The costs of your records process and putting the business back in.

Businesses that don't make more money than they spend, go broke.

If records was a business, would it survive?

Lots of people will tell you that it doesn't matter - because that's not what records is about.

The part of me that majored in economics wants to tell them that it's always about that, and when there are cheaper ways of getting those things done, the cheaper way wins over any meaningful time horizon.

But that would probably be a waste of time.

So all I'm going to ask you is "what have you got to lose?"

What's the difference between someone who knows what their process costs and someone who doesn't?

Most of the time - probably nothing at all.

But when they get asked, it's just that they appear to know their brief.

If you know the costs of your records process and not doing your records process - and you've measured it in your own business, you're equipped to go toe to toe with anyone who wants to cut your funding.

If you know the costs of your records process and how much a business process improves (in cost terms) when they're doing records well, you're equipped for every single conversation that happens in a lift or anywhere else where someone devalues what you do.

The downside is in what happens in those conversations when you don't know your costs.

The person who wants to cut your funding doesn't understand what they're cutting - because you can't tell them what that funding cut is going to cost them.

This is all the business stuff.

The business funds us.

The business knows what we cost.

If we don't, we know less about records than our businesses, and they're going to know it.