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Ten minutes to know where your business stands

12 warning signs every business leader should watch. A checklist scored out of 24, and the first thing to do for each sign.

Download the checklist and guidePDF · 442 KB

Or fill it in here, right now

Free to download: one click, no sign-up, no email address.

What the PDF contains

  • a 10-page guide you can read in fifteen minutes;
  • the one-page checklist to print and repeat every quarter;
  • how to read your score, and what to do depending on the result.

Four families of signs

  1. Money: what buys you time
  2. Margin: what makes activity pay
  3. Delivery: whether the plan is holding
  4. The leader and those around them: what the figures don’t show yet

Or fill it in here, right now

Twelve questions, three possible answers. Your score appears at the end. Nothing is sent or stored: the calculation happens in your browser. If you’d like to discuss it, call me or write to me with your score.

Family 1. Money: what buys you time

Sign 1You discover your cash position instead of forecasting it.

Do you have a week-by-week cash forecast covering at least thirteen weeks, updated weekly and compared with actuals?

Sign 2Your customers are paying later and later.

Are overdue invoices growing faster than your revenue? Has a major customer changed how they pay?

Sign 3Payment deadlines have become a weekly topic.

In the last three months, have you deferred, or considered deferring, a social, tax or bank payment or a rent?

Family 2. Margin: what makes activity pay

Sign 4Revenue is rising, margin isn’t keeping up.

Has your contribution margin rate, that is (revenue minus variable costs) divided by revenue, been falling for two quarters? Are you signing deals below the minimum margin you set yourself?

Sign 5Your fixed costs are rising faster than your activity.

Has your break-even point (fixed costs divided by your margin rate) risen faster than your revenue over a year? Have you signed a lease, a long contract or new hires without recalculating it?

Sign 6You can no longer say where you make money.

Can you name, with figures, your least profitable offer, customer and site?

Family 3. Delivery: whether the plan is holding

Sign 7Decisions come back at the next meeting.

At your last leadership meeting, how many decisions were written down with an owner and a date? How many topics were already on the previous agenda?

Sign 8Too many projects in parallel, too few that finish.

How many projects are under way? How many have a named owner, a date and a budget? How many finished on time this year?

Sign 9A major programme is slipping, and nobody says how far.

For your most important programme, do you know the critical path, how much has been committed and how much remains, and the written criteria on which you will decide to go live?

Family 4. The leader and those around them: what the figures don’t show yet

Sign 10Everything comes back to you.

In a typical week, how many of the decisions that reach you could have been taken without you?

Sign 11Key people are tiring or leaving.

In the last six months, have you seen a departure, a long absence or visible loss of motivation in a role that carries a key customer, unique knowledge or an important action?

Sign 12Your partners’ tone is changing.

Has a supplier asked for cash on delivery or cut your credit limit? Is your bank asking new questions? Is a major customer reducing its orders?

See also: Coming through a crisis, 13-week cash flow plan.

Download the checklist and the guide

A ten-minute self-assessment, four families of signs and, for each one, the first thing to do. By tonight you’ll know where you stand.

12 warning signs every business leader should watch

Free

Download the checklist and guidePDF · 442 KB

Free to download: one click, no sign-up, no email address.

To get off to a good start

Start with signs 1 to 3: they are the ones that buy you time.

Free to use within your business. No resale or republication without written consent. Templates supplied without warranty: they replace neither your lawyer nor your accountant. Terms of use of the documents

Is something holding you back?

Call me or write to me. The first conversation is complimentary, and I reply within 48 hours.

Take the rapid assessment

Four questions, two minutes. Nothing is sent or stored.

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