Learning to Fish

An old adage states that if you give a man a fish, he can eat for a day. But if you teach him to fish he can eat for a lifetime. The same applies to our paint contracting business.

There are many skills that are invaluable in running a successful business. Knowing our numbers is one example. There are a lot of ways to use numbers. QuickBooks, for example, can generate an almost unlimited number of reports.

Sometimes though, we have data available, but analysis isn’t easily accomplished. For example, I cannot conduct a thorough analysis of my return on investment for advertising through QuickBooks alone—I need data from other sources to make this analysis.

In those situations using an Excel spreadsheet is the easiest and most effective route. Excel can also be good for budgeting and similar types of financial projections. It is very easy to change a variable to see the end results.

This reminds me of a contractor who once asked if anyone had a spreadsheet to analyze “company history”. Many people responded that Excel is easy to learn, and it would behoove him to learn to use it. The contractor launched into a verbal assault on those who refused to satisfy his request.

He was essentially asking for a fish, rather than how to fish. Invariably, if someone had met his request he would have messed up the spreadsheet (this is easy to do). He would have then whined about this. However, if he had spent a few hours learning how to use Excel, he would forever be able to unleash its power. In other words, if he had learned to fish he would be in a much better place.

© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008