The Wake-Up Call
Last month, I got a call at 11 PM from a founder I'd met at a conference two years prior. His voice was different—that particular mix of exhaustion and panic I've heard too many times.
I asked him to send me three things: his cash position, his receivables aging, and what each department head thought their runway was.
The cash position came immediately. The receivables took an hour. The third request?
"I'll have to ask them in the morning," he said. "We don't really talk about runway in our leadership meetings."
That's when I knew exactly what was wrong.
Not with his business. With the story he'd been telling himself about his business.
See, this founder—like most—believed his company had a cash flow problem. Or a collections problem. Or maybe a spending problem.
But after working with 47 companies between $5M and $50M, I can tell you the truth:
Your financial problems aren't financial problems. They're stories that don't match.
Your head of sales tells a story about unlimited growth. Your CFO tells a story about conservative spending. Your marketing lead tells a story about necessary investment. Your ops team tells a story about essential infrastructure.
Four stories. One bank account. No alignment.
And somewhere between those stories is the truth that wakes you up at 3 AM: You don't actually know if you'll survive the next six months.
This roadmap exists because I'm tired of brilliant companies dying from preventable problems. Not market problems. Not product problems. Not even financial problems.
Story problems.
Let me show you the pattern that kills companies. Then I'll show you how to break it.
Chapter 1: The Six-Month Pattern
Every failing company tells itself the same story, just with different details. It goes like this:
Month One: The Invisible Crack
It starts with something good. It always does.
Maybe you land a whale client. Maybe you hit a record month. Maybe you finally crack the enterprise market. The details don't matter. What matters is what happens next.
Sarah, your head of sales, sends a company-wide email celebrating the win. The deal is massive—40% of your current revenue. The client is a household name. The terms are... well, the terms are what enterprise clients demand. Net-60, maybe Net-90. But who cares? This changes everything.
Meanwhile, Tom in finance updates his cash flow model. He notices the payment terms but doesn't want to rain on the parade. He makes a note to mention it in next week's finance review. Except next week's finance review gets pushed because everyone's busy onboarding the whale.
Marketing sees the win and thinks: momentum. They've been holding back on that aggressive campaign. Not anymore. Time to double down.
Operations sees the win and thinks: capacity. They need to staff up. The whale has high expectations. Can't drop the ball now.
Four departments. Four interpretations. One event.
The crack is invisible because everyone's looking at different things. Sarah sees revenue. Tom sees payment terms. Marketing sees opportunity. Operations sees requirements.
No one sees the pattern.
Month Two: The First Tremor
The whale pays on time. Net-60, just like they promised.
Except.
Except their interpretation of Net-60 starts from when they approve the invoice, not when you send it. And their approval process? That takes another 30 days. So your Net-60 is really Net-90.
Tom mentions this in the leadership meeting. Sarah says it's normal for enterprise deals. "They always pay," she says. "Just slowly."
She's not wrong. But she's not right either.
Because while you're waiting for that payment, things are happening:
- Marketing has increased spend by 40% to "capture the momentum"
- Operations has hired three new senior people for the whale project
- Sales is pushing harder deals with similar terms to hit their new, higher targets
- Product is building custom features the whale requested
The tremor is subtle. Cash is tighter than expected, but not crisis-tight. You push out some vendor payments. You draw a bit on the credit line. You tell yourself it's temporary.
The stories start to diverge.
Sales tells a story of growth. Finance tells a story of concern. Marketing tells a story of investment. Operations tells a story of delivery.
The leadership meetings get a bit tense. Not bad. Just... tense.
Month Three: The Squeeze
The whale pays. Finally. 90 days after delivery, they wire the money.
Everyone exhales.
For about a week.
Then Tom runs the numbers for next month and his stomach drops. Three more enterprise clients have signed with similar terms. The cash from the whale? It's already allocated—past-due vendors, accumulated payroll, the credit line.
He calls an emergency finance review. This time, people show up.
The meeting is a masterclass in misalignment:
- Sarah (Sales): "Revenue is up 200%. We're killing it. Yeah, the payment terms aren't ideal, but that's the price of enterprise deals."
