If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

I used to agree with this saying, if something is working why change it.

However over the last 10 years I have had to change my opinion. I have seen so many industries change over the last 5 years.

You have the mining industry go from a robust driver of economic growth to the shutting down of various mines.

Even Woolworths being the darling of the stock market losing ground and market share to Aldi.

It is not all doom and gloom though.

You have an Australian company called Atlassian which started in 2002 with $10,000 of credit card debt listing in the USA now worth $7.97 billion dollars or the same size as Qantas or James Packer’s Crown Resorts.

Technology, the Australian dollar, the price of metals and competition have all changed considerably over the last 10 years. Has your business changed? Has the technology you used changed? Has the market place your business is in changed? No one or very few people want to be on the bleeding edge of technology but if you are still doing the same thing as you were 5 years ago you are probably in a really niche market or your business is slowly dying.

Technology is changing and so should your business. Anybody still advertising in the printed version of yellow pages? In the accounting field technology has changed considerably. Accounting systems are in the cloud now and bank statements download directly into accounting software. This has allowed our firm to spend more time helping clients rather than just doing compliance work.

I think it is important that businesses ask themselves where their industry is heading and what part of that future do you want. Spending time checking out the latest in technology, changes in the market place and keeping an eye on the economy will not only save you time and money, it could save your business.