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The Practice Behind the Publication

Twelve engagements. Twelve next steps.

Every issue of The Letter ends with a question worth answering. These are the engagements that answer them — scoped, fixed-fee, calendar-bound, with a working artifact at the end of each one.
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Volume I

Operational and Financial Discipline

01 · The 21-Metric KPI Dashboard

The KPI Dashboard Build

A working dashboard, wired into your data, in 30 days.

Format:

30-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$7,500 fixed

Outcome:

Working KPI dashboard

The 21 metrics from Issue 01, calibrated to your specific business and wired into your actual financial data. Includes a 60-minute walkthrough with the owner and finance lead, a recorded explainer for each metric, and two weeks of email refinement support after delivery.

Best for owners who: Have a bookkeeper or controller producing financials but no real dashboard, run the business on revenue and gross margin alone, and have hit a moment — lender meeting, board, partnership decision — where the absence is costing them.

02 · Working Capital Discipline

The Working Capital Diagnostic

Find the cash. Build the forecast. Two weeks.

Format:

2-week, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$5,000 fixed

Outcome:

Diagnostic memo + 13-week forecast

Written diagnostic of the four working capital levers — DSO, DPO, inventory turns, cash conversion cycle — applied to your business, with a prioritized 90-day action plan. Includes a 13-week cash flow forecast template populated with your numbers and one 60-minute review.

Best for owners who: Are growing revenue but feel cash-poor. Watch the bank balance daily. Have had at least one moment of genuine cash anxiety in the past twelve months.

03 · ERP & Systems Selection

The ERP Selection Engagement

A real RFP, run by someone with no vendor in the deal.

Format:

60-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$15,000 fixed

Outcome:

Recommendation + 18-month roadmap

Requirements built from your actual processes, RFP issued to three to five vetted vendors, scoring matrix evaluating responses, two demo facilitation sessions, and a written recommendation with cost-benefit analysis and an 18-month roadmap. You make the final call. The work makes the call defensible.

Best for owners who: Know their current system is the constraint, have heard pitches for 6–18 months, and are paralyzed by the asymmetry between vendor confidence and their own uncertainty about what they actually need.

04 · Exit Readiness

The Exit Readiness Audit

The 79-item PE diligence, run on your business — two years before the buyer arrives.

Format:

2–3 week, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$10,000–$15,000

Outcome:

Scorecard + 18–36 month roadmap

The 79-item PE diligence audit applied 12–24 months before you list. Written scorecard across all eight diligence categories, prioritized 18–36 month roadmap to PE-ready, benchmarked against the buy-box for your industry. Most owners run this audit when an LOI lands. The owners who run it twenty-four months earlier sell for materially higher multiples.

Best for owners who: Are 18–36 months from a transaction, have been told to "clean up the books" but don't know what specifically that means, and want the cheap-to-fix window rather than the expensive one.

05 · Reporting That Decides

The Decision-Grade Reporting Build

Reports that drive decisions instead of describing the past.

Format:

45-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$10,000 fixed

Outcome:

Monthly close package + reporting suite

A monthly close package and management reporting suite redesigned around decisions, not description. Monthly P&L with variance commentary, a one-page executive scorecard, a working capital and cash position tracker, and a board-or-lender-ready reporting template. Includes two cycles of facilitated review so the reports are battle-tested before handoff.

Best for owners who: Get monthly financials but don't read them. Have a controller producing reports that describe the past tense rather than informing the future. Make decisions on instinct because the reports aren't designed to inform them.

06 · Quality of Earnings

The EBITDA Defense Build

Add-backs aren't found at the diligence table. Find them now.

Format:

30-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$15,000 fixed

Outcome:

Defended adjusted EBITDA bridge

Identification, documentation, and quantification of every legitimate EBITDA add-back hidden in your financials. Written defensibility memo explaining how each add-back holds up to buy-side scrutiny. Normalized EBITDA bridge from reported to defended adjusted EBITDA. Built the way buyers will rebuild it — but on your timeline, not theirs.