- Tom (Finance): "We're burning $50K more per week than we're collecting. At this rate, we have maybe 10 weeks of runway."
- Lisa (Marketing): "We can't pull back now. Our CAC is finally efficient at scale. Cutting spend would waste everything we've built."
- Mike (Operations): "I just hired for the capacity you told me we'd need. We can't deliver without these people."
Four smart people. Four valid perspectives. Zero shared reality.
You try to bridge the gap. "Okay, let's just focus on collecting faster and spending smarter."
Everyone nods. Nobody changes behavior.
Because the problem isn't behavior. It's that each person is optimizing for their own story.
Month Four: The Panic
The board meeting is in two weeks. You need to show them progress on the enterprise expansion. The deck is full of logos and growth charts.
Page 35 has the cash flow projection. You've moved it back there hoping they'll run out of time.
But first, you need to do something about cash. The credit line is maxed. Payroll is in 10 days. The second whale payment is "in process" but their AP person is on vacation.
The leadership meeting this week is different. The tension is gone, replaced by something worse: fear.
"We need to collect everything outstanding," you say. "And we need to cut non-essential spending."
"Define non-essential," Lisa says.
That's when the meeting explodes.
Everything is essential to someone. Every cut is a betrayal of someone's story. Sales says marketing is wasting money. Marketing says sales is giving away the farm. Operations says both are living in fantasy land. Finance says everyone is.
You make across-the-board cuts. 20% off everything. It's fair. It's also stupid. But you don't know what else to do.
The stories have become weapons.
Month Five: The Breakdown
Three things happen in month five that always happen in month five:
First, your best people start leaving.
Not the ones you'd want to leave. The ones with options. They've seen this movie before. Jennifer, your VP of Engineering who joined eight months ago? She just remembered she misses consulting. David, the sales rep who closes all the clean deals? He got an amazing offer he "couldn't refuse."
Second, the wheels start coming off delivery.
Those cuts you made? Turns out some of them were load-bearing walls. Customer success is underwater. Support tickets pile up. The whale notices. They're "concerned about the partnership direction."
Third, the finger-pointing goes nuclear.
Every leadership meeting becomes a trial. Who approved those payment terms? Why did we hire so aggressively? How did marketing spend that much? When did we agree to those custom features?
Past tense. Everything is past tense. Because no one's talking about the future anymore. They're just trying to assign blame for the present.
The company is eating itself.
But here's the thing: Everyone's story is true. Sales did grow revenue. Marketing did improve efficiency. Operations did build capacity. Finance did flag the risk.
They just weren't true at the same time.
Month Six: The Crisis Call
This is when my phone rings.
Sometimes it's the CEO. Sometimes it's the board. Sometimes it's the remaining CFO. The story is always the same:
"We have 30 days of cash. Maybe 45 if we stretch. We've cut everything. The team is in free fall. Is there anything you can do?"
Sometimes there is. If the business fundamentals are sound. If there's still a team to save. If the market hasn't moved on.
But usually, by month six, the stories have diverged so far that there's no bringing them back together. The company doesn't fail because it ran out of money. It fails because it ran out of alignment.
The tragedy? This was preventable in month one.
Hell, it was preventable in month minus-six if they'd been looking for it.
But that would have required everyone to read from the same script. And most companies don't even know they're telling different stories.
Chapter 2: The Real Problem
Let me tell you about two companies. Same industry. Same revenue. Same growth rate. Same market conditions.
Company A died in month six. Company B is worth $500M today.
The difference? Thursday mornings.
Company A: Death by a Thousand Cuts
Company A had everything:
- A CFO from Deloitte
- Weekly leadership meetings
- Monthly board reporting
- Salesforce, NetSuite, Tableau—all the tools
- OKRs, KPIs, and every other three-letter acronym
What they didn't have was a shared story.
Their Thursday morning leadership meeting went like this:
- 9:00 AM: CEO kicks off. "Let's go around the room. How was last week?"
