● ● FOR OWNERS OF B2B COMPANIES WITH $3 MILLION TO $50 MILLION IN REVENUE
Build a business that's more profitable, more fundable, and more valuable.
The Capital Confidence Blueprint™ is a 30 to 45 day plan. It shows you where your profit really comes from, how much your bank could lend you and why, and what has to change for your company to be worth more. One document. One decision meeting. Then you know what to do next.
30 minutes. No slides. We talk about your numbers.
Phil Symchych
THE GRUMPY CFO®
CPA, MBA, CMC, ICD.D
Est. 1994
You're running a $20 million company on reports built for the tax return.
Your year-end statements were made to file taxes. Your accounting software was set up the same way. Neither one tells you what's working. So you price your work, hire your people, and talk to your bank using numbers that were never meant for any of those decisions.
That's not your accountant's fault. Compliance answers a different question. But it costs you in four places:
01.
PRICING BLINDSPOT
Work gets priced below its real cost, because overhead was never allocated properly.
Risk Point
02.
HIDDEN SUBSIDIES
Customers and product lines that lose money keep getting served, because nobody separated them out.
Risk Point
03.
RESTRICTED LIQUIDITY
Borrowing capacity gets squeezed by years of tax minimization that stripped retained earnings off the balance sheet.
Risk Point
04.
FOUNDER ENTANGLEMENT
The