Taking over my dad's business, I realized the accounting was a mess and customers were just coming out of habit

bro i went through the exact same thing. my grandpa was in the scrap business my dad took over then i did. 35 years of blind accounting! i hired an accountant fixed the books old clients left new ones came. i even used the tax amnesty for penalties left over from my dad's era. we're relaxed now because we're clean

edit: I wrote something wrong above, sorry about that.

There are three stages when taking over a family business: first, understanding the old system (you did that), second, finding flaws and noting them (you did that), third, setting up a clean system (you're doing that). It takes time, but you're taking the right steps.

I'm curious: have you ever talked to your dad about this? Because he kept that business running for 30 years doing it that way, but maybe he'll get angry when you explain it, thinking, 'is my system wrong?' Did you manage to separate the two without losing him?

To-do list: 1- Completely clean up the old accounting get the tax situation compliant with a financial advisor, 2- Create customer contracts, 3- Define invoice and order procedures, 4- Keep everything in writing. If you do these things you'll make this business something you can hand over to someone else.

bravo for your courage! most people keep the old sham system out of respect for their dad and let things slide but you cleaned it up and modernized it... honestly itll get even better as you wirte more about it!

did you use the tax amnesty? honestly we couldn't, it was too expensive and but still, it'd be good to hire a tax consultant to reduce tax risk a bit more

Three different views emerged, they all complement each other. Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

The longer you delay cutting the team, the more people it affects. This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

I completely agree. Most time waste accumulates in tasks waiting for approval.

Second-time founders don't make the same mistakes but find new ones. If I were you, I'd go this route.

Three different views emerged, they all complement each other. Cutting your own salary is a temporary tactic; if it lasts more than six months, something will break.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

Let's separate the concepts, they're getting mixed up. honestly the harder it is to reverse a decision the slower you should make it.

Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late. anyway if you post the result here it will help others too.

Just a heads-up. The longer you delay cutting the team, the more people it affects.

Hope this helps.

Timely topic. The answer varies greatly by industry; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.

The biggest time-waster for us was not knowing who had the final say.

Following.

Thanks a lot I'll try it today. Everyone rushing into taking over a family business gets stuck at the same point.

This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

The most overlooked point about taking over a family business is this: Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

Processes without records never improve, because you don't know what to fix. That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

Correct in theory, but it doesn't work that way in practice. The longer you delay cutting the team, the more people it affects.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.

You're right. Looking profitable on paper but having no cash in the bank is very common.

The first thing to break as you grow is communication, not the numbers. If I were you, I'd go this route.

There's a trap here, let me mention it. The biggest time-waster for us was not knowing who had the final say.

Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right. If you have questions, write them; I'll answer as best I can.