61 Questions to help you identify your Business Potholes Heatmap

What if you knew all the big potholes that could be obstructing your business journey?

For that, I have put together this Business Potholes Heatmap Checklist where I walk you through:

• The 18 key areas where bad potholes often quietly attack and devour business goals.

• The 61 questions to guide you in assessing which of these areas to watch out for.

Let's get straight into it.

1. PEOPLE

• Who are the people that your business depends on in order to operate normally?

• Is there any group of these people who are not delivering their jobs effectively lately, or those whom you need to monitor their work so closely because most of the time when you leave them doing the work by themselves, something goes wrong?

• How effectively does your diverse team work with each other on the day-to-day operations?

• Is your training and capability development plan adequate to equip your key employees to operate your business effectively?

• If one of your key employees has to be away in an emergency, can his/her job be covered by other employees smoothly with sufficient documented instruction and procedure (knowledge retention)?

• Will you be able to take a break from your business at any time and still have your ongoing business activities taken care of by your trusted team?

• Have you recently dismissed a key employee who could be disgruntled/resentful?

2. MONEY

• What could disrupt the source of your finance that funds your business?

• Are you seeing any sign of bad credit from your customers?

• Is your cash flow gap big between when you receive payment for your sales and when you have to pay for your supplies?

• Is your business showing an abnormal trend in your cash flow, revenue, and profit & loss transactions?

3. MARKET

• Have you been noticing a shift from your products/services to a newly emerging alternative in the market?

• Has there been any sudden incident that is affecting your entire market and industry?

4. CUSTOMER

• What are the top complaints you have received from your customers (written or verbally, via complaint submission as well as customer satisfaction survey)?

• Are you satisfied with how your business is retaining your best customers (performance of customer loyalty program, any sign of long-term customers buying less)?

• Are there signs that any of your customers might not be able to settle their payments timely? Is there a systemic reason causing this, could the same thing happen to other customers?

5. HEALTH

• What area of your health and safety could your normal business operations cause harm to?

• What could go wrong in your business operations that could threaten your health and safety?

• Consider the latest infectious disease, are you fully aware of what you should do to protect yourself and your business from contracting the disease? How could the preventive order from the authorities affect your normal business operations?

6. REPUTATION

• Is your brand attracting your target customers (or mostly the wrong audience)?

• For the people who know your brand, do they have the correct idea of what your brand is offering?

• Have there been any negative remarks made about you and your business?

• Are there any arising matters (legal-wise, customer complaints, business operations safety, etc.) that if not handled well, the worst case could destroy your business reputation and brand?

7. ENVIRONMENT

• Which part of your business operations would be badly affected by a changing climate or natural disaster?

• Does your business release emissions that could be harmful to the environment and the surrounding people (whether during normal day-to-day operations or during a HSE incident)?

8. INFORMATION

• What is the key information which your business relies on in order to operate normally? Is this information stored in a safe place?

• Which key information of your business, when it is exposed to others in the public, would affect your business negatively?

• If something happened to the storage of your key information, would you have adequate backup to keep your business operating as normal?

• Is it easy for people (within and outside your team) to steal your business' top secret information or commit fraud (forge documents to deceive the company, bribery, money laundering, etc.) for their personal gain?

9. TECHNOLOGY

• Are there signs telling that the current technology your business is using could become obsolete soon and be replaced by a new advanced technology?

• How would the obsolescence of your current technology affect your business?

• How reliable are the critical systems that your business operates by? Are they effectively protected from cybersecurity attacks?

10. SECURITY

• Is it easy for people (within and outside your team) to access your workplace and key assets?

• What security measures are in place to protect you and your business in the event of a sabotage or terrorism attack, if applicable?

11. EQUIPMENT

• Is the equipment used to operate your business still reliable? Is there any sign of aging on your equipment which could affect your business operations?

12. SUPPLY

• What are the key factors affecting the reliability of your business supply?

• Are there any emerging matters that could possibly disrupt the source of your business supply?

• Do you monitor the performance of your suppliers/providers/vendors?

• Does your supplier/provider/vendor hold stronger negotiation power because of their strong position as the only/preferred supplier?

• How effective is your overall supply procurement process?

13. STOCK

• What is the lowest limit of stock level that your business must keep in order to continue receiving sales?

• What is the highest limit of stock level that your business can keep before you have to stop your production or supply?

• Is your business ready to handle stock levels dropping below your lowest limit or being pushed beyond your highest limit?

• Is there any arising concern with your storage or warehouse?

14. DELIVERY

• Do you monitor and maintain the quality of your products/services?

• Have you faced any challenges in the business project you are working on recently?

• Do you notice any gap in your products/services delivery (delay, poor quality, increased cost) due to logistic arrangements, sudden crisis, etc.?

15. COMPETITION

• How easy is it for someone else to replicate your business model and take away part of your current market share?

• Is the competitive advantage of your business well protected (your secret recipes, ingredients, formulas, signature processes, etc.)?

16. LAW

• Are you aware of all the laws and regulations relevant to your business and its operations?

• Is there any recent incident that could likely cause changes in laws and regulations that can affect your business operations?

• Are there any laws or regulations which you or your business has not been complying with?

• How badly could your business be affected if there were new requirements for an increased minimum wage, or localization in your hiring?

• Has there been any sign of an integrity breach in your business practices (e.g. fraudulent act by your employees)?

17. TAX

• Are you aware of all financial transactions that have tax implications in your business?

• Have you fully leveraged tax incentives that are accessible to your business?

• Do you maintain complete tax records as evidence for tax audits on your business?

• Have you complied with the tax-related laws and regulations in every country you do business with?

18. COUNTRY

• How is the political stability in the country(ies) where your business operates? Could any sentiment lead to political decisions that could affect your business operations (e.g. strict requirement of localization for business registration and employment)?

• Are there any cross-border restrictions that affect your normal business operations, or business expansion?

• Does the country where you operate your business impose any ban that could affect your business?

Now that you have assessed through these key questions, which of these 18 key areas are most concerning to you and your business right now?

Share your thoughts in the comment, or write to me directly if you prefer a private chat over it.