Business Growth Strategies
Accelerated Sustainable Growth
Profit, Cash & Business Value Consult
A focused half-day strategic consult for established business owners.
Get underneath what is really happening in the business, identify where profit, cash and business value may be constrained or left unrealised, and determine what deserves attention first.
The objective is not to give you another long list of things to work on.
It is to understand the business properly, identify the two or three commercial issues that matter most, and get clear on the highest-value priority to address first.
Diagnose broadly. Prioritise narrowly.
A short conversation to determine whether there is a genuine fit and whether I believe I can add value.
Why this consult exists
Established businesses rarely have only one issue.
Profit may be under pressure while revenue is growing.
Cash may be tighter than the P&L suggests.
Certain customers, products or services may be producing far less economic value than assumed.
Working capital may be absorbing cash unnecessarily.
The owner may still sit in the middle of too many decisions.
Management capability, pricing, capacity, operations, concentration or the business model itself may be suppressing value.
The difficulty is not usually finding things that could be improved.
It is determining:
What is really happening?
What matters most?
What should be addressed first?
That is the purpose of the consult.
Profit. Cash. Business Value.
I look at the business through three connected commercial lenses.
Profit
Where is the business genuinely making money — and where is it not?
We may look at margins, pricing, customer profitability, product or service profitability, cost-to-serve, sales mix, operating costs, capacity or other factors affecting earnings.
Cash
Where is cash being created, absorbed or unnecessarily tied up?
We may examine working capital, debtors, inventory, WIP, purchasing, supplier and customer terms, cash conversion and the effect growth is having on cash.
Business Value
What is strengthening or suppressing the underlying value of the business?
This may include owner dependency, management capability, customer concentration, recurring or predictable revenue, risk, systems, business-model quality, transferable earnings and buyer-readiness.
These are not three separate projects.
They are different ways of understanding the economics of the same business.
We look across the whole business
The issue that appears on the surface is not always the issue that deserves attention first.
A margin problem may actually be a pricing problem.
A cash problem may be driven by inventory, WIP, debtors or purchasing behaviour.
A sales problem may be a positioning, customer-selection or business-model problem.
An owner-dependency problem may actually be a management, decision-rights or capability problem.
That is why the consult is deliberately broad at the beginning.
Depending on what we uncover, the discussion may move into:
profitability and margins;
pricing;
customers, products or services;
cash and working capital;
sales and marketing;
operations and capacity;
people and management;
owner dependency;
business model;
risk;
acquisitions;
transferable value;
buyer-readiness.
The purpose is not to work through every area.
It is to understand enough of the commercial picture to identify where attention will create the greatest value.
What happens during the consult
We start with the business as it is today.
We look at where you want it to get to, what you believe is getting in the way, and what is actually happening underneath the headline numbers.
We work through the important commercial issues together.
I will challenge assumptions where necessary, follow the evidence where it leads and help separate symptoms from underlying causes.
As the picture becomes clearer, we narrow the discussion.
By the end of the session, we should have moved from:
Many issues and possibilities
to:
The two or three things that matter most
and then to:
The highest-value priority to address first.
We then turn that priority into a simple 90-Day Priority Plan — the key actions, responsibilities and measures needed to take it forward.
The plan is developed with you during the session, so you can take it back to your team and implement it.
What you should leave with
By the end of the consult, you should have a clearer view of:
what is really happening in the business;
where profit, cash or business value may be constrained or left unrealised;
the two or three commercial issues that matter most;
the highest-value priority to address first;
why that priority matters;
and a simple 90-Day Priority Plan you can take back to your team and implement.
The aim is clarity, prioritisation and direction.
Not another generic framework.
Not twenty recommendations.
Not a large report that gets filed away.
Minimal preparation
I do not want you completing a large questionnaire or trying to diagnose the business before we meet.
The substantive work happens during the consult.
It is useful to have relevant information readily available where appropriate, such as:
current revenue and profit;
recent P&L and balance sheet;
cash and working-capital information;
customer, product or service information;
and the reports you already use to run the business.
We use what is useful.
There is no requirement to create new dashboards, models or reports simply for the session.
What this consult is — and is not
This is a focused piece of strategic work.
It is not business coaching.
It is not a fractional executive engagement.
It is not an accounting review.
It is not a sales presentation for a larger program.
And it does not commit you to ongoing work.
The consult must create value in its own right.
Sometimes the right conclusion is that you have enough clarity to take the work forward with your existing management team and advisers.
That is a perfectly good outcome.
Practical details
Format
Up to four hours.
Via Zoom.
Fee
$5,000 + GST.
Paid in full before the session is booked.
Preparation
Minimal.
Have the relevant information available where useful, but there is no extensive pre-work.
Starting point
We begin with a 15-minute conversation to determine whether there is a genuine fit and whether I believe I can add value.
What happens afterwards
There is no predetermined next step.
You can take the 90-Day Priority Plan back to your team and implement it yourself.
Sometimes the consult is all that is needed.
Sometimes we identify another discrete strategic issue that is worth working through separately.
And occasionally, where the business, owner, opportunity and fit are exceptional, the relationship may develop into a longer-term Strategic Growth Partnership.
Any further work is considered separately.
No automatic retainer.
No predetermined program.
No proposal process.
We simply decide what makes commercial sense.
Who this is best suited to
The consult is designed for owners of established businesses that are fundamentally sound but have more economic potential than they are currently capturing.
It is particularly relevant where:
the business has meaningful scale and complexity;
the owner knows there are opportunities or constraints that need clearer thinking;
the headline numbers are not telling the whole story;
there are competing priorities and it is unclear what should come first;
growth has created greater complexity;
or the owner wants to build a stronger, more profitable and more valuable business.
The best fit is with commercially minded owners who are prepared to be candid about what is happening, open to having assumptions challenged and willing to act when the evidence points to a better course.
It is generally not suited to startups, micro businesses, businesses in acute financial distress, or owners looking for weekly coaching or a fractional executive.
Start with a conversation
You do not need to know exactly what the problem is before we speak.
That is part of the point.
A 15-minute conversation is enough for us to discuss where the business is now, where you want it to get to, what appears to be getting in the way, and whether there is enough here to justify spending half a day together.
If I do not believe I can add meaningful value, I will tell you.
If there appears to be a genuine fit, I will explain the Profit, Cash & Business Value Consult and you can decide whether you want to proceed.
A short conversation. No pressure. No proposal.
Business strategy and commercial consulting only.
Not financial product, accounting, tax or legal advice.