- 9:05 AM: Sales goes first. Pipeline is strong. Three deals in final stages. Probably $2M in new ARR this quarter. Maybe more. Sales is always optimistic on Thursdays.
- 9:15 AM: Marketing is next. Leads are up 40%. Cost per lead down 20%. They need another $200K for the Q4 campaign, but the ROI will be huge. Marketing speaks in percentages.
- 9:25 AM: Operations follows. Utilization is at 87%. Two new hires starting Monday. Some concerns about the custom feature requests, but nothing they can't handle. Operations speaks in capacity.
- 9:35 AM: Finance goes last. Cash is tight. Collections are slow. Burn rate is accelerating. They should consider slowing hiring. Finance speaks in fear.
- 9:45 AM: CEO summarizes. "Sounds like we're doing great but need to watch cash. Let's sync up offline on any issues."
- 10:00 AM: Meeting ends. Everyone goes back to their silo.
This happened every Thursday for two years. Same meeting. Same structure. Same result: nothing.
Because they weren't having a conversation. They were performing parallel monologues.
Company B: The Thursday Morning Miracle
Company B had the same setup. Except their Thursday morning went differently:
9:00 AM: CEO kicks off. But instead of "How was your week?" he pulls up a screen. One dashboard. Five numbers:
- Cash runway: 197 days
- Revenue efficiency: $0.73 per dollar spent
- Customer health: 2 at risk, 5 expanding
- Burn multiple: 1.4x
- Days to next milestone: 87
"We're here to make three decisions," he says. "Everything else is FYI."
- 9:05 AM: First decision: The at-risk customers.
- Sales shows the accounts. Operations explains the issues. Marketing has retention campaign data. Finance models the impact of losing them.
- Not departments reporting. One team solving.
- Decision: Assign senior resources to both. Accept the short-term cost.
- 9:20 AM: Second decision: The burn multiple.
- Finance shows where it's coming from. Sales identifies which initiatives drive it. Marketing maps spend to pipeline. Operations suggests efficiency gains.
- The conversation is heated but productive. Everyone's arguing about solutions, not blame.
- Decision: Pause two initiatives, accelerate one. Review in two weeks.
- 9:35 AM: Third decision: The next milestone.
- Product shows what's needed. Sales confirms market demand. Operations outlines delivery requirements. Finance models three scenarios.
- Decision: Go with scenario two. Slightly slower but sustainable.
- 9:50 AM: CEO closes. "Same numbers next week. Come with decisions, not updates."
- 10:00 AM: Meeting ends. Everyone knows what to do.
The Difference That Made the Difference
Company A had information. Company B had intelligence.
Company A had departments. Company B had alignment.
Company A had meetings. Company B had decisions.
But the biggest difference? Company B understood something Company A didn't:
Financial alignment isn't about everyone agreeing. It's about everyone seeing.
When you're all looking at the same mountain, you can argue about the best path up. When you're looking at different mountains, you're just arguing.
The Three Types of Misalignment
After studying 47 companies, I found three patterns that predict failure:
Type 1: The Data Desert
Everyone has different numbers because everyone has different sources.
Sales pulls from Salesforce. Marketing pulls from HubSpot. Finance pulls from NetSuite. Operations pulls from Monday.com.
Ask four executives for the company's current ARR, get five different answers.
This isn't a technology problem. It's a decision problem. Someone decided (or didn't decide) that multiple versions of truth were acceptable.
The fix isn't complicated: Pick one source. Make it the only source. End of story.
But companies don't do this because each department head "needs their special metrics." So they accept the chaos instead of forcing alignment.
Company A lived in the Data Desert. Company B had one oasis everyone drank from.
Type 2: The Time Warp
Everyone's living in different time zones.
Sales thinks in quarters. They need to hit their number. Everything else is next quarter's problem.
Marketing thinks in campaigns. Six weeks to launch, twelve weeks to measure.
Operations thinks in sprints. Two weeks at a time. Ship, measure, adjust.
Finance thinks in years. Annual budgets, long-term models, strategic plans.
The CEO? The CEO thinks in board meetings.
