{"id":19075,"date":"2020-02-03T19:04:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T19:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/?p=19075"},"modified":"2020-02-27T11:07:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T17:07:03","slug":"humpty-dumpty-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When people talk about having all their eggs in one basket it can mean many things. A lot of times it relates to Investments, Career Choices or other personal matters. But the same is true for businesses. Are you aware of these business risks, and doing something to protect your business from an inevitable crash, or are you following Humpty Dumpty\u2019s advice?<\/p>\n<p>Here are some areas you should consider in your planning:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Customer Concentration<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/organizational-leadership\/\">Leadership<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/executive-recruiting\/\">Staffing<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Products<\/li>\n<li>Financial Resources<\/li>\n<li>Technology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Customer Concentration<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0is an easy one to understand. If you have only one or two primary customers, your business is based on the stability of those customers. If either of those customers failed, you might fail as well. You shouldn\u2019t have more than 20% of your business with any individual customer. If a 20% customer failed, you would certainly feel it, but you could survive. More than that and survival might be difficult. I worked for a very profitable distributor for many years. They had two customers, Sears and Grainger. Solid, reliable customers. Sears was 75% of our business and Grainer 25%. As Sears started to fail, our margins got squeezed. Then a change in staff at the retail giant brought in a new Purchasing Agent that didn\u2019t connect with our President. When he started moving our products to other suppliers, my employer went out of business.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Leadership<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0drives any business. Is your leadership concentrated in one office? A business owner recently purchased a manufacturing company. The COO, who was also the CFO prior to the purchase, was so good at his job that the owner gave him the role of CEO as well. Six months later, this CEO\/CFO\/COO passed away, and there was nobody in the wings to take over. The owner is not only looking for a replacement, but trying to figure out what needs to be done daily to run the business. Concentrating too many responsibilities in one person can be disastrous.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Staffing<\/strong><\/span> takes care of the running of your business day in and day out. Does more than one person in your company know how to do order processing, invoicing, payroll and processing cash? It\u2019s a matter of internal controls, but also a matter of protecting your business. One business owner I know has an office manager that does Payroll, Payables and Cash Receipts. She never takes a vacation and is the only one that knows how to do those responsibilities. The owner was really concerned about who would do payroll if something happened to her. But truth be told, this is really risky on so many levels. Be sure that you have cross-trained staff so that you\u2019re not dependent on just one person for critical tasks.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Products<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 It\u2019s probably the rare company that only has a single product. Many start-ups have only a single offering in the beginning. Whether you are a manufacturer, distributor or service company, do you think in terms of what services you provide? Do you have multiple streams of revenue? If all of your services or products are in a single family, or serve a single customer type, you are at greater risk. Market shifts or changing tastes can have a dramatic impact on your ability to sell.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Financial Resources<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 How many banks do you know well, and do business with? How many credit cards do you have? If all of your funding opportunities are wrapped up in one basket, you may have limited opportunities to expand your business or find extra cash when you need it.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Technology<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 If you have only one computer, if your data is all stored on a single computer, or if you only do one backup, you have all your IT eggs in one basket. Conventional wisdom is that it\u2019s not a matter of if your computer will break down, but when. And as technology changes, you\u2019re uneasy about spending the money to upgrade \u2013 again. You\u2019re at greater risk. I have two computers, a desktop and laptop. Both have been reliable for more than 5 years, and each crashed in the past six months. Bad planning? Bad Karma? I don\u2019t know, but I do know one thing. Too many eggs in one basket.<\/p>\n<p>There are always risks, roadblocks, and challenges that present themselves to every business owner. Some are because of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/part-time-cfo\/market-guidance-strategy\/\">changes in the market<\/a> or economic climate that you can\u2019t predict or control. But you can ease or eliminate that impact by understanding if you have all of your eggs in one basket. By understanding your business\u2019 potential potholes, you can avoid becoming Humpty Dumpty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When people talk about having all their eggs in one basket it can mean many things. A lot of times it relates to Investments, Career Choices or other personal matters. But the same is true for businesses. Are you aware of these business risks, and doing something to protect your business from an inevitable crash, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1281,1533,57],"tags":[1732,1734,1731,1733],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor? - CFO Simplified<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor? - CFO Simplified\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When people talk about having all their eggs in one basket it can mean many things. A lot of times it relates to Investments, Career Choices or other personal matters. But the same is true for businesses. Are you aware of these business risks, and doing something to protect your business from an inevitable crash, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CFO Simplified\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-03T19:04:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-27T17:07:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Larry Chester\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Larry Chester\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/\",\"name\":\"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor? - CFO Simplified\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-03T19:04:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-27T17:07:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6081e81b8a669e394aa43c08ae0bc511\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg\",\"caption\":\"graphic of Humpty Dumpty on wall, for the best business metrics call our Chicago CFO consultants.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/\",\"name\":\"CFO Simplified\",\"description\":\"Part Time CFOs Full Time Results\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6081e81b8a669e394aa43c08ae0bc511\",\"name\":\"Larry Chester\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfbd9f1fefc7d44d81a5a3e0c4ba9620?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfbd9f1fefc7d44d81a5a3e0c4ba9620?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Larry Chester\"},\"description\":\"Larry Chester served as a corporate CFO for 25 years before starting CFO Simplified in 2007. Having worked in manufacturing and service companies of all sizes, he now leads a team of part time CFOs serving small to mid-sized companies throughout the Midwest. They serve the needs of business owners, providing them with Cash Flow Forecasting, Profitability Improvement and Financial Statement Clarity. Since the company\u2019s inception, they have implemented changes that have improved operations, cash flow and profitability to their many clients.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/author\/adminlarry\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor? - CFO Simplified","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor? - CFO Simplified","og_description":"When people talk about having all their eggs in one basket it can mean many things. A lot of times it relates to Investments, Career Choices or other personal matters. But the same is true for businesses. Are you aware of these business risks, and doing something to protect your business from an inevitable crash, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/","og_site_name":"CFO Simplified","article_published_time":"2020-02-03T19:04:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-27T17:07:03+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Larry Chester","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Larry Chester","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/","name":"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor? - CFO Simplified","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg","datePublished":"2020-02-03T19:04:18+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-27T17:07:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6081e81b8a669e394aa43c08ae0bc511"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Graphic-Humpty-DumptyHORZ-e1582312922479.jpg","caption":"graphic of Humpty Dumpty on wall, for the best business metrics call our Chicago CFO consultants."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/strategic-planning\/humpty-dumpty-mentor\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Humpty Dumpty Your Mentor?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/","name":"CFO Simplified","description":"Part Time CFOs Full Time Results","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6081e81b8a669e394aa43c08ae0bc511","name":"Larry Chester","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfbd9f1fefc7d44d81a5a3e0c4ba9620?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cfbd9f1fefc7d44d81a5a3e0c4ba9620?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Larry Chester"},"description":"Larry Chester served as a corporate CFO for 25 years before starting CFO Simplified in 2007. Having worked in manufacturing and service companies of all sizes, he now leads a team of part time CFOs serving small to mid-sized companies throughout the Midwest. They serve the needs of business owners, providing them with Cash Flow Forecasting, Profitability Improvement and Financial Statement Clarity. Since the company\u2019s inception, they have implemented changes that have improved operations, cash flow and profitability to their many clients.","url":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/author\/adminlarry\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfosimplified.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}