If it works, don’t fix it. I’m sure everyone has heard that statement, but is this philosophy always good to live by? That depends on what it is that “works”. In some cases, you can get away with letting things fail, and then take the action to fix or replace them. In other cases, it’s a good idea to fix things at the first sign of trouble, and sometimes things should be “fixed” even before anything appears to be wrong. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Let’s say the speakers on your computer are making a funny noise, and it’s not because you’re watching hilarious YouTube videos. It might be okay to put up with the noise because if the speakers fail, it’s probably not critical to running your business. Or, your car is making a noise that you have identified and it is not compromising safety. In this case, you can turn the speakers up and not hear the noise anymore.

A while back, I saw oil coming from underneath the engine of my airplane. It was running fine, but was sending me a message that something was wrong. This got my attention right away, as I don’t have a backup in case it decides to fail. I fixed it!

Speaking of backups, how is your computer running? I’ll bet it’s running just fine, so why would you need to back up your information? Computers rarely give you a sign that something is about to go haywire. That doesn’t mean you don’t need a backup. And, while we’re talking about technology, how old is the computer and/or software that your business is relying on?

Eventually, the computer will fail, and the old software on it may not run on new equipment. Are you prepared to re-enter all of the information you need to run your business because your data will not move to newer software? Think about it.

Sometimes things need to be fixed, even if they still work.

Ken Hilton, President