Business Analysis
Find the Gap. Understand the Cost. Know What Has to Change.
A Business Analysis looks at the financial and operational condition of the company together. The goal is not simply to tell you what happened. It is to determine what should be happening, measure the difference, quantify the cost, and identify what is causing it.
What Cole Actually Does
Most Consultants Read Your P&L Back to You. Cole Does Not.
Telling you your gross margin is down 4% is not an analysis. The real work is asking why and then putting a dollar value on the answer.
Find the Gap
Identify where the business is underperforming in margins, overhead, debt service, working capital, labor efficiency, or management controls.
Put a Dollar Value on It
Quantify exactly what the problem is costing the company. Not a vague concern. A number. That number changes how seriously the owner treats the problem.
Identify the Cause
Was it pricing? Purchasing? Labor scheduling? Waste? Change orders? Collections? Management oversight? The cause determines the correction.
Build a Plan to Correct It
A specific, management-level plan. What changes, who owns it, and what the business looks like when it is fixed.
The Diagnostic Difference
Your Margin Did Not Just Drop. Something Caused It.
When Cole identifies a problem in your numbers, the next question is always: what management or operational failure is behind it? That is what separates a real analysis from someone who simply reads a financial statement back to you.
If your gross margin is down, was it:
- Pricing decisions
- Purchasing or material costs
- Labor scheduling or efficiency
- Waste or rework
- Change orders not captured
- Inventory shrinkage
- Collections and slow-paying customers
- Management oversight failures
The answer determines the correction. And the correction has a dollar value attached to it.
Cash Is Tight
Was it caused by:
- Slow-paying customers and weak collections
- Rapid growth consuming working capital
- Debt service exceeding cash generation
- Inventory or materials purchased ahead of need
- Poor gross margin leaving nothing to cover overhead
- Owner draws exceeding what the business can support
The Owner Is Working Too Much
Was it caused by:
- No management layer between owner and employees
- Lack of documented systems and processes
- Employees without clear authority or accountability
- Owner as the only person who knows the numbers
- No performance standards or measurement in place
- Business built around the owner rather than around systems
Different symptoms can come from the same underlying management problem. The analysis identifies the actual cause, not just the visible result.
Credit & Collections
Your Receivables Are Either Funding Your Growth or Killing It.
Accounts receivable and collections are not just bookkeeping issues. They directly affect whether a company can safely take on larger customers, manage cash, and grow without putting the business at risk.
- Credit policies and customer credit limits
- Payment terms and their impact on working capital
- Collections process and follow-through
- Accounts receivable aging and exposure
- Whether slow-paying customers are creating a working-capital problem
- Lien rights and secured-remedy processes where applicable
The Goal
Pricing From a Position of Strength.
Once a business is meeting all three break-even levels, the owner has the ability to make strategic pricing decisions. They can intentionally take selected lower-margin work for market share or capacity without accidentally destroying profitability. That is the difference between pricing out of desperation and pricing with control.
Operational Break-Even
Cover normal operating costs. The floor every business must clear.
Debt-Service Break-Even
Cover operations plus the actual debt burden. Most owners never calculate this number.
Profit-Target Break-Even
Cover everything and still produce the owner's required profit. This is where the business starts working for you.
Pricing From Strength
Once all three levels are met, you can make intentional strategic pricing decisions. Not reactive ones driven by cash pressure.
The Right Question
What Is It Supposed to Be?
A number by itself does not tell you whether the business is healthy. Actual performance has to be compared with a predetermined standard.
Gross margin is 28%.
What is it supposed to be?
Revenue is $4 million.
What is it supposed to be?
Profit is $150,000.
What is it supposed to be?
Labor is 32% of sales.
What is it supposed to be?
Accounts receivable is $600,000.
What is it supposed to be?
The difference between reacting to a number and managing toward a result is knowing what the standard is before you look at the actual.
Business Health
Three Things a Business Worth Owning Needs
A company needs profit to survive, working capital to keep operating, and a structure that allows the business to perform without the owner personally carrying every decision and responsibility.
Breath in the Lungs
Profitability
The business must produce enough gross profit and net profit to reward the owner for the risk, capital, responsibility, and effort required. Without it, nothing else works.
