Operations & Processes
The Adaptive Decomposition Grammar
One set of rules that breaks any business metric down to the measurements someone owns and can move, with every link computed, evidenced or flagged.
The Bridge from Adjusted EBITDA to Free Cash Flow to the Firm
How a business that earns reliably becomes one whose cash a buyer can model, why most of the value on this bridge comes from the capital the business stops carrying, and who should stop at free cash flow to the firm.
Absence Test
Why the claim that a business runs without its owner is worth little until the owner has left and the figures were watched, and how an absence is set up so that it tests the business and leaves a record a buyer can read.
Asset Stewardship
Why a buyer's engineer will find the worn-out fleet or the failing roof whether or not the seller does, and how a verified register, qualified ratings and a five-year plan turn the business's assets into a schedule the seller has already priced.
Books
Why books good enough for a tax return and an owner-operator are not good enough for a fund, and what accrual accounting, a three-year record, proof of cash and an outside review each add.
Budgeting
Why a buyer who models a business's future first asks whether its management has ever predicted a year, and how budgets built by the leads, a record of landing close to them and every variance explained in writing give a forecast its first evidence.
Capex Discipline
Why a capital spending record that cannot tell maintenance from growth lets a buyer deduct the larger figure, and how a fixed policy, a classified schedule and a reconciliation to depreciation make the split the business's own.
Cash Management
Why a business that is profitable on paper can be short of cash at every payroll, and the forecast, collections routine and reserve that let it carry itself for a full year without its owner's money.
Cash Visibility
Why a business should know how much of its EBITDA becomes cash before a buyer's analyst computes it, and how a monthly cash flow statement, a forecast whose accuracy is tracked and an explained conversion ratio let the business see its cash in advance.
Coordination Failures
An inventory of the ways coordination breaks down between people and teams.
Direct Cost Capture
Why a business that makes money overall still cannot say which of its lines do, what it takes to record the cost of every sale against the line that earned it, and what a buyer assumes when nobody has.
Fixed Cost Discipline
Why breakeven in a growing business tends to move away as fast as sales approach it, and the budget, the approval rule and the one number that hold it in place.
From Adjusted EBITDA to EBITDA less Maintenance Capex
Why the first deduction on the third bridge is the spending that keeps the business running, and why separating it from the spending that grows the business decides how much of the earnings a buyer will treat as free.
From EBITDA less Maintenance Capex to Cash Conversion
Why the cash tied up in running a business day to day is where most of the value on the third bridge is made or lost, and the three pieces of work that manage it, clean it and measure it.
From Gross Profit to Operating Breakeven
Why making money on each sale is not the same as making money, and why the test that matters is a business that has paid its own way, in cash, for a full year.
From Owner's Draw to SDE
Why the last span on the first bridge turns earnings an owner believes into earnings a stranger can verify, and the four pieces of work it takes to get there.
Lender Reporting
Why a lender that has to assemble a business's numbers lends on the worst version it sees, and how a monthly pack on the lender's own definitions, reconciled line by line and delivered on a fixed day, makes the lender's number one the business already reports.
Monthly Close
Why books caught up once a year for the tax return cannot support a sale, and how a monthly close, a reconciliation to the returns and a compliance file turn an estimate of earnings into a figure a stranger can verify.
Procedure Capture
Why a market salary buys nothing if the job lives in the owner's head, and how written procedures, an escalation list and a silent dry run turn each owner seat into work someone else can do.
Reinvestment Floor
Why the easiest way to raise a payout is to stop replacing what the business runs on, and how a register priced at today's replacement cost, a maintenance floor written into the distribution policy and a record of spending at or above it make sure the payout comes from earnings and not from the assets.
SDE Schedule
Why the schedule of add-backs is where an owner-run business is most often argued down, and how a schedule built from the ledger, sourced line by line and walked by an outsider, survives the first meeting.
Workflow Topologies
An explorer of the ways work can be arranged, and what each arrangement costs.
Working Capital Management
Why working capital is the most valuable thing to manage on the third bridge and the most contested number in a sale, and how one definition, a computed peg and managed days turn it from an argument into a schedule.
KPIs & OKRs
How do you know if you are staying on target or if you have drifted off course?
Lean Productivity
Revenue alone is not enough to ensure the long-term viability of a business.
Sales Management System
In business, everything starts with sales.
SOPs & Training Manuals
If someone calls in sick and someone else has to do their job, it’s helpful to have a well-written, detailed procedure to follow.
Team Accountability System
Meetings help teams to stay on track and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Time Management Plan
In life, time is our most precious commodity.