The “Expert” Delusion
In 2019, I took over the business my dad built over the past 5 years after his sudden passing. I was pretty confident that I would manage it after some initial hiccups as I had been a “Business Head” at Ola. I had managed P&Ls. I had an MBA. I thought I knew how business worked.
It took exactly 30 days for reality to punch me in the mouth.In the corporate world, “Business Head” means you decide how to spend a budget someone else allocated. You worry about “Growth” and “Strategy.”
In the founder world, those words are luxuries. The only word that matters is Oxygen.
The Cash flow Siege
Here is the math I never learnt in my job:
- The Contract: ₹48 Lakhs/month. (Looks great on a P&L).
- The Terms: Payment in 45 days. (The trap).
- The Reality: To earn that ₹48 Lakhs, I have to pay 200+ people on the 7th of every month.
- The Compliance Drag: The government deducts TDS immediately. The refund hits my account 9-18 months after the deduction.
My corporate experience had prepared me to optimize a spreadsheet. It had not prepared me for the visceral terror of 10:00 AM on the 1st of the month.
If a client pays 15 days late, I don’t miss a “target.” I miss payroll for 200+ families who depend on that cash for their expenses.
Mastery Is Forged, Not Found
I realized my father wasn’t “chasing trends” as he was building this business. He was mastering the physics of survival. He wasn’t building a resume; he was building a hull that could withstand the pressure of Indian B2B payment cycles.
I stopped trying to be a “Visionary.” I became a mechanic. I learned the gritty, un-glamorous work of understanding payment cycles. I learned that profit is an opinion, but cash is a fact.
Mastery didn’t come from my job titles. It came from ensuring that every associate engaged in my business got their salary paid on 7th of every month, no matter what.
The Monday Morning Raid
Stop looking at your Revenue Dashboard. It is a vanity mirror. Look at your Oxygen Tank.
Run the “Days Survival” Calculation this week:
- Total Cash in Bank (Real cash, not projected invoices).
- Daily Cash Burn (Fixed costs + Variable costs / 30).
- Survival Ratio: Cash / Burn = Days of Oxygen.
If your client holds your cash for 60 days, but you only have 45 days of Oxygen, you are dead. You just don’t know it yet.
The Lesson: Growth eats cash. Before you sign that “massive” new contract, ask: “Do I have the oxygen to hold my breath until they pay?”