People often assume the hardest part of consultancy is solving business problems. It isn’t.

Most business problems can be solved. Sales can improve, retention can increase, systems can be fixed, teams developed and marketing refined. Those challenges can be frustrating, but they’re rarely the moments that stay with you. The hardest moments aren’t commercial. They’re human.

I’ve worked with hundreds of businesses. I’ve seen them thrive, struggle and fail. I’ve seen owners achieve things they never thought possible and others face incredibly difficult circumstances. But one moment stands out above all others, and I still think about it years later.

I won’t name the company involved, and those who know the story will understand why. The point isn’t to point fingers. It’s to share a lesson that fundamentally changed how I think about business and the people in it.

A Phone Call I’ll Never Forget

I’d been working with a franchise organisation and had already moved on professionally. But I’ve always believed relationships don’t end just because a contract does. If I’ve worked with someone, I generally stay in touch.

One day a franchisee called me. Their business was failing. Despite everything they’d tried and sacrificed, the numbers weren’t stacking up and the business was heading for closure.

As we talked, the conversation became increasingly worrying. Eventually they told me the only thing they had left was their life insurance policy. They genuinely believed their family would be better off without them. Their business sat next to a canal and a major train station. Alarm bells were ringing.

This was no longer a business conversation. This was a person in crisis: a husband, a parent, a human being who couldn’t see a way forward.

When Assurances Aren’t Enough

I immediately raised my concerns with the franchise organisation and was assured support would be provided. A couple of weeks later the franchisee called again. Nothing had changed. No meaningful support, no intervention, no urgency.

I realised I couldn’t assume someone else would handle it. This time I put my concerns formally in writing to the CEO so there could be no ambiguity about how serious it was. That finally forced movement.

A few weeks later the business closed. What happened next shocked me more than anything before it. While the owner dealt with the devastation of losing their business, the franchisor seemed more concerned with removing signage and protecting the brand than supporting the people involved. Staff needed answers. Redundancies needed explaining. Livelihoods were affected. Support was largely absent.

These were still human beings who had invested their lives, money and hopes in a business. They deserved better. So I arranged childcare, got in the car and drove to the club. Not because I was being paid or because it was my responsibility, but because it was the right thing to do. Together with the owner, we sat down with the staff, explained what was happening, talked them through the redundancy process, answered questions and simply tried to be there.

Why It Stays With Me

It’s not the business failure I remember. Businesses fail. Money can be rebuilt. What stays with me is how close someone came to believing they had no other option.

That was the moment consultancy stopped being primarily about business for me and became much more about people. It reinforced something I’d always believed: who you choose to work with matters. Values matter. Character matters.

Expertise and commercial success are important, but they tell you little about how someone behaves when things get difficult. It’s easy to be supportive when everyone is winning. The true measure of a person, a leader or an organisation is how they behave when things go wrong.

It’s one reason I’m so selective about who I work with today. Businesses need to be profitable, but never at the expense of basic human decency.

People, Not Numbers

What struck me most was how quickly people become numbers: membership numbers, revenue, profit, franchise units. Behind every figure is a person, a family and pressures most people never see.

That owner wasn’t a line on a spreadsheet. They’d invested their savings and a huge part of their life in something meaningful. When it fell apart, they didn’t need another strategy or report. They needed support, reassurance and someone willing to stand beside them through one of the hardest periods of their life.

It taught me that not everything should be driven by money. Sometimes the right thing to do is simply the right thing to do.

Thankfully, this story didn’t end in tragedy. But it easily could have, and that’s why I keep telling it. In an industry that talks so much about growth, profitability and success, it’s worth remembering that business is ultimately about people. The numbers matter, but the people behind them matter far more.

I hope none of us ever become so focused on growth or protecting a brand that we forget our responsibility to the people around us. Long after the revenue figures are forgotten, people remember how they were treated when they needed help most. For me, that will always be the true measure of success.

If you’re a business owner who is struggling, please talk to someone. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans are available any time, day or night, on 116 123.

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Ryan Charlesworth, Founder, Black Raccoon Consulting