Best for owners who: Are within 18 months of a transaction or debt raise, have been told to clean up the books, and don't know which add-backs are real, which are fragile, and which will get rejected at the diligence table.

Volume II

Leadership and the Operating System

07 · The Owner Bottleneck

The Owner Decision-Touch Reset

The Owner Bottleneck

Format:

30-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$7,500 fixed

Outcome:

Working KPI dashboard

The 21 metrics from Issue 01, calibrated to your specific business and wired into your actual financial data. Includes a 60-minute walkthrough with the owner and finance lead, a recorded explainer for each metric, and two weeks of email refinement support after delivery.

Best for owners who: Have a bookkeeper or controller producing financials but no real dashboard, run the business on revenue and gross margin alone, and have hit a moment — lender meeting, board, partnership decision — where the absence is costing them.

02 · Working Capital Discipline

The Working Capital Diagnostic

Find the cash. Build the forecast. Two weeks.

Format:

2-week, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$5,000 fixed

Outcome:

Diagnostic memo + 13-week forecast

Written diagnostic of the four working capital levers — DSO, DPO, inventory turns, cash conversion cycle — applied to your business, with a prioritized 90-day action plan. Includes a 13-week cash flow forecast template populated with your numbers and one 60-minute review.

Best for owners who: Are growing revenue but feel cash-poor. Watch the bank balance daily. Have had at least one moment of genuine cash anxiety in the past twelve months.

03 · ERP & Systems Selection

The ERP Selection Engagement

A real RFP, run by someone with no vendor in the deal.

Format:

60-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$15,000 fixed

Outcome:

Recommendation + 18-month roadmap

Requirements built from your actual processes, RFP issued to three to five vetted vendors, scoring matrix evaluating responses, two demo facilitation sessions, and a written recommendation with cost-benefit analysis and an 18-month roadmap. You make the final call. The work makes the call defensible.

Best for owners who: Know their current system is the constraint, have heard pitches for 6–18 months, and are paralyzed by the asymmetry between vendor confidence and their own uncertainty about what they actually need.

04 · Exit Readiness

The Exit Readiness Audit

The 79-item PE diligence, run on your business — two years before the buyer arrives.

Format:

2–3 week, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$10,000–$15,000

Outcome:

Scorecard + 18–36 month roadmap

The 79-item PE diligence audit applied 12–24 months before you list. Written scorecard across all eight diligence categories, prioritized 18–36 month roadmap to PE-ready, benchmarked against the buy-box for your industry. Most owners run this audit when an LOI lands. The owners who run it twenty-four months earlier sell for materially higher multiples.

Best for owners who: Are 18–36 months from a transaction, have been told to "clean up the books" but don't know what specifically that means, and want the cheap-to-fix window rather than the expensive one.

05 · Reporting That Decides

The Decision-Grade Reporting Build

Reports that drive decisions instead of describing the past.

Format:

45-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$10,000 fixed

Outcome:

Monthly close package + reporting suite

A monthly close package and management reporting suite redesigned around decisions, not description. Monthly P&L with variance commentary, a one-page executive scorecard, a working capital and cash position tracker, and a board-or-lender-ready reporting template. Includes two cycles of facilitated review so the reports are battle-tested before handoff.

Best for owners who: Get monthly financials but don't read them. Have a controller producing reports that describe the past tense rather than informing the future. Make decisions on instinct because the reports aren't designed to inform them.

06 · Quality of Earnings

The EBITDA Defense Build

Add-backs aren't found at the diligence table. Find them now.

Format:

30-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee:

$15,000 fixed

Outcome:

Defended adjusted EBITDA bridge

Identification, documentation, and quantification of every legitimate EBITDA add-back hidden in your financials. Written defensibility memo explaining how each add-back holds up to buy-side scrutiny. Normalized EBITDA bridge from reported to defended adjusted EBITDA. Built the way buyers will rebuild it — but on your timeline, not theirs.

Best for owners who: Are within 18 months of a transaction or debt raise, have been told to clean up the books, and don't know which add-backs are real, which are fragile, and which will get rejected at the diligence table.