The money problem
The money moves. Nothing accumulates.
Revenue is there. Clients are paying. The business is busy. But the numbers at the end of the month don't reflect the volume of work that went in. Something is leaking.
This isn't a revenue problem. Revenue going up while margin stays thin just means you're busy and broke at a higher level. The fix is in the structure — pricing, cost allocation, the offer itself.
Where the money actually goes
Four places most businesses leak money.
Pricing that doesn't account for actual cost
Most service businesses price based on what feels right or what competitors charge — not from a calculated cost floor. The margin is assumed, not designed.
Discounting that erodes the model
A 10% discount on a 20% margin business doesn't feel significant. It is. Discount discipline is a financial skill, not a sales skill.
Scope creep on service delivery
What gets delivered slowly expands beyond what was priced. The offer architecture is vague enough that boundaries aren't clear — and clients take the ambiguity seriously.
Cost structure that grew with revenue
Overheads scale up with revenue. They rarely scale back down. A business that grew fast often has a cost base built for a level of revenue it no longer sustains.
If you're exhausted by this
Start with the free course.
Business financial pressure follows an emotional pattern. If the numbers have been wrong for a while, it's likely taken a toll. The Grief in Business course names what that looks like — and helps you find where you are in it.
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A discovery call is where we look at what's actually happening with the financials and identify the structural changes that make the difference.
Straight answers
The numbers questions, answered straight.
How do I solve cash flow problems in my business?
Cash flow problems are almost never solved with cash. They're solved upstream, in whichever of four places is causing them: pricing that doesn't cover the true cost of delivery, payment terms that fund your customers' businesses instead of yours, labour capacity that doesn't match demand, or growth being funded out of working capital. Borrowing against a cash flow problem you haven't diagnosed buys time and adds cost.
Why is my business busy but not profitable?
Because volume and margin are separate things, and a full diary hides a thin one. The usual causes are a price set by looking at competitors rather than at your own costs, a service mix weighted toward the work that sells easiest rather than the work that earns, and labour costs that have drifted up without a matching move in price. Being busy makes all three harder to see, because the business feels like it's working.
What should wages be as a percentage of revenue?
There's no single right number — it depends on what you sell. A trade business carrying materials sits well below a salon, where labour is almost the entire product. What matters more than the level is the direction: a wages percentage climbing three months running means revenue and labour have come uncoupled, whatever the starting figure was.
How do I work out my break-even point?
Divide your fixed costs by your contribution margin ratio — that is, by the share of each sale left after its variable costs. Run it monthly rather than annually, and include the owner's own wage in the fixed costs. Otherwise you've calculated the point where the business survives and you don't.
If the money moves but nothing accumulates, the question is which of pricing, mix, capacity or terms is doing it. The free health check narrows it down.
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Also useful: free break-even calculator · free wages % calculator · solving cash flow in a service business