When your leadership team is living in different time zones, every conversation is a miscommunication. Sales says "we need to invest" thinking this quarter. Finance hears "invest" and thinks next year. By the time they realize they're talking about different timelines, the opportunity is gone.
Company A never synced their clocks. Company B ran on CEO time: 90-day cycles with weekly check-ins.
Type 3: The Success Paradox
Everyone has different definitions of winning.
Sales wins when revenue grows. Doesn't matter if it's profitable revenue. Doesn't matter if the customer churns next year. Revenue is revenue.
Marketing wins when leads grow and CAC drops. Doesn't matter if the leads are qualified. Doesn't matter if they convert. Leads are leads.
Operations wins when utilization is high and customers are happy. Doesn't matter if it's profitable. Doesn't matter if it scales. Utilization is utilization.
Finance wins when burn is controlled and runway extends. Doesn't matter if growth stalls. Doesn't matter if competitors gain share. Control is control.
Four definitions of success. One P&L. Guaranteed failure.
Company A let everyone define their own victory conditions. Company B had one definition: Sustainable profitable growth. Every metric, every decision, every conversation laddered up to that.
Chapter 3: The Framework That Actually Works
I've tried everything:
- OKRs (great in theory, ignored in practice)
- Balanced scorecards (too complex, too academic)
- EOS (works for some, too rigid for tech companies)
- Daily standups (becomes theater, not action)
- War rooms (creates crisis addiction)
They all failed for the same reason: They tried to solve the communication problem. But communication isn't the problem. Alignment is the problem. And alignment isn't about talking more. It's about seeing the same thing.
That's why I built Measure. Manage. Align.
Not because the world needed another framework. Because after watching too many good companies die preventable deaths, I needed a way to give leadership teams superpowers.
The superpower to see the same reality. The superpower to predict the future. The superpower to move as one.
Let me show you how it works by walking through a real implementation.
The Tuesday That Changed Everything
David was CEO of a 34-person SaaS company doing $11M ARR. Growing 100% year-over-year. Burning $400K/month. Seven months of runway.
"I feel like I'm flying a plane through fog with five different instrument panels, and they all show different readings," he told me.
We started on a Tuesday.
Hour One: The Audit
I asked David to get his leadership team in a room with their laptops. No agenda. Just laptops.
"I want everyone to write down three numbers," I said. "Our current cash position, our monthly burn rate, and our runway in days. Don't talk. Just write."
The results:
- CFO: $2.8M cash, $420K burn, 200 days runway
- Sales: $3.2M cash, $350K burn, 274 days runway
- Marketing: "Around $3M", $400K burn, "6-7 months"
- Operations: No idea on cash, $380K burn, "Should be fine through Q2"
David looked at me. "How is this possible? We have weekly meetings."
"You have weekly performances," I said. "Now let's build something real."
Hour Two: The Foundation
We started with three questions:
- What number, if it went to zero, would kill the company? (Cash)
- What number, if it doubled, would save the company? (Revenue efficiency)
- What number, if we could predict it, would change everything? (Customer lifetime value)
Not thirty metrics. Not balanced scorecards. Three numbers that actually mattered.
Then we built the simplest possible dashboard:
- Survive: Days of cash remaining (updated daily)
- Thrive: Revenue per dollar spent (updated weekly)
- Predict: Leading indicators of expansion and churn (updated weekly)
Hour Three: The Commitment
"Here's the deal," I told them. "Every Thursday at 9 AM, you'll spend 30 minutes looking at these three numbers together. Not reporting. Not presenting. Looking. Then you'll make one decision. Just one. But you'll make it together, and you'll execute it completely."
The CFO raised his hand. "What about our other metrics?"
"Still track them. Still use them. But those are for your teams. These three are for this team. This is your shared language."
Week One: The Awakening
The first Thursday meeting was painful.
The dashboard showed 183 days of runway. The CFO had said 200. Sales had said 274.
"How?" David asked.
Turns out Sales was including the full contract value of deals not yet closed. The CFO was being conservative but forgot about the vendor payments delayed from last month.
