When the market shifts, you shift with it or you get left behind.
Killer #10: Rising costs. Import costs for European tiles soared. Energy prices surged. Wage inflation hit hard. Their costs were rising while their revenue was falling – that’s a death spiral.
Killer #22: Pain tolerance. This is the willingness to endure problems that should trigger immediate action. Three years of losses. Three years of investor support keeping them afloat. At what point do you stop hoping things will improve and start making radical changes?
Sands calls Killer #22 worse than stubbornness. It’s the entrepreneur who pushes ahead on a reckless path while everyone around them – the bank, employees, suppliers – can see the cliff edge approaching.
Why this matters even if you’re not running a £15m retailer
The pattern I see in businesses facing market shifts is remarkably consistent.
Take a manufacturer who built their business on traditional products – let’s say soft drinks, cordials, flavoured waters. Fifteen years of steady growth, good relationships with independent retailers and farm shops. Then consumer preferences start moving toward functional drinks – kombucha, added vitamins and minerals, products promising health benefits.
Sales start declining. Not dramatically at first, but steadily. Retailers begin delisting some lines. The business knows they need to adapt, probably invest in new product development. But they’re so busy firefighting – salvaging customer relationships, managing production, keeping the show on the road – that they can’t step back to look strategically.
And crucially, they don’t have clarity on whether they can afford to invest in change. No clear picture of cash position. No forecast showing what happens if sales keep declining at the current rate.
That’s when multiple Business Killers start operating:
Killer #1: Failure to adapt. They can see the market moving but they’re paralyzed by uncertainty about whether they can afford to follow it.
Killer #6: Lacking controls. No clear financial picture means they’re making guesses rather than decisions about where to invest.
Killer #9: Falling sales. Steady decline over time. And the response is to work harder at defending existing customers rather than asking whether they need to fundamentally change their offering.
Killer #22: Pain tolerance. So busy surviving day-to-day that they’re not asking whether they’re fighting the right battle.
None of these are fatal on their own. But together? They compound.
This isn’t about being stupid or lazy. It’s about being too busy surviving to think strategically. And not having the financial clarity to make confident decisions about change.
The one that nearly got me
When I ran my own business, I had my own Business Killer operating: Owner health.
Sands lists this as Killer #11 and says it’s “everything.” He’s right.
The business wasn’t failing. It wasn’t making losses. But it was killing me.
The revenue was inconsistent – seasonal, and completely weather-dependent. I’d have brilliant trading periods, feel flush, then the weather would turn and I’d be wondering how to cover costs.
More than that, the business was consuming everything. My time, my energy, my mental space, my family life. I felt out of control. Exhausted. Lonely in that particular way you are when you’re responsible for something bigger than you can manage.
Family circumstances eventually forced my exit. But if that hadn’t happened, I would have hit a wall anyway. I would have needed to make big decisions – take on investment, bring in help, something – to stop it destroying me.
Owner health isn’t just about sleep or diet. It’s about whether the business is sustainable for you as a human being. Whether you can keep doing this without breaking.
What to look for in your own business
You don’t need all 23 of Sands’ Business Killers to be in trouble. A few operating together can be lethal.
Ask yourself honestly:
Are your sales declining? Not fluctuating – genuinely falling over time? If yes, hope isn’t a strategy.
Can you tell me your cash position four weeks from now? If not, you’re flying without instruments.
Are costs rising faster than you’re adjusting prices? Silent killer. You think you’re fine because sales are steady, but margin erodes month by month.
Is the business making you ill? Physically, mentally, emotionally? That’s not dedication. That’s a warning sign.
Are you tolerating problems that should trigger action? Late payments. Mounting debt. Falling margins. These aren’t things to endure. They’re things to fix.
Be brutally honest about which ones are operating right now.
The thing about being too busy to think strategically
When businesses tell me they’re too busy firefighting to get on top of their finances, I completely understand.
The immediate always feels more urgent than the strategic. The customer threatening to delist you. The production issue that needs solving today. The sales call that might save an account.
But financial clarity isn’t a luxury you deal with when you have time. It’s the thing that tells you whether you can afford to invest in adaptation. Whether you need to cut costs now. Whether you have six months or six weeks to turn things around.
Fired Earth had financial data. They could see the losses mounting. They had three years of investor support to make changes.
They just couldn’t – or wouldn’t – make the painful decisions in time.
What to do about it
First: See the killers. Name them. Acknowledge they’re there.
Not in a panic. Just factually. “Right. Sales have been flat for six months while costs have risen 15%. That’s a problem. What am I going to do about it?”
Second: Prioritize. You can’t fix everything at once. Identify which killer is doing the most damage right now.
Most businesses I work with, lack controls. They don’t have a clear picture of cash flow. They’re making decisions based on bank balance rather than actual data.
This is fixable:
- Forecast cash 13 weeks ahead, update weekly
- Know the gap between invoicing and actually getting paid
- Understand which products or services are genuinely profitable
- Use cash flow as a filter before committing to anything new
Third: Be willing to make painful decisions before you’re forced to.
Fired Earth waited until the investor said “no more money.” By then, the only options left were administration.
You don’t want to make strategic decisions from crisis. You want to make them from clarity.
If something in this resonates – if you know something isn’t quite right but can’t see what – let’s talk. I ask questions rather than giving answers, and we work out together where the real problem is.
The conversation might be uncomfortable. But uncomfortable now is better than administration later.