“You look comfortable,” I said.

“Things are going really well,” Jordan replied. “The market is good, new customer count is up, year over year revenues are positive. Yes, things are comfortable.”

“I noticed your accounts receivable ratio to new sales is above your threshold limit. And, that you rented a new warehouse to store some slow-moving inventory. Your revenue-per-employee head count is way down over the past six months. What gives?”

“Hey, when times are good, those things happen. More revenue, more accounts receivable. We set the ratio threshold during the last recession when things were tight, so it’s no big deal. And, yes, we rented another warehouse to give us more capacity. The new warehouse gives us a buffer so if we get a spike in sales, we can cover without having to increase production. But, you are right. I am a little troubled by our revenue-per-employee. It just seems it takes more people these days, and wages are increasing so our revenue-per-payroll dollar is even worse.”

“Jordan, when things are tight, we pay attention, we measure, we make moves. We don’t make our biggest mistakes when times are tough. We make our biggest mistakes when times are good. A little success can create a whole lot of overhead.*” -Tom
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*Homage to Red Scott.