Marketing didn't know about the annual insurance payment coming up.
They weren't lying. They were living in different realities.
But now, for the first time, they saw the same thing. 183 days. No debate. No interpretation. Just truth.
The one decision: Accelerate collections on the three largest outstanding invoices. Assigned to Sales and Finance together. Due by next Thursday.
Week Four: The Shift
By the fourth week, something had changed.
The meeting started differently. Instead of David asking for updates, the CMO spoke first:
"I've been thinking about our revenue efficiency. It's at $0.71. My campaigns are efficient in isolation, but if we're measuring total revenue per dollar spent, I need to factor in Sales' time to close. What if we focused on campaigns that drive faster-closing deals even if the CPL is higher?"
The head of Sales jumped in. "I've got data on that. Webinar leads close 2x faster than content downloads. Lower volume but way better efficiency."
They were having a different conversation. Not about their departments. About their company.
The decision that week: Shift 30% of marketing spend to webinar-focused campaigns.
Test for two weeks.
Week Twelve: The Transformation
Three months in, the dashboard had evolved but stayed simple:
Survive (Daily)
- Cash position: $3.7M (+32%)
- Burn rate: $340K (-15%)
- Runway: 325 days (+78%)
Thrive (Weekly)
- Revenue efficiency: $1.12 (+58%)
- CAC payback: 7 months (-42%)
- Magic number: 1.3 (+86%)
Predict (Weekly)
- Expansion signals: 12 accounts
- Churn risks: 3 accounts (-70%)
- Pipeline velocity: 23% faster
But the numbers weren't the transformation. The conversations were.
In week twelve, they debated shutting down a product line. In the old world, this would have been a political nightmare. Sales would protect their deals. Product would protect their work. Marketing would protect their campaigns.
Instead, they looked at the data together. The product line was dragging down revenue efficiency. It was creating churn risks. It was complicating the sales story.
The decision took fifteen minutes. Sunset over six months. Migrate customers. Refocus resources.
No politics. No drama. Just alignment.
Why This Framework Works
Measure. Manage. Align. works because it respects three truths about leadership teams:
Truth 1: Complexity Kills Execution
I've seen companies with 200-metric dashboards. Know what happens? Nobody looks at them.
The human brain can hold about seven things in working memory. A leadership team can align around three. Maybe five on a good day.
So we measure what matters. Period.
Not what's interesting. Not what's standard. Not what the board asks for. What actually drives survival and success.
Truth 2: Prediction Beats Reaction
Most financial management is archaeological. You dig through last month's ruins trying to understand what happened.
By the time you understand it, you're digging through this month's ruins.
The companies that win don't have better reflexes. They have better radar. They see changes coming and adjust before impact.
That's why we build prediction into the foundation. Not fancy AI models. Simple leading indicators that actually indicate.
Truth 3: Alignment Is a Practice, Not a Project
You can't have a two-day offsite and declare alignment achieved. It's like going to the gym once and declaring yourself fit.
Alignment is built through repetition. Same time. Same place. Same focus. Different decisions.
Week after week, the leadership team develops shared instincts. They start thinking in the same patterns. They anticipate each other's concerns. They move faster because they're moving together.
Chapter 4: Your Implementation Path
I'm going to share something most consultants won't: The exact steps to implement this yourself.
Will it be easier with help? Yes. Will you make mistakes? Definitely. Will it still transform your company? Absolutely.
Because the framework isn't magic. The magic is in the doing.
Before Day One: The Pre-Flight Check
Most implementations fail before they start. Here's how to not be most:
The CEO Commitment Test
Answer honestly:
- Will you personally attend every weekly alignment meeting for 90 days?
- Will you enforce the "one source of truth" even when departments complain?
- Will you make decisions in the meeting, not "take it offline"?
- Will you share bad news as readily as good news?
- Will you hold leaders accountable for alignment, not just results?
If you answered no to any of these, stop. Fix your commitment first. The framework only works if the CEO drives it.
