Niche Plumbing — From Founder Risk to Sale-Ready
$1m+ Profit and $3.8m+ Cash Benefit (12 months)

🛠 From Break-Even to $1M+ Profit:
How This 10-Person Plumbing Business Engineered a $3.8M Turnaround in 12 Months

“We were stuck, exhausted, and barely breaking even. Now we’ve got a GM running the business, a 7-figure bottom line, and a clear path to exit — tax-free.”

🚨 The Hidden Risks Killing Their Growth
Two directors.
10 staff.
$0 profit.

This plumbing specialist was clocking decent revenue — but profit hovered at $0. Some months dipped negative. And worse? Everything relied on the founders.

Scheduling? One director.
Client relationships? Same.
Supplier deals? You guessed it.
To make things more intense, a former foreman nearby was gearing up to launch a competing firm. The writing was on the wall:
Without serious change, this business had no real value.

🔍 What We Uncovered
When they brought us in, here’s what we found:

Heavy key-person risk (a nightmare for potential buyers)
Slow invoicing, long debtor days — cash strangled the business
Revenue too project-heavy, no stability from contracts
No exit path… and a competitor threat growing fast

💡 The Strategy That Changed Everything
Here’s how we transformed the business from stuck → scalable → sellable:

✅ Neutralised the Competitor Threat
We acquired the would-be competitor before he launched — and made him the GM.

✅ De-Risked the Business from the Founders
Within 60 days, the new GM took over ops, scheduling, and client comms.

✅ Supercharged Cashflow & Profit

Installed same-day invoicing + card-on-file systems
Cut debtor days, launched weekly cash rhythm
Cleaned the P&L for a future sale
✅ Built a Tax-Free Exit Path

GM got performance-based equity
Outside investor bought out one director
Sale qualified under Small Business CGT — zero capital gains tax payable*

The Results (12 Months Later)
💰 Profit: $0 → $1.1M+ annual profit (≈ $90k/month)
📉 Owner Dependence: High → Low (GM-led, SOPs built)
🔁 Revenue Mix: Projects → Contracts (steadier cash)
📦 Succession: One director out, one GM in
🧾 Tax: ~$3.8M+ in total benefit — including $0 CGT on sale
Total Fee: $30,000 → Return: ~127× ROI

Why It Worked
✔ We removed the biggest exit-killer: founder reliance
✔ We built fast cashflow systems + profitable pricing
✔ We designed a deal aligned for all parties — and optimised it for tax

“They didn’t just ‘advise’ — they engineered a solution. The tax savings alone paid for this 100× over.”

📞 Ready to Multiply Your Profit and Build a Sellable Business?
If your business is turning $1M+… but your time, cash, or freedom are capped — it’s time to fix that.

👇 Book a free strategy call or join our next live webinar:

Tech Startup Turnaround:
From Cash Crunch to $4m Profit

💻 From 3 Months of Cash Left → $4.2M Profit Run Rate in 12 Months
How This B2B SaaS Startup Turned a Looming Cash Crisis into a Growth Machine

“We were burning $300k a month with no real plan. Now? We’re doubling sales, generating profit, and we’ve got cash in the bank.”

🚨 The Crisis Every Founder Dreads
The product was strong.
The team was 50+ and growing.
But the burn? Brutal.

🔥 Losing $300k/month
🕒 3 months of cash left
💸 Customer payments dragging 60+ days
Investors weren’t buying the story. Internal projects were stacking up. And worst of all? No one could say, confidently:
“Here’s exactly how long we’ve got.”

🔍 What We Found
Once we stepped in, the problem was clear:

No single source of truth for cashflow or runway
Spending didn’t align with what was driving revenue
Pricing was outdated — value had grown, but prices hadn’t
Collections were chaotic; $ was stuck in 60+ day invoices
Fundraising messaging was weak — investors weren’t biting

💡 The Game Plan That Turned It Around
Here’s what we did over the next 12 months:

✅ Built a Clear Cash Plan

      Weekly cash model + 12-month forecast
      Everyone could see runway — and how to extend it
✅ Reset Costs (Without Killing Growth)

      Cut 12 roles + paused non-core projects (saved $220k/month)
      Re-negotiated suppliers/software (saved $70k/month)
      Total savings: $290k/month
✅ Rebuilt Pricing for Profit

      Prices lifted ~12% for new customers
      New “Pro” plan at $5k/month for larger clients
      Switched to monthly billing in advance
      Collections tightened (60 → 35 days)
      Unlocked $1.1M in cash in 90 days
✅ Raised Smart Capital

