Measure: where the money actually comes from
Margin by line, by product, by client, by channel. Real cost of sales and allocation of indirect costs. Break-even by activity. Cash conversion cycle. Documented adjustments.
Qualification
The growth review
A review of the real economics of your business, of your development options and of how they are steered. It starts with a questionnaire, at the foot of this page.
- 4 areas
- 48 checkpoints
- 24 months data
- 2 working days answer
THE OBSERVATION
Growth conceals as much as it shows
Revenue is up. It is the figure everyone looks at, and the one that says the least.
Underneath, there is often a flagship product sold at a negative margin. A client accounting for forty per cent of the total. A channel that costs more than it returns once sales time is counted. A mix deteriorating while volume rises. None of this shows in the total.
It stays harmless as long as there is nothing to decide. Then a decision comes — pivot, open a market, accelerate, restore profitability — and it is made on figures that do not describe the business.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Businesses with a track record
This review is for you if:
- your company has at least one closed financial year behind it;
- you can provide twenty-four months of usable accounting data;
- and you have a decision ahead of you: pivoting the business, opening a market, accelerating, reshaping the model, or restoring profitability.
It is not for you if:
- your project is starting and has no track record yet;
- you are looking to validate an idea or a business model;
- you are looking for funding, an investor or a valuation.
A questionnaire filled in accurately spares a meeting with no purpose, for you as much as for us. If your data cannot yet be produced, it will point you to the structure review — that is where the matter is dealt with first.
SCOPE
Four areas, in this order
Understand: what produces those figures
Client and supplier concentration. Retention and churn. Acquisition cost against lifetime value. Shift in mix. Capacity ceiling. Critical dependencies and contractual terms.
Decide: the options and their constraints
Self-funding capacity, working capital requirement, cash runway. Full cost of the scenario, break-even point, payback period, reversibility, critical assumptions.
Steer: the cadence that holds the decision
A defined and limited set of indicators, sources, frequencies, target lead times, named owners, alert thresholds, review rhythm.
THE DELIVERABLE
Your figures, not sector averages
Every finding is calculated on your twenty-four months of data, with the period covered, the source and the adjustments applied. Nothing is estimated, nothing is benchmarked against an external reference.
Alongside it, the costing of the scenario you are considering: full cost, break-even point, payback period, exit cost, and the three to five assumptions it rests on, each with the threshold beyond which it no longer holds.
A margin calculated once is wrong by the next quarter.
A margin, a concentration, an acquisition cost are recalculated. That is the purpose of the fourth area: defining what must be tracked, how often, by whom, and past which threshold action is needed.
SCOPE OF ENGAGEMENT
What this review does not do
It offers no view on the merits of an investment, on a valuation, on the terms of a fundraising, or on the choice of a financial partner. It involves no search for funding and no introductions to investors. Those questions belong to authorised professionals, and I do not operate in that field.
Nor is it a statutory audit, an accountancy engagement, or a market study. The review covers what your own data establishes: what your business costs, what it returns, what it allows, and on what conditions.
CLIENT EVIDENCE
What the business diagnostic let them see — and decide
These directors already had the figures. The diagnostic let them understand what those figures actually meant, identify the points to watch, and make their decisions on firmer ground.
These directors asked to remain anonymous. The testimonials are published without name or company, at their request.
We tracked our overall revenue, but we did not know precisely which activities actually created margin. The diagnostic completely changed how we read the business, and our priorities.
Our business looked solid. The diagnostic nonetheless revealed that a single client accounted for too large a share of our revenue. We were able to start diversifying before that dependency became a problem.
We were considering hiring and accelerating. Franck costed that decision in full, its break-even point and the time needed to recover the investment. We were finally able to decide on facts.
Revenue was growing, but our cash position was deteriorating. The analysis identified the activities absorbing our resources without contributing enough to the result. We reorganised our offer accordingly.
We were hesitating between opening a new market, strengthening the existing business, or waiting. The diagnostic compared the three scenarios, their cash requirements and their breaking points. The decision became far clearer.
Franck did not try to confirm what we wanted to hear. He went back over our figures, checked the assumptions and explained clearly what they did — and did not — allow us to do. That is precisely what we needed.
ACCESS
Before we speak
The questionnaire below takes a few minutes, and access is by application. It is there to understand your situation before any conversation — and to spare you one that would lead nowhere.
Four possible answers: a meeting, a fuller review, a redirection to the structure review if your data cannot yet be produced, or a reasoned decline. In all four cases you get a written answer within two working days.
Show us what you have. We will tell you whether we can work together.