The Leadership Reality Check
Get your leadership team in a room. Ask them:
"On a scale of 1-10, how aligned are we on financial priorities?"
Write down their answers. Don't discuss. Just write.
If the average is above 7, they're delusional. If it's below 4, they're at least honest. The sweet spot is 4-6: bad enough to need change, honest enough to make it.
The Calendar Block
Before you do anything else, block Thursday 9-10 AM for the next 90 days.
Not "tentative." Not "if available." Blocked.
This is your new church. Miss it and the religion dies.
Days 1-30: Building the Foundation
Week 1: The Truth Telling
Day 1: The Numbers Audit
Get everyone to write down:
- Current cash position
- Monthly burn rate
- Current runway
- Q4 revenue forecast
- Top 3 financial risks
Compile the answers. Share them without comment. Let the chaos sink in.
Day 2: The Source Selection
Pick your single source of truth. I recommend:
- Cash: Direct from bank (not accounting software)
- Revenue: From billing system (not CRM)
- Costs: From AP/payroll (not budgets)
Simple rule: The source closest to reality wins.
Day 3: The Builder Selection
Who builds the dashboard? Not IT. Not Finance. Not an intern.
The CEO or a trusted operator. Someone who understands the business, not just the tools.
Day 4-5: The First Dashboard
Build version 0.1. It will be ugly. It will be manual. It will be imperfect.
It will also be more useful than anything you have now.
Three numbers:
- Days of cash (cash balance ÷ daily burn)
- Revenue efficiency (revenue ÷ total spend)
- One leading indicator (you pick)
Week 2: The First Meeting
The Agenda That Actually Works:
9:00-9:05: The Numbers
- Pull up the dashboard
- Everyone looks at the same screen
- No commentary, just absorption
9:05-9:15: The Insights
- What surprised you?
- What concerns you?
- What opportunity do you see?
9:15-9:25: The Decision
- Based on these numbers, what one thing should we change this week?
- Who owns it?
- What does done look like?
9:25-9:30: The Commitment
- Confirm the decision
- Confirm the owner
- Confirm the definition of done
- Schedule the check-in
Do NOT:
- Add agenda items
- Have "quick updates"
- Discuss anything outside the three numbers
- Take more than 30 minutes
Weeks 3-4: The Habits
Keep it simple:
- Same time, same place
- Same agenda, different decisions
- Same numbers, better understanding
You'll be tempted to add complexity. Don't.
You'll be tempted to skip a week. Don't.
You'll be tempted to delegate it. Don't.
Days 31-60: Adding Intelligence
Week 5-6: The Prediction Layer
Now that you can see clearly, let's add radar.
The 13-Week Cash Flow Model
Forget complex models. Build this:
Week 1: [Starting cash]
- Plus: Expected collections
- Less: Payroll
- Less: Vendor payments
- Less: Other
= Ending cash
Repeat for 13 weeks.
Update every Monday. Review every Thursday.
The Revenue Pipeline Intelligence
Three categories:
- Closed (contract signed)
- Probable (verbal yes)
- Possible (active discussion)
One rule: Only the CEO can move deals between categories.
Week 7-8: The Scenario Engine
Build three scenarios:
- Base: Current trajectory
- Bear: 30% revenue miss
- Bull: 30% revenue beat
For each, model:
- Cash impact
- Hiring impact
- Investment impact
Update monthly. Decide weekly.
Days 61-90: The Acceleration
Week 9-10: The Departmental Cascade
Now that leadership is aligned, cascade down:
Sales Dashboard
- Links to company cash impact
- Shows revenue efficiency by deal
- Predicts collection timing
Marketing Dashboard
- Links to revenue efficiency
- Shows CAC in real-time
- Predicts pipeline impact
Operations Dashboard
- Links to burn rate
- Shows efficiency metrics
- Predicts capacity needs
Week 11-12: The Optimization
Review and refine:
- Which metrics actually predict outcomes?
- Which decisions actually moved needles?
- Which habits actually stuck?
Cut everything else.
