Nothing’s Broken – So Why Does Running the Business Feel So Hard?
Nothing’s Broken – So Why Does Running the Business Feel So Hard?
On paper, things are fine.
Orders are going out. Invoices are being sent. Customers are paying. The business is growing.
So why does running it still feel harder than it should?
This is something we hear a lot from business owners, operations managers and finance teams. Not because something has failed – but because the way work flows through the business just feels… heavy.
Nothing’s broken. But nothing feels smooth either.
The quiet problems no one calls “urgent”
Most growing businesses don’t have one big system failure. They have lots of small, quiet inefficiencies that add up over time, like:
- Entering the same information more than once
- Checking spreadsheets “just to be sure”
- Relying on people to remember follow-ups
- Jobs or orders that live in emails, not systems
- Stock levels that technically exist, but aren’t trusted
Individually, none of these feel like a crisis. Together, they slow everything down.
And because the business is still functioning, these problems tend to get parked under “we’ll fix it later”.
Later rarely comes.
Why this gets worse as you grow
Most businesses start with tools that make sense at the time. Accounting software, a spreadsheet or two, maybe a CRM bolted on later.
That setup works – until it doesn’t.
As volume increases, a few things happen:
- More people touch the same data
- More steps are needed to complete a job
- More exceptions creep in
- More handovers mean more room for error
What used to live comfortably in someone’s head now needs to live somewhere shared, visible and reliable.
Spreadsheets stretch as far as they can… then quietly become a risk.
Accounting software does the books – not the business
MYOB and Xero are excellent at what they’re designed to do: accounting.
But they’re not built to manage:
- Quoting and approvals
- Jobs and scheduling
- Operational workflows
- Stock movement across real-world processes
- Customer follow-ups and activity history
So businesses fill the gaps with spreadsheets, emails, whiteboards and workarounds – often without realising how much friction that creates.
Over time, the accounting system becomes the end of the process, not the place where the business actually runs.
Why ERP feels like too much
At some point, someone usually says: “Do we need an ERP?”
Then come the concerns:
- Six-figure budgets
- Long implementations
- Consultants
- Rigid processes
- A system you have to adapt your business to
For many small and growing businesses, ERP isn’t wrong – it’s just too much, too soon.
So, they stay where they are. Slightly uncomfortable, but familiar.
The missing middle layer
What most growing businesses actually need is not another spreadsheet, another disconnected app, or a full-blown ERP.
They need a system that sits between accounting software and chaos – a place where the business actually runs.
That’s the gap Tall Emu was built to fill.
What “working properly” actually looks like
When systems are doing their job properly:
- Quotes flow straight into jobs and invoices
- Customer history is visible in one place
- Tasks and follow-ups don’t rely on memory
- Stock levels are trusted, not double-checked
- Phone calls, emails and notes are logged automatically
- People stop building their own shadow systems
It’s not about adding complexity. It’s about removing friction.
Tall Emu brings together CRM and customer history, quoting, orders and jobs, inventory and barcode scanning, automations and workflows, phone and email activity – all tightly integrated with MYOB and Xero.
All without the cost, rigidity or overhead of ERP.
Why “nothing’s broken” is the hardest stage
Ironically, this stage is often harder than a crisis.
When something is broken, it gets fixed. When things are just inefficient, they linger.
People stay late. Teams work around systems instead of with them. Business owners feel constantly busy, but not always in control.
That’s usually the sign the foundations need attention – not because you’ve failed, but because you’ve grown.
You don’t need to rip everything out
One of the biggest myths about improving systems is that it means starting again. In reality, you can keep your accounting software, keep your data, and keep what already works. You just add the missing operational layer that connects it all together.
No drama. No 12-month project. No “ERP moment”.
Just a business that runs the way it should.
Nothing fancy. Just clarity.
If nothing in your business is technically broken – but things still feel harder than they should – that’s usually a sign your systems haven’t kept up with your growth.
Tall Emu was built for businesses in exactly that space.
If you’d like a second opinion on your current setup, we’re happy to take a look and tell you what’s working, what’s quietly slowing you down, and whether there’s a simpler way to run things.
No pressure. No ERP pitch. Just a practical conversation.
To see what “working properly” looks like, watch an on-demand demo of Tall Emu.