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Manufacturing

Selling more than ever, and still out of cash.

The company grows and orders keep coming, but the bank balance never keeps up. Here’s what that looks like inside, and how to fix it.

Let’s talk A production plant with work in progress piled between the machines; three operators work with their backs to the camera

“My accountant sends me a PDF, and I still can’t tell which products make money and which cost me. I work harder than ever and feel like I’m getting nowhere.”

Before selling more, three questions.

  1. What does each product line really cost you to make, counting raw materials, labor, waste and machine time?
  2. Between paying your supplier and getting paid, how many days pass? And who finances that gap in the meantime?
  3. If the biggest order in your history came in tomorrow, would you know whether you can fill it without choking the operation?

The company was growing 22% a year and running out of cash at the same time. Each sale took 94 days to collect and only 30 to pay: growing meant financing its own customers with the bank’s money.

+22%sales growth per year

94 daysto collect each sale

64 daysof gap the bank was financing

Four decisions so growth doesn’t choke your cash.

Each one is measured by a single number.

Real costing, line by line

We calculated the true cost of each product, all-in. Two of nine lines turned out to be selling below cost.

2 of 9 linesbelow cost

Pricing with judgment, not habit

We reset prices where the margin didn’t hold and kept them on the lines that truly compete. Gross margin rose without losing the customers that matter.

+6 pointsof gross margin

Close the cash gap

We renegotiated terms with suppliers and brought collection discipline to the large customers. The collection cycle fell from 94 to 60 days.

94 → 60 dayscollection cycle

Five figures instead of a PDF

Instead of the month-end PDF, the owner gets the five figures that matter every Monday, and a call when something needs fixing in time.

5 numbersevery Monday

You stay in charge.

First we learn how you produce, how you collect, and where the money gets stuck. Then we turn that into a few decisions that change your cash.

You decide. We give you the numbers to do it, in complete confidence and for a fraction of what a salaried finance director costs.

Selling more, and the cash still isn’t there?

The first conversation is to understand, not to sell.

Let’s talk