Mel,
In Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator kills an old man and hides the body under the floorboards.
When police arrive, he begins to hear what he thinks is the dead man’s heart thrumping louder…and louder…and the sound drives him to confess.
One of Josh Long's clients hired a bookkeeper. Didn't think much of it. Bookkeepers know how to bookkeep, right?
Six months later the bookkeeper quit.
So, Josh’s client went to clean out her desk.
Found bills stuffed in a drawer. Four months old. Five months old. Six months old.
Vendors hadn't been paid.
The money was sitting in the bank the whole time.
There was no cash crisis, no unusual stress, no thumping of a murdered heart to give the bookkeeper’s “crime” away.
The bookkeeper just couldn't be bothered some days and shoved things in a drawer.
Josh’s client had been making decisions for six months on data she didn't know was incomplete.
Josh told this story at my The Intervention Seminar to make a specific point: a bad bookkeeper isn't just a nuisance. They're a blindfold.
You think you know what's going on in your business, but you're working off corrupted information and you don't know it.
Josh says it can apply to every key role…
An operations coordinator who's slow to onboard clients costs you in churn you can't trace back to the real cause.
A fulfillment manager who tolerates rework costs you in refunds, callbacks, and reputation.
An office manager who lives in reaction mode costs you in owner time…yours…which is the most expensive resource in the building.
None of these show up as line items. They don't appear on a P&L.
They don’t thump incessantly like the heart under the floorboards.
But they're costing you, every month, whether you can see them or not.
Josh has a framework for finding these blind spots and putting a dollar figure on them.
If that sounds like a conversation worth having, email Josh at josh@perrymarshall.com.
Seven-figure business owners only.
Seize the day,
Perry
