Why do so few airplanes crash? Could it be the intensive training that a pilot undergoes before ever driving a plane? That probably accounts for much of the success, but what of the machine itself? 60 Ton jetliners don't fly so good when the engines fail! How does the pilot get out of such a scrape?

Flying an aircraft is analogous to flying a small business. And it mostly boils down to the pilot [that's you]. We're both going into an inhospitable and unforgiving territory. The difference is that the pilot is highly trained while most of us business owners are flying - literally - by the seat of our pants!

A simple example illustrates this. Before a pilot takes off, s/he goes through a boring, intensive pre-flight check. One of the most important numbers in this check is the amount of fuel on board. You can't simply refuel when in flight [unless you're a gung-ho US pilot in the movies]. So the pilot checks how much fuel is on board and makes sure that s/he's going to have enough to land [preferably on another airfield as opposed to the N2 just outside Colesberg]. This implies that the pilot also has a fair idea of where s/he is aiming for. [Called a flight plan.]

While us business owners not only know that we don't have enough money, but often we have no idea of where we're actually aiming. We are pretty confident that somehow, somewhere along the way, before the large vehicle we're flying crashes into a small hole the size of a Noddy car - some boer will maak a plan! We often take off with with just enough cash to get 1000 metres high before the engine stutters. Like a large plane landing without power, a small business landing without cash is not a pretty sight!

Another contrast between a pilot and a business owner is that each pilot has access to huge volumes of information about the vehicle s/he's flying right now. The instrument panel gives constant feedback on the state of the plane. And s/he has a manual to deal with unexpected 'events'. This manual has reams of checklists that document the experiences of every previous pilot in every possible 'event' - and recommends those activities most likely to keep everyone alive. The most important issue here is for the pilot not to panic. Panic most often happens when we run out of options - and the pilot has books full of options to keep trying.

Unfortunately, most of us don't have the same access to bright ideas when smoke starts to billow out of the engine driving our business. There is nothing more dangerous than an idea when it's the only idea you have. In most of our cases that idea is to borrow more money! So we run out of ideas really quickly, and panic when nobody wants to help us.

For most of us, the 'events' that spark the most angst include: a legal summons; a defaulting big client; a bank pulling the overdraft; firing an employee; receiving a SARS lifestyle questionnaire; financing a big sale; financing a big purchase; and a whole bunch of issues that have nothing to do with the technical aspects of what we do [and where we spend most of our 'learning' time].

I have been speaking to an extremely experienced pilot about developing a series of aviation style checklists for us small business owners - to cover all the 'events' we're likely to bump into in our business lives. If you'd be interested in these checklists, please email me at checklists@petesweekly.co.za and add any issues that I have missed above. This is not a request for commitment, but rather an attempt to see whether there would be any point to the exercise.

In closing. Imagine a plane in desperate trouble with black smoke streaming out of the engines; coming down way too fast. Every single outside observer knows that this is going to be very messy, and chances are pretty slim that anyone will survive. While every single person inside the plane knows that the situation isn't that bad at all, and s/he is going to come out of this thing OK! Sound familiar? Pre-flight checklists, business structures, cash flow planning - mostly boring subjects, but absolutely critical to your business survival and success.

© Peter Carruthers, www.petesweekly.co.za

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