How we've unlocked the opportunity in different businesses 

Trade services business

Implementing measures to prevent cost blow-outs increases profits by $180,000

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Our initial analysis established that time blow-outs were severely impacting the profitability of the business. While the client was aware that this was an issue, they had no idea how significant the impact on profitability actually was.

 

By performing a back-costing analysis on small, medium and large sized jobs, we identified that a third of the blow-outs were due to un-foreseen drainage issues (the business was an earthmoving contractor). We added a clause in the client's quote for unforeseen variations where “pre-existing conditions that cannot be identified at the time of quoting may require additional contractors and/or work to rectify”.  

 

The result – an increase of $180,000 in annual profits was achieved simply by actively managing variations to prevent cost blow-outs.

Retail / Wholesale business

Changes in inventory management adds $300,000 to the bottomline

 

Initial analysis showed that client’s inventory had blown out and that they were holding 7 months of stock. Once we realised how over-stocked they were, we changed the purchasing policy away from bulk buys, as their profit was tied up in the last 50% of the stock that wasn’t selling through. 

 

We then put in place mechanisms to track the average spend per customer and found the departments that made the most money. This allowed us to stock the department with higher margin items and more premium lines, adding an extra $300,000 to the bottom line. The change to inventory control resulted in an additional $80,000 of free cash flow which the client was able to invest in a refurbishment and larger premises.

 

Professional services business

Understanding profitability of individual clients doubles annual profit 

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We were able to identify an organisational 'hourly rate' by listing all of the client's accounts and dividing this number by the number of hours in the total revenue of each account. The client was surprised to discover that the mid-sized accounts were highly profitable, while the large accounts were just breaking-even (due to write-downs, mis-quotes and unfavourable trading terms). 

 

We then worked with the client to re-quote the large accounts as part of a pricing review. Three accounts were lost as part of the pricing review, but the rest retained, doubling their annual profit. We then tracked 'work in progress' and analysed its effect on cash flow, which led to a change in trading terms.

 

Previously the client's marketing budget was non-existent, but thanks to more cash in the bank from as a result of sitting on less 'work in progress', the client was able to invest in targeting and attracting more of the more profitable mid-sized accounts.

 

Manufacturing business

Understanding job profitability delivers an 80% increase in profits in just 6 months

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Using our analytics software we established that the client had an issue with wastage and that urgent jobs were causing time blow-outs on their routine jobs. Over the course of a month, we recorded the labour and materials required to complete every job. We then ranked each job based on profit contribution, which allowed us to look at 'cumulative frequency and identify that 15 of the 50 jobs completed in that month provided 80% of the profit and used 50% of our labour.  This insight allowed us to identify what types of jobs the client wanted more of and which ones were burning labour and materials, relative to their profit contribution.

 

As a result, we re-priced the urgent jobs and lost many as a result (a good thing). We then significantly upgraded the customer delivery experience to ensure the end product was top quality. Clients loved the care-factor and the client started winning quotes by not being the cheapest. Profits increased by 80% in just 6 months and the business went from strength to strength.

 

Town planning business

Strategic review provides a roadmap for growth

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Our Strategic Review of the business involved a review of all historical financial data, including customer invoicing, job costings and staff timesheets to identify the best and worst performing areas of the business. 

 

It allowed us to pinpoint processes that could be streamlined to ensure valuable resources were fully utilised and also assisted in the implementation of reporting and the hiring of key staff.  The reporting implementation process involved attending and guiding board meetings, assisting in the development of strategies within the business, and the eventual search for key management personnel to support the business.