Cash is getting tight
Build a 13-week view of expected cash, accelerate receivables, review deposits and terms, pause low-priority spending, and distinguish a timing problem from an unprofitable model.
Solve a business problem
Name the symptom. Find the real constraint.
A visible problem often has several plausible causes. Slow down long enough to locate where money, demand, time, quality, or decision-making actually breaks.
Work through the fundamentals
Make the next
decision clearer.
Use the sections in any order. Start where uncertainty, lost time, or lost money is greatest.
Not enough customers are buying
Separate traffic, lead quality, trust, offer clarity, pricing, follow-up, and close rate. Find where the path breaks before buying more attention.
Revenue is growing but profit is not
Measure contribution by offer, customer, and channel. Look for underpriced complexity, hidden labor, discounting, waste, expensive exceptions, and acquisition costs.
The owner is the bottleneck
List decisions and tasks only the owner can perform, then eliminate, document, delegate, schedule, or automate the rest. Protect time for the work that changes outcomes.
The team keeps missing expectations
Clarify the result, standard, authority, handoff, feedback loop, and consequences. Determine whether the issue is skill, capacity, incentives, process, management, or role design.
Quality and delivery are inconsistent
Map the work from promise to completion, identify failure points, define the few standards that matter, and create a visible way to catch exceptions early.
A quick operating check
Use this sequence when the answer is unclear.
- 01
State the symptom in observable terms without embedding your preferred explanation.
- 02
Measure when, where, and how often it occurs, including important exceptions.
- 03
List the few plausible causes and the evidence that would distinguish them.
- 04
Test the smallest reversible change that can produce useful information.
- 05
Decide what result means continue, adjust, escalate, or stop.