Week 13: The Graduation
Run the same audit from Day 1:
- Current cash position
- Monthly burn rate
- Current runway
- Q1 revenue forecast
- Top 3 financial risks
Compare the variance. It should be under 10%.
If it's not, you're not done. Keep going.
If it is, celebrate. Then keep going anyway.
Chapter 5: When You're Already on Fire
Sometimes you don't have 90 days. Sometimes you don't have 30.
If you're reading this with less than 60 days of cash, skip everything else and go here.
The 72-Hour Scramble
Hour 1-8: The Cash Census
Stop everything. Cancel every meeting. This is your only priority.
Map every dollar:
- In the bank: Actual cleared balance
- Coming in: Specific invoices and dates
- Going out: Every obligation and date
- Available credit: Exact amounts and terms
Build an hourly cash model for the next 14 days. Yes, hourly.
Hour 9-16: The Collection Blitz
Call every outstanding invoice:
- CEO calls the largest 20%
- Sales calls their accounts
- Finance calls the rest
Offer discounts for immediate payment:
- 2% for same day
- 5% for this week
- 10% for this month
Track every conversation. Update the model.
Hour 17-24: The Payment Triage
Sort every payment into three buckets:
Pay Now
- Payroll (always)
- Critical vendors (keep the lights on)
- Government (they don't negotiate)
Pay Later
- Non-critical vendors
- Consultants
- Nice-to-haves
Negotiate
- Large vendors (payment plans)
- Landlords (defer increases)
- Anyone who values the relationship
Hour 25-48: The Bridge Building
Explore emergency funding:
- Revenue-based financing (fast but expensive)
- Asset-based lending (if you have receivables)
- Bridge rounds (if you have investor relationships)
- Customer prepayments (sell future services)
Hour 49-72: The Decision
Based on what you've learned, make the call:
If you've bought 90+ days: Implement the full framework
If you've bought 30-90 days: Focus on collections and cost structure
If you've bought <30 days: Consider strategic alternatives
The 30-Day Turnaround
If the scramble worked and you have 30-90 days, here's your focus:
Week 1: Stop the Bleeding
Monday: All-hands meeting. Share the truth. Not the whole truth, but enough.
"We're facing cash challenges. We have a plan. We need everyone's help. Here's what's changing immediately."
Tuesday-Thursday: Implement the cuts
- Freeze all hiring
- Cut all discretionary spending
- Renegotiate every contract
- Pause all non-critical projects
Friday: Launch daily cash meetings
- 15 minutes
- Cash in/out for the day
- Decisions for tomorrow
- No other topics
Week 2-3: Build the Bridge
Focus on two things only:
Revenue acceleration
- Close every possible deal
- Accelerate every implementation
- Collect every dollar
- Presell everything
Cost optimization
- Not across-the-board cuts
- Strategic resource allocation
- Preserve revenue-generating capacity
- Cut everything else
Week 4: Plan the Future
If you've made it this far, you've earned the right to plan.
But not the old way. The aligned way.
Start with one question: What has to be true for us to never be here again?
Then build your dashboard. Hold your meetings. Make your decisions.
Together.
The Hard Truth
When you run a professional services or SaaS firm, every month you wait hoping things will fix themselves is another month the pattern deepens:
-
Revenue keeps growing, but clarity lags.
-
Leaders meet, but don’t align.
-
Dashboards multiply, but nobody agrees which one’s “real.”
This isn’t a financial problem. It’s a leadership moment.
Don't Let the Moment Pass
You have two paths from here:
-
Run the old playbook: Hope for the best, chase metrics, hope it’s “just a blip.”
-
Draw the line: Commit to operating on one set of facts, in real time, with a leadership team that argues about decisions—not about what’s true.
I wrote this because I’m tired of watching great teams lose to the same avoidable pattern.
You don’t have to be another case study.
The 2-minute Alignment Test
Stop right now and ask yourself:
-
Can every leader on your team tell you, without looking:
-
If not, you’re already on the wrong side of the pattern.
The time to fix it is now.
You owe your team clarity. You owe yourself control. You owe your business survival.
The framework is here. The path is clear. The rest is leadership.
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