How to resolve AdBlock issue? Allgood wants small business leaders to use AI to focus on ‘the vitals’ like cashflow – then profitability
By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>
BUSINESSES EVERYWHERE face all sorts of problems these days.
But according to Eric Allgood, the managing director of the Small Business Assistance and Advisory Service (SBAAS), the big one is how to make the most out of artificial intelligence (AI).
With 20-plus years of experience, Mr Allgood is a specialist in helping organisations tackle complex challenges, especially in strategy, governance, and crisis leadership.
“The new issue I’m seeing across every industry and every organisation is how do we make AI do it,” Mr Allgood told Talking Business. 
“We help with AI. We’ve got workshops coming up but the big thing with AI is it’s not the fix you believe it is,” he said.
“There’s lot of things it can fix and agentic AI is really good because it brings things together and it makes things happen for you.
“But there still has to be pieces where humans interject and then when you look at your AI and your Chats and your Claudes,” Mr Allgood said. “The biggest issue I’m seeing there is there’s too much reliance on getting them to do work, which is great.
“It saves time, but if it’s doing all your junior work for you, where’s your next expert coming from?”
Consider where AI can go wrong
Mr Allgood said the legal profession was a “beautiful example of where AI has gone wrong”.
Mr Allgood has a law degree and a Masters of Law, but he would not use it that much.
“The courts have been clogged up with people self-representing ‘because ChatGPT is going to get me through it’,” he said.
“I might get it to analyse a case study for me, so it would give me the salient points out of this because essentially some of those cases can be 100-200 pages long, but I’m not going to get it to solve the problem.
“This is a common thing I see – everyone wants the pill to fix all ails.”
Business needs vital focus on cashflow over profitability
Mr Allgood said the issue he sees across all industries is the focus on profitability instead of cash flow.
“I’ve seen a lot of profitable businesses end up in administration,” he said.
Mr Allgood said most organisations will look at their sales cycles and the ebbs and flows. They might amortise things like insurance over 12 months. Instead, he tells businesses to look at when their main bills come in and try to put the payments in for peak months.
“Because you know you’ll have the money in the bank to pay them,” he said.
While this might make sense, a lot of businesses aren’t across that. Mr Allgood said the things that help business owners the most are the things that give them time.
“A lot of people got into business because they’ve got this thing they’re really good at – but business might not be it,” he said.
“This is where things go wrong. People don’t have the skills. They’re trying to do everything.
“And you take a business with under 20 staff, the owners are still trying to do everything,” Mr Allgood said. 
“They get really busy but, unfortunately, they get busy on stuff that isn’t their skill.”
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness
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