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Description
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.
75 Episodes
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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.
Most business owners I meet don’t realise how dangerous complexity really is. They think it shows how far they’ve come – multiple product lines, departments, systems, maybe even multiple locations. But in a turnaround, complexity is the enemy of speed, clarity, and control.
Growth is supposed to be a good thing. You’re taking more orders, hiring more staff, expanding your space. You’re busy, working hard – it feels like progress. But here’s the reality: some of the worst cash flow problems happen when business is growing. Because most SME owners aren’t prepared for what I call “profitless growth.”
It’s something I see in almost every struggling blue-collar business I walk into. The owner is usually hard-working. Loyal. Respected by the team. But they’re also too close – emotionally and operationally – to see where the real problems lie. It’s like living next to a slow gas leak. You stop noticing the smell, until the spark comes.
Loyalty is a value we’re taught to respect. Be loyal to your staff. Your customers. Your suppliers. Your old ways of working. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: In turnaround situations, loyalty can kill you.
If you’ve been in business long enough, you’ve had that moment. You walk through the workshop, or the warehouse, or the site, and you think, “Where’s the fire in people’s eyes? Where’s the pride? Why am I the only one who seems to give a damn about this company?”
One of the most dangerous things in business isn’t a big crisis. It’s the quiet, creeping loss of margin that looks small on paper — but adds up to disaster. And if you run a blue-collar business, where cost control and delivery are everything, this should keep you up at night.
If you're running a blue-collar business, you know the drill. The phone won’t stop ringing, deadlines are brutal, and you’re always three hires short. But here’s the truth: chaos is expensive. And worse, it’s invisible until it's too late. Most distressed businesses I step into have one thing in common: they’re addicted to speed. Rushing to quote. Rushing to deliver. That’s not momentum. That’s mismanagement in disguise.
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