      Built a narrative around cost reset, new pricing, and discipline
      Raised $2.5M bridge from existing investors + 2 new angels
✅ Kept the Cadence

      Monthly CFO sessions
      One-page dashboard (sales, cash, churn, hiring)

📈 The Results (12 Months Later)
📊 Sales: $900k/month → $1.8M/month
💵 Profit: –$300k/month → +$350k/month
💰 Cash: Collected faster, billed smarter
🧘 Runway: Stable. Predictable. No more Friday cash panic
👥 Team: Leaner, smarter, aligned with revenue
“We’ve got momentum again. Clarity. Confidence. Profit.”

Why It Worked
✔ Clarity — simple numbers and a plan the whole team could see
✔ Focus — spent where sales grew, cut what didn’t
✔ Speed — acted early on cost and cash
✔ Discipline — kept the rhythm with monthly CFO strategy

📞 Running a SaaS Company and Starting to Feel the Burn?
You’re not alone.
If your revenue’s growing but your cash isn’t — we should talk.

👇 Book a free strategy call or grab a seat at our next SaaS growth webinar:

Professional Services Expansion
Increased Profit and Growth Accelerator Roll-out

🧾 From Stretched & Stalled → Profitable, Multi-Office Practice
How One Professional Services Firm Used Efficiency Metrics & Phantom Equity to Scale Without Losing Control

“We weren’t in crisis — but we definitely weren’t free. Now, the core business is profitable, and two senior staff are running their own offices under our brand.”

Before: Busy, Tired, and Plateaued
This well-established professional services firm had built a reputation over 15 years — steady clients, a 15-person team, and enough work to stay busy.

But the partners were working long hours, profits were inconsistent, and every year felt like a reset.

Revenue was OK — but margins were thin
Wages absorbed most of the revenue — and were rising
Partner time was split between client work, team issues, and admin
Expansion plans had stalled — franchising felt messy, and real equity felt risky

What We Found
When we reviewed their numbers and structure, a few issues stood out:

They weren’t tracking wages as a % of revenue — by office or person
A handful of team members were driving most of the margin
Admin work had crept back onto the partners’ plates
Their high-performers wanted more responsibility — but the only option was partnership (which they didn’t want to give up)

What We Did (Simic Financial — CFO Advisory)
Here’s how we improved profit and built a scalable growth path:

1. Made Efficiency Transparent
We set up simple reporting to track wages as a % of revenue by person, role, and office — updated monthly.

Gave the partners a clear view of who was creating vs consuming margin
Helped team leaders understand how their roles impacted profit
Built performance benchmarks for different roles — senior, junior, admin

2. Tuned the Operating Model
Reallocated admin and low-margin tasks off senior staff
Paused underperforming service lines
Updated job descriptions to align roles with actual revenue contribution
Introduced incentives tied to margin, not just billables
Within 3 months, wages dropped from 72% of revenue to 61%, lifting profit meaningfully — without layoffs.

3. Designed a Phantom Equity Model for Expansion
Instead of franchising (complex, hard to control) or real equity (dilutive), we built a phantom equity structure:

Senior team members could earn a % of the profit from a new satellite office
No legal shareholding, but tied to real performance and outcomes
Agreements included buy-in thresholds, profit hurdles, and exit clauses
Structured to be non-taxable on issue and deductible on payout

4. Launched Two New Offices
Within 6 months:

Two top performers opted into the model
Offices were opened in nearby regions using existing branding
Core systems (HR, finance, marketing) stayed central — ops ran locally
First new office became profitable within 4 months; second took 6

Results After 12 Months
📈 Profit up 2.3× — mostly from staff efficiency and smarter delivery
📉 Wages-to-revenue dropped ~11 percentage points
🧭 Partners shifted 60%+ of their time to strategy, hiring, and BD
🌱 Two satellite offices launched — both profitable
🤝 No equity given away, no franchise headaches, and stronger staff retention
“The phantom equity model gave our senior people a genuine path forward — without losing control of the firm. It’s the first time in years I’ve felt like we’re building something bigger than ourselves.”

Why It Worked
✔ We gave the business financial visibility — not just more reports
✔ We aligned roles and incentives to margin — not just hours
✔ We built a growth path that worked for the firm and the people inside it

📞 Running a Services Firm and Feeling Stuck Between Profit and Growth?
There’s a smarter way to grow — without giving away shares or running yourself ragged.