Not a one-off review — ongoing coaching that keeps you close to your cashflow and your numbers, so decisions get easier over time, not harder.
Financial Coaching covers two focused programmes — one built around cashflow, one built around understanding your numbers more broadly. Both are regular, structured sessions rather than a one-off meeting, so the support builds month on month.
1 x 60-minute session every month. Best for owners seeking regular cashflow improvement support.
1 x 60-minute session every 2 months. Best for owners who want to stop feeling unsure about the numbers and become more confident using them to run the business.
A short set of questions and the current numbers, so the hour is spent thinking rather than reading.
What got done, what didn't, and why. Not to tell you off — because the reason something didn't happen is usually the most useful thing in the session.
What moved, what it means, and what it says about the next quarter. On the cashflow programme this is the forecast; on Know Your Numbers it works through one concept properly — margin, break-even, debtor days, pricing.
Whatever it actually is this month. A price rise you're avoiding, a customer who doesn't pay, a hire you can't decide on.
Two or three specific actions with dates. Written down, and checked at the start of the next session.
Illustrative figures, used to show the method. Not a client.
Break-even is the number that changes how the month feels. Take a business with £12,500 of monthly overheads and a 45% gross margin — every £100 of sales leaves £45 after direct costs.
Five points of margin takes £2,800 a month off the number you have to hit before you earn anything — the equivalent of £33,600 of annual sales you no longer need to chase. Once an owner knows that figure, two things change. They can tell by the 20th of the month whether it is a good month or a bad one, instead of waiting for the accounts. And they stop discounting casually, because they can see exactly what a 5% discount does to the sales target. That is the whole aim of the coaching: not more reports, but a handful of numbers you carry around in your head and use.
Cashflow Management Coaching is a 60-minute session every month with a forecast review each time. Know Your Numbers Coaching is a 60-minute session every two months with pre-work beforehand, working through one concept properly each time — margin, break-even, debtor days, pricing. Both are quoted as a fixed fee agreed before you start, based on which programme and how often you meet. Ask on the discovery call and you will get a figure, not a range. Both include the pre-work and the written actions afterwards, because a session with no actions is a nice chat.
This is specifically about the numbers — cashflow, margin, pricing, KPIs and the confidence to use them in a decision rather than defer to whoever produced them. Broader work on strategy, leadership, delegation and how the business runs sits under business coaching. The distinction matters when you are choosing: if you cannot read your own profit and loss with confidence, start here. If you can read it fine and still are not acting on what it says, the problem is not numeracy and business coaching is the better use of the money.
No, though it helps if your bookkeeping is current, because the sessions work from real figures rather than impressions. If your records are three months behind, the first session becomes a discussion about what the numbers might be, which is worth considerably less than what they are. Where that is the situation we will say so and suggest getting the bookkeeping straight first — with us or with whoever does it now. Coaching on unreliable figures builds confidence in the wrong direction, which is worse than having none.
Ten minutes on the actions from last time — what got done, what did not and why, because the reason something did not happen is usually the most useful thing in the hour. Twenty minutes on the numbers: what moved, what it means, what it says about the next quarter. Twenty minutes on whatever is actually bothering you this month, which is often a price rise you are avoiding, a customer who does not pay, or a hire you cannot decide on. Then clear written actions. Pre-work goes out a few days before so the hour is spent thinking rather than reading.
Sessions get moved rather than lost. What does not work is a run of three cancelled sessions, at which point the honest thing is to pause the arrangement rather than keep billing for something you are not using — and we will raise that rather than wait for you to. Missing one because the business got busy is normal and not a problem. Missing several usually means either the timing is wrong or the sessions are not earning their place, and both of those are worth saying out loud instead of quietly letting the direct debit run.
Long enough for it to become a habit rather than an event, which in practice is six to twelve months. Some stop there because it has done its job — they can read the numbers, the forecast is current and the pricing conversation has been had — and that is a good outcome, not a lost client. Others carry on because the accountability is the point rather than the content. What we would rather not do is have you on a monthly fee two years in with nothing changing, so we review whether it is still worth it rather than letting it drift.
Only if you do the work between sessions, and that is the uncomfortable part. Coaching does not do the price rise, chase the debtor or cancel the subscription nobody uses — it makes those things visible, decided and followed up, which for most owners is the missing piece rather than the information. Owners who show up, do the pre-work and act on two or three things a quarter see the difference within a couple of quarters. Owners who treat the hour as the whole commitment will not, and we would rather say so now than in month eight.
