Financial decision visibility for owner-led service businesses
Decisions, not dashboards.
In 90 days, we find the few numbers that answer your questions, build a simple system that keeps them visible, and make sure you know how to use it without me.
Taking on 2 clients this quarter.
The fog
You check your bank balance before your P&L.
Say $25,000 hits your account this week. Your bank balance looks great.
But $9,500 is a deposit for work you haven't done yet. Payroll is due Friday. A slice of the rest is already owed in taxes.
Suddenly the number in the bank account means something very different.
You already have plenty of financial information. The problem usually shows up when you have to make a decision.
| In the account | $25,000 |
|---|---|
| Client deposits, work not delivered | −$9,500 |
| Payroll due Friday | −$6,850 |
| Set aside for taxes | −$2,300 |
| Actually available | $6,350 |
The bank shows the first number. The decision needs the last one.
Where it shows up
Can I afford the hire?
Can I sign this lease?
Should I raise prices?
Can I take on this client without creating a cash problem?
Most of your data is decoration.
Not because it is wrong. Because most of it doesn't change the decision in front of you.
3 to 5
Numbers doing most of the work
I have watched companies produce dozens of reports when that few were carrying every decision that mattered. Your business is probably no different.
Not more data. The right numbers, visible when you have to make the decision. I call that Decision Visibility.
What we make visible
The decisions that keep showing up.
You may not need answers to all seven. We start with the ones you are trying to answer right now.
Cash & runway
If January is always bad, hoping this January is different isn't a plan. We figure out how much cash you need going into the slow period, how much revenue needs to be booked ahead of time, and what you can change before cash gets tight.
You have $100,000 available. Do you hire? Add capacity? Spend more on sales? Pay down debt? Keep it in the bank? We compare the choices and show you what each one does to cash, profit, and flexibility.
Hiring & capacity
A $90,000 salary isn't a $90,000 decision. Add payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, ramp time, and the months before that person produces revenue, and the real cash commitment may be much higher. We figure out what the hire actually costs, how long the business can carry it, and what has to happen for it to pay off.
Pricing & client economics
A 10% price increase sounds simple until you start asking what happens if three clients leave. We model the increase, the customers most at risk, the margin improvement, and how much business you could lose before the increase stops making sense.
You can show a profit and still wonder where the cash went. Maybe customers are taking 60 days to pay. Maybe you're paying subcontractors before your clients pay you. Maybe deposits in the bank are tied to work you haven't delivered. We connect the P&L to the cash so you can see what is actually happening.
Your biggest client is not always your best client. A $200,000 account that pays late, requires twice the service, and eats up your best people may be worth less than a $100,000 account that runs cleanly. We put the economics behind each client so you can see the difference.
Investment & growth
The question isn't whether the bank will lend you the money. It's whether the business can comfortably make the payment if revenue comes in 15% below plan. We look at debt service against real cash flow and show you what the downside looks like before you sign.
How it works
90
Days, start to finish
From “I think” to “I know.”
The goal isn't to build you another finance department. It's Decision Visibility around the handful of questions that actually run your business, and a simple system you will keep using after the engagement ends.
Days 1-30
Find the Signal
We start from the decisions you are trying to make and work backward into the numbers. A handful of them matter far more than the rest. We find them.
Days 31-60
Build the Window
Then we make those numbers easy to see: a cash forecast, a client profitability view, a hiring or pricing model, or a few simple tools together. No reporting for reporting's sake.
Days 61-90
Make It Stick
We run the system together until you and your team know what you are looking at and what to do when something moves. By the end, you should not need me to explain your own numbers to you.
What you keep
What remains after day 90.
Visibility
The few numbers that carry your decisions
Named, defined, and tied to the calls you are making right now.
The model
A forecast built for those decisions
Cash, hiring, pricing, or client economics. Whichever ones the year turns on.
The rhythm
A repeatable operating rhythm
A short, regular look at the numbers that tells you when something has moved.
Independence
The ability to run it without me
You and your team know what you are looking at, and what to do when it changes.
After day 90
The engagement is built so you can take the system and run it yourself, and some owners do exactly that. Ongoing advisory is there if a second set of eyes is useful. Independence is the goal.
Who this is for
Built for owners at $1M to $10M. Not for everyone.
Good fit
-
You're doing $1M to $10M in revenue.
The decisions are getting bigger, but a full-time CFO still doesn't make sense.
-
You run an owner-led service business.
Cash, people, clients, and capacity are what drive the economics.
-
Your books are handled, but the decisions aren't.
You have a bookkeeper. You don't have anyone turning those numbers into what happens next.
Not a fit
-
You need bookkeeping or tax work.
That's not what I do. If the books need cleanup first, we'll get the right help involved.
-
You're under $1M in revenue.
Start with the free tools and come back when the decisions get bigger.
-
You want someone else to make the decision for you.
I'll show you what the numbers say and where the risk is. The decision is still yours.
The Fog Score
Seven questions about how you make decisions. You'll see where you have good visibility today and where you're still running mostly on instinct.
It shows you where the fog is thickest and what to look at next.
7 questions · A few minutes · Free
Free tools
Start with the diagnostic. It costs nothing and it is the fastest way to see which decisions you cannot currently answer.
There are other free tools here, one decision each. If your question is about your own draw, a hire, a business you might buy, or a referral fee, one of them has a first answer.