Are You Running the Business or Running the Machine?
Your company’s problem probably isn’t money.
When my father set up his practice, his old boss (a well-known tax adviser in Barcelona) came to see him. He found him working on an accounting ledger (still done by hand back then) and asked what he was doing. My father, a bit puzzled, said he was "doing the accounts."
The answer came back sharp: "That is not your job. Hire someone, and go out and sell." My father barely had any clients, and could not afford to hire anyone, but his old boss insisted: pull the money from wherever, but get out there and sell.
So that is what he did. A few days later, his first employee walked through the door, part-time. My father picked up his briefcase and went to see companies, walking through industrial estates and workshops of every kind. Within a few months, he had a client base that could support a full-time hire, while he kept doing what mattered: finding clients and keeping the relationship alive.
That was the mindset I grew up around, and it is the one I try to bring into the companies I work with: getting owners to act like owners, not technicians. That is what growth looks like.
We often think our company's problem is money, just as my father did when he started, when in reality it is a marketing problem. My father's problem was not money: it was that nobody was out looking for clients. Mistaking cause for effect is one of the most common errors companies make, regardless of size or sector. And the worst part is not that it leads to bankruptcy (that usually gets spotted in time). The worst part is that it leads to stable mediocrity.
My father was lucky enough to learn this right at the start. Some of his colleagues, fifty years on, were still working the ledgers, waiting for clients to walk through the door.
So, are you running the business, or running the machine?
© Oriol López Villena 2026