Business diagnostic: find the one constraint that matters

Who the diagnostic is for

It suits established owner-run firms, usually with a handful to a few dozen people, that have flattened out or feel harder to run than they should. The size matters less than the symptoms.

Common reasons owners call us:

• Sales grew last year but profit did not.
• The owner works more hours than three years ago for roughly the same income.
• There are several possible next moves (a new service, a second location, a key hire) and no clear way to rank them.
• A partner or family member wants a neutral view before a big decision.

It is less useful for a business in its first year, where there is not yet enough history to read. For that stage, our sister site Burnaby.Company covers launch planning.

What we look at

We cover four areas, each with a simple question attached.

1. Profit sources. Which customer groups and services produce gross profit once owner and staff time is counted? We build a one-page table like the example on our home page.
2. Owner time. Where do your hours go in a typical week, and how many of them could someone else do with a short checklist?
3. Flow of work. From first enquiry to paid invoice, where does work wait and who is it waiting on? This is a lighter version of our operations and capacity review.
4. Pricing. When did prices last change, how often do you discount, and which jobs lose money after overruns? A lighter version of our pricing and margin work.

We also ask about the Burnaby setting where it matters: whether customers come from one Town Centre area or across the region, whether staff commute in, and whether lease or redevelopment timing is driving any decision. Our areas page explains why that local picture changes the plan.

What you receive

You receive a short written diagnosis and a 60-minute walkthrough. The document normally runs four to eight pages and has four parts:

• a plain summary of how the business makes money today
• the main constraint, stated in one sentence, with the evidence for it
• three or four recommended moves, ranked, each with an estimated cost in dollars and hours, the expected effect and how to measure it
• a list of things we recommend you stop or postpone

The walkthrough is a working session with you and anyone you choose. You keep the document and every table we built.

Timeline

Two to four weeks is typical.

Firms with tidy figures often finish in two weeks. Messier records take longer, and we will say so at the start rather than halfway through.

How results are measured

The diagnostic is judged by whether its recommendations are specific enough to act on and check. Each recommended move comes with one or two numbers to track, such as gross margin on a service line, owner hours spent on quoting, or days from job completion to invoice. If you carry on into a growth roadmap or monthly advisory, those numbers become the scorecard.

Mistakes we help owners avoid

The most expensive mistake is fixing a symptom. Others we see regularly:

• Buying more leads when the bottleneck is delivery. Extra enquiries make a capacity problem worse.
• Judging services by revenue instead of profit. The busiest line is often not the one paying the bills.
• Ignoring the owner's hours. If the plan only works because you work 60 hours, it is not a plan.
• Starting three projects at once. Ranked, sequential changes beat a burst of half-finished ones.

Price and next step

Diagnostics are priced as projects, from $3,500 plus GST, with a fixed quote after the free consultation. The full rate card is on our pricing page. To start, call, text or email with a few lines about the business; the contact page lists what helps most.