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Next Steps
Once we understand where the business really stands, we can determine what needs attention, what needs to change and what the next stage should look like.
Every business arrives in a different position.
- Some need their financial records corrected before reliable decisions can be made.
- Some need immediate action around cash, taxation, employee entitlements or creditors.
- Some have a fundamentally sound underlying business but need changes to pricing, costs, working capital or financial discipline.
- Others may require legal, restructuring or insolvency advice alongside our work.
Understand the Financial Position
We start with what the information is telling us.
- Is the underlying business profitable?
- Is profit becoming cash?
- Can the company meet its obligations as they fall due?
- What is happening to debtors and creditors?
- What is the ATO position?
- Are employee entitlements and superannuation being dealt with?
- What finance commitments exist?
- What does the Balance Sheet tell us?
- And what has actually been funding the business?
This gives us a financial starting point based on evidence rather than assumption.
Understand the Complexity
No two businesses under pressure are the same.
A relatively straightforward business with one ATO debt and clean accounting records requires a very different approach from a company with multiple lenders, overdue creditors, unreliable accounts, employee entitlement issues, related-party balances and significant operational problems.
We consider the complexity of the business, the quality of the information, the financial pressures and the amount of work required.
That helps determine what needs to happen first and how closely we need to work with the director.
Understand What Is Working
Financial pressure does not mean everything in the business is broken.
- There may be excellent customers.
- A strong order book.
- Good employees.
- Valuable intellectual property.
- Profitable areas of work.
- Strong technical capability.
- Assets that are producing value.
- Or a fundamentally good business that has simply developed poor financial habits.
We want to identify those strengths.
The objective is not to tear the business apart.
It is to preserve what works, confront what doesn’t and understand what can realistically be improved.
Identify What Needs Immediate Attention
Some things cannot wait for a 90-day plan.
The financial information may identify matters requiring immediate attention.
We establish the priorities and determine what needs to happen now, what can happen next and what requires specialist advice.
Where legal interpretation, formal restructuring or insolvency advice is required, the appropriate professional advisers should be involved.
Build the Course of Action
Once the position and priorities are understood, we can begin helping the director develop the course of action.
We identify the changes that need to be made, the actions required and how progress will be measured.
Some actions may be immediate. Others may develop over the following 30 or 90 days.
And the course does not remain static simply because it has been written down.
As new information becomes available, we continue to measure, challenge and correct.
- Truth
- Decision
- Action
- Measurement
- Correction
- New Truth
A Proposal Based on Your Business
Only after we understand the position can we tell you what we believe our involvement should look like.
We will explain:
- what work we believe is required;
- what needs to happen first;
- the level of involvement we recommend;
- how frequently we expect to work with you;
- what information will need to be maintained;
- what our role will be;
- where other professional advisers may be required; and
- what our work will cost.
The proposal is based on the business we have actually examined — not simply the fact that you asked us about Safe Harbour.
Then the Work Begins
If you decide to proceed, we don’t disappear and come back with a report months later.
- We begin working through the priorities.
- We establish the information.
- We implement the actions.
- We measure what happens.
- We ask whether what was agreed was actually done.
And we keep challenging the business with a simple question:
If it is, we build on it. If it isn’t, we want to understand why.
That is how the process moves from a plan on paper to measurable change inside the business.
First establish the truth. Then decide what needs to change. Then do the work — and measure what happens.
Contact us
Talk to us
You don’t need to diagnose the problem before speaking to us. Tell us what is happening, tell us what is worrying you, and show us the numbers. We will start by helping you understand what questions need to be answered.