Blood in the Veins
Working Capital
Growth and profitability mean very little if the company constantly runs short of cash. The business must understand and control the cash required to operate, service debt, fund growth, and handle changing conditions.
Standing on Its Own
Owner Independence
A strong business should not require the owner to personally carry every decision, customer relationship, number, employee issue, and problem. Systems, management information, accountability, and delegated authority create a company that can perform without everything running through the owner.
What We May Examine
No Two Businesses Are the Same. The Framework Is.
The specific areas we examine depend on your industry, company size, and the problems you are experiencing. The framework is consistent. The application is not.
Financial Performance
- Revenue, gross margin, and net profit
- Overhead structure and fixed cost burden
- Three break-even levels
- Profit trend and margin erosion
Pricing and Cost Control
- Pricing methodology and margin by job or product
- Material and purchasing costs
- Change order and scope-creep capture
- Waste, rework, and shrinkage
Cash and Receivables
- Working capital position and cash cycle
- Accounts receivable aging and exposure
- Credit policies and collections process
- Debt structure and debt-service burden
People and Management
- Labor efficiency and scheduling
- Accountability and performance standards
- Management information and reporting
- Organizational structure and delegation
Operations
- Job costing and project controls
- Operating systems and documented processes
- Owner dependency and key-person risk
- Capacity and throughput constraints
Sales and Growth
- Revenue concentration and customer mix
- Sales process and close rate
- Growth capacity and capital requirements
- Strategic pricing and market positioning
What a Business Analysis Is
A Real Business Analysis. Real Numbers. Real Answers.
Cole has worked directly with more than 750 business owners across 20+ industries. The format is direct: you bring your numbers, Cole brings the framework, and together you identify where the company is falling short of its required performance, what your three break-even numbers are, and what management needs to change.
- A direct, one-on-one session with Cole Corrigan
- A review of your actual financial performance against required standards
- Calculation of your three break-even numbers
- Identification of the management or operational failure behind each gap
- A dollar value attached to what the problem is costing the company
- A clear conversation about what needs to change and what happens if it does not
What It Is Not
- It is not a sales call designed to push you into a program
- It is not a generic report generated by software
- It is not a conversation with a junior associate who does not know your industry
- It is not vague advice about improving your systems without looking at your actual numbers
Industries
Cole Has Worked Across 20+ Industries
The framework applies anywhere margins matter and owners are the last ones to get paid.
The Process
What Happens During a Business Analysis?
We Start With What You Already Know
If you completed an assessment, we begin with those results. We review your stated concerns, goals, industry, company size, and the areas that appear to deserve closer attention.
We Look at the Actual Business
We examine the information relevant to your company - which may include financial statements, revenue, gross margin, pricing, labor, overhead, cash flow, accounts receivable, debt obligations, working capital, job costing, sales performance, management reporting, organizational structure, accountability, and operating systems.
We Identify the Gaps and Their Cost
The goal is not simply to say your margin should be better. The goal is to understand what the gap is, what it may be costing the company, and what information or controls are missing.
We Identify the Cause
A cash shortage may be caused by pricing, collections, inventory, debt, growth, purchasing, poor gross margin, or another condition. Employee problems may actually be caused by unclear expectations, weak accountability, poor systems, or lack of management information. The analysis determines which conditions are actually creating the result.
We Define the Corrective Direction
Once the cause is identified, we establish what needs to change - what the standard should be, what management action is required, who is responsible, and how the result will be measured. A dollar value is attached to what it costs if nothing changes.
You Decide What Happens Next
If you have the people, time, information, and capability to implement the necessary changes internally, you may choose to do exactly that. If you want help implementing or managing the changes, we can discuss what that would look like after the analysis. The analysis itself is designed to give you clarity before you make that decision.
Honest Question
Do You Actually Need a Business Analysis?
Maybe not.
If you can clearly identify the underlying cause of your biggest business problem, quantify what it is costing you, explain the corrective action required, assign responsibility for implementing it, establish a deadline, and measure whether the solution worked - you may already have what you need.
But what if you cannot confidently answer those questions?
Knowing that something should improve is different from knowing exactly why it is happening and having a measurable plan to correct it. Sometimes an outside perspective simply helps separate the symptom from the cause.
Would it be a bad idea to have someone look at it with you?
Request an Analysis
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