Build a Business Troubleshooting Guide
Treat business issues like technical faults. Identify the issue, find the root cause, and apply the correction to resolve it.
When you start your own business, you have a lot to learn. And most of it, you only learn by doing.
You can read about how to ride a bike, but you only really learn by riding it. You fall → it hurts → you try again → almost fall → correct yourself → and then you get the hang of it.
Business works the same way. You do not fall but you fail. It hurts mentally instead of physically. But the loop is the same: try → fail → correct yourself → try again.
When you get the hang of it, you learned.
In the early days of starting my business, I had to troubleshoot an irrigation pump that was having issues. In the Installation and Operating Instructions PDF for that pump model, I found a pump troubleshooting guide. It helped me quickly find the solution.
The pump troubleshooting guide was structured like this:
Issue | Likely Cause | Remedy | |
1 | Pump runs backwards when switched off. | Foot or non-return valve defective. | Remove and clean, repair or
replace valve. |
That was a small snippet. But I found the structure and simplicity of the guide super smart. So, I decided to use that structure for the business lessons I learned.
Business Troubleshooting Guide
Issue | Likely Cause | Remedy | |
1 | Too many design revisions. | Project scope unclear. | Get more information before work starts. Set clear boundaries. |
2 | Projects delivered late. | Poor planning. Deadlines are unclear within the team. | Assign planning owner. Create a Gantt chart-like planning. Update it. |
3 | Profit feels low despite being busy. | Unpriced work. Many unbillable hours. | Raise prices. That also can cover unbillable hours. Improve systems. |
4 | Client says proposal is too expensive. | The value is unclear. | Show return on investment. Breakdown quote in chapters. |
5 | Cashflow keeps getting tight. | Late invoicing. Poorly structured progress payment structure. | Invoice faster. Restructure progress payments and terms. |
6 | The project team repeats the same mistakes. | Processes not documented. Unknown what’s expected. | Create SOP’s. Document processes. Post-project reviews. |
7 | Too much time lost in admin tasks. | Poor templates. Wait too long and things get forgotten. | Standardise quotations and invoices. Do admin weekly. |
8 | Not a consistent flow of work. | Focus too much on operations and not on quotations + sales. | Ask for referrals. Keep chatting with current clients. Post content. |
9 | Keep getting work you don’t enjoy. | No clear boundaries. Saying yes to everything. | Define ideal client and project type. Say no to misaligned work. |
10 | Business stops when you take time off. | Everything depends on you. | Start partnerships. Delegate tasks to subcontractor. Sell digital assets. |
Template
Every business runs into issues like these. The question is not if, but when. When it happens, identify the likely cause. Choose a remedy. Try it. If it does not work, adjust and try again.
If you fail after trying again, you learned how not to do it. If it works after trying again, you learned how to do it.
If you want to build your own business troubleshooting guide to list issues you ran into and how you solved them, and use Notion, grab the duplicatable template below and add your own rows.