Who we help
Owner-run shops, trades and cafes with two to fifty people.
Businesses we know well
Owner-run firms with two to fifty people. Most of our clients fall into three groups, and the first jobs are often the same.
Shops and retail
Stock, margins and the quiet months between the busy ones.
- Margin by product line
- Stock that sits too long
- Opening hours that pay
Trades and contractors
Quotes, deposits and being paid on time for work already done.
- Pricing a job properly
- Deposits and stage payments
- When to take on the next person
Cafes and food
Food costs, rotas and the wholesale order that could fill the slow mornings.
- Recipe costing
- Rotas against takings
- Wholesale and catering
What owners tell us at the first meeting
Most owners come to us with one sentence. These four come up every month, and each has a usual place to start.
We are busy every day, but the bank balance never moves.
Usually prices that have not kept up with costs, or customers who pay late. We look at both in the first fortnight.
I do not know which products actually make money.
We cost your main products or jobs line by line, so you can see which ones carry the business.
Everything still goes through me.
The first manager is the hardest hire. We write the role with you and help with the first month.
I know what to do. I never get round to it.
A plan on the weeks, a fortnightly meeting and someone who asks how it went.
Start with a free first meeting
Forty-five minutes at our office or at your business. Bring last year’s accounts and a recent bank statement, and you leave knowing whether we can help and where we would start.