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Welcome to ”Business Turnaround,” your go-to podcast for insightful strategies on managing companies in decline or distress. Hosted by Marek Niedzwiedz, a leading hands-on turnaround investor in SMEs, this podcast delves into the critical aspects of business recovery. Tailored for blue-collar industries, this podcast is ideal for business owners, consultants, and aspiring entrepreneurs. ”Business Turnaround” provides the knowledge and tools you need to navigate challenging times and drive your company toward success. Tune in to discover actionable insights and inspiring stories of business transformation in the blue-collar sector.
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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.
Let’s be honest –> Most blue-collar businesses, whether in manufacturing, construction, logistics, or field services, weren’t designed for what’s coming. They were built for muscle, loyalty, and know-how. Not for algorithms, automation, and 24/7 data flows.
If you run a factory, a construction firm, a logistics business, you know how valuable it is to have someone you trust. Someone who’s been there since day one. Who knows the systems. The clients. The way things were. But here’s the problem: That same loyal employee can also be the one slowing you down.
You’ve built this company. With your hands, your time, your weekends. You remember every supplier meeting from 10 years ago. You know how to fix the machines yourself if needed. Your people respect you. Or they fear you. But one day, something shifts. Sales flatline. Staff turnover creeps up. You feel like you’re pushing harder, but nothing’s moving. That’s when Owner Blindness kicks in.
Most business owners I meet don’t go bust overnight. They survive the big shocks – COVID, interest rates, raw material hikes... But what finishes them off? The slow, quiet drip of profit they never knew they were losing.
You know the one I mean. The one that’s been around forever. The one your team has an emotional connection to. The one your customers used to love... but now it’s just kind of there – barely moving the needle. And still, you keep it alive.
Momentum isn’t on your P&L. You can’t measure it on a dashboard. But every founder, every CEO, every operator who’s lived through tough times knows exactly what it feels like. When momentum is gone, everything becomes harder. Sales calls don’t convert. Staff move slower. Decisions get delayed. Emails sit unanswered. And then the worst thing happens: nothing happens.
In every business there’s one constant that shapes the company’s culture more than anything else. Not your brand. Not your P&L. I’m talking about you. The founder. The owner. The person in charge.
I’ve seen businesses with strong profits – on paper – fall apart months later. I’ve seen companies making millions collapse under pressure. Why? Because profit can hide a problem.
Don’t get me wrong – I live and breathe financial models. My team builds dashboards, tears apart P&Ls, optimises working capital to the decimal. But I’ve been around long enough to know this: the numbers can look “okay” while the business is quietly dying.
If you’ve been running a blue-collar business through tough times, you’ve probably said or thought something like:
“We’ll fix it once demand picks up.”
“We’ll invest once cashflow improves.”
“We’ll hire the right people when we’re more stable.”
The truth is, though, in a turnaround, the conditions will never feel perfect. You’re not operating in calm waters – you’re trying to patch the ship in a storm.
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