Sound familiar?
Profit on paper, panic in the bank
The accounts say you had a good year. The bank balance says otherwise every single month. You are funding growth with sleep.
Most owner-managed businesses run on two sets of numbers: the ones the accountant produces months later, and the ones the owner feels in their stomach. Neither is management information. Cash chaos is nearly always a visibility problem before it is a money problem — work invoiced late, debtors chased politely or not at all, jobs priced on last year’s costs, VAT quarters arriving like surprises. One page of weekly numbers, owned by named people, turns the panic into a dial you can actually turn.
First moves — before you spend a pound on coaching
- Put cash, debtors and work-in-progress on one page, updated every Friday
- Give debtor-chasing a named owner and a script — politeness is not a collections strategy
- Re-price your three biggest lines against this year’s costs, not the costs you remember
If you do those and the wall moves, brilliant — you may not need us. If it moves and then moves back (this is common; structure decays without rhythm), that is the moment coaching earns its fee.
An owner who was here
Fernway Foods — Wholesale bakery, Halifax. One page of numbers ended the 5am cash panic: Profitable on paper, overdrawn monthly → 13 consecutive months cash-positive. Read what actually changed.
Free discovery call
Talk it through with someone who has carried it.
A free 45-minute discovery call. You talk, we ask questions, you leave with an honest read — whether or not that involves us.
No slides. No pressure. No cold calls afterwards.