Brandimarte & Co.

Turnaround

Turnaround help for Colorado trades, service, construction and home services businesses.

When cash, margin or sales are sliding, the first 90 days decide most of what follows. We help you see the truth, stop the bleeding, and put a weekly rhythm in place.

Take the free 30-Day Test Book a free Evaluation Call

Good fit if

You own a construction, trades or home services business doing $2M to $20M a year in Denver or elsewhere on the Colorado Front Range, and your cash, margin or sales are sliding.

Think contractors, remodelers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC and other home services companies. Owners in the trades are problem solvers. When something breaks, we work harder and fix it ourselves. That built the business. It is also what keeps owners from asking for help until the hole is deep. The numbers are not a grade on you. They are a map.

Five signs the business is bleeding

  • You are busy and broke at the same time.
  • Nobody can tell you last month's real profit, because the books are not reconciled.
  • You know your total margin, but not your margin by type of work.
  • Sales have slipped a little every year and you are not sure why.
  • You decide each week which bills get paid and which wait.

If three or more are true, act now, not next quarter.

The first 90 days

Stop the bleeding, in this order.

Cutting costs buys time. A weekly rhythm keeps the business from sliding back. Here is the order we follow.

  1. Days 1 to 14

    Get the truth on cash

    • Reconcile every bank account, card and loan to the statement
    • Build a simple 13-week cash view: what comes in and goes out each week
    • Go through accounts receivable and call the oldest unpaid invoices
    • List every fixed cost and contract with a monthly number next to it

  2. Days 15 to 30

    Set a margin floor

    • Split revenue and costs by type of work, so you can see which work makes money
    • Set a margin floor: no job gets sold below it, and the owner signs anything close
    • Stop bidding work that loses money, or reprice it until it pays
    • Cancel contracts and spending that do not earn their keep

  3. Days 31 to 60

    Put in a weekly scorecard

    • Pick five to ten numbers that matter and put them on one page
    • Give every number an owner
    • Hold the same weekly meeting, same day and time, to review the scorecard and decide who fixes what by when
    • Check estimate against actual on every job

  4. Days 61 to 90

    Know your cost per lead

    • Track cost per lead and cost per sale by channel
    • Put marketing money where it pays and test new channels with a small slice
    • Feed the sales system that already works instead of replacing it
    • Finish with a one-page plan: three to five priorities, each with an owner and a date

Some of these steps touch legal and tax rules, such as how you pay workers or how you deal with a bond or a lender. Talk to your own attorney or CPA before you change them.

How it works

The Brandimarte Charter, applied to a turnaround.

  1. Step 1: ScoreYou take the free 30-Day Test. It shows where the business stands and how much it depends on you.
  2. Step 2: FitA short paid review comes first. We look at the books, cash and margins by type of work, then hand you a plan and a price before you commit to anything more.
  3. Step 3: InstallWe put the plan in place in a 90-day build: cash, a margin floor, a weekly scorecard and the sales numbers.
  4. Step 4: RunWe run the weekly rhythm with your team until it holds, and until a number two can own it.
  5. Step 5: Hand off or holdOnce the business is steady, you choose: hand it off, keep us running and growing it, or get it ready to sell.

Proof

We have done this before.

What these moves produced in real businesses. Past results do not promise yours.

Build a Bath, Littleton, Colorado

A bath remodeler scheduled to close.

When we looked at it, the company was scheduled to shut down at year end and revenue was down 20% from the year before. It still had a sales system that worked: a one-call close, in the home, with samples and a design mockup, closing about 72% under the prior owner. What it lacked was the business around it.

Gerard negotiated a fair price and took it over before it closed. We kept the one-call close and fed it: about 15% of revenue on marketing, about 2% to test new channels, cost per lead tracked by channel, and a home show every month. We added a weekly margin review, estimate against actual on every job.

The 20% decline was reversed in year one. The business grew 20% that year.

Polana

An online food business in a turnaround.

A business cannot grow on purpose until it can see what is working. We built the reporting the business ran on, then steered by it every week.

Revenue grew more than 200% year over year by July 2016.

Sheboygan County Economic Development

A county economic development group that needed a reset.

Led a full rebrand, built KPI scorecards and sponsor tiers, reported quarterly to the board and investors, and rebuilt city and county relationships. Deployed Salesforce for nonprofits at no cost to the organization, and worked with a local college to build an intern program across several roles to help it grow.

A turnaround rarely needs expensive tools. It needs a few numbers someone looks at every week.

A 50+ year old commercial electrical contractor in Northern Colorado

Temporary GM and COO.

As temporary GM and COO, Gerard worked with the office manager to reconcile six months of books in about six weeks, and canceled about $72,000 a year in agency and software contracts that were not earning their keep.

Not every business can be saved. Seeing the numbers clearly is what lets the owners make the right call.

Questions

Turnaround questions

Take the free 30-Day Test

What does a business turnaround consultant do?

We find out where the cash, margin and sales are really going, stop the leaks we can see, and put a weekly rhythm in place so the fixes hold. We work in the business with you and your team, not from a slide deck.

Do you work with construction and home services companies?

Yes. That is who we work with: owner-led construction, trades and home services companies, like contractors, remodelers and the people who keep homes and buildings running. We have run one of these businesses ourselves, so we know how jobs, crews and cash really move.

Do you work with businesses in Denver?

Yes. We are based on the Colorado Front Range and work with owners from Fort Collins to Castle Rock, including Denver. We travel for the right opportunities.

How do we start, and what does it cost?

Start with the free 30-Day Test or a free 30-minute Evaluation Call. If it looks like a fit, the next step is a short paid review of the business. You get a plan and a price from that review, so nobody commits blind.

How fast will we see results?

It depends on the business, so we will not promise a date. Most of the first 30 days is about seeing clearly. The first changes in cash usually come from collecting what you are owed and no longer selling work below cost.

What if the business cannot be saved?

Not every business can be saved in its current form. Sometimes the right move is to shrink to the work that pays, sell, or close in an orderly way. We will tell you plainly what we see. Talk to your own attorney and CPA before you decide.

Do you lend money or deal with my bank for me?

No. We do not lend money. If a bank, a bond or a loan is involved, bring in your own attorney or a qualified advisor first. We help you get the numbers clear so those conversations go better.

See where your business stands.

A free 30-minute Evaluation Call by video. No pitch, no pressure. You will leave knowing what the first 90 days could look like for your business.

Book an Evaluation Call Take the 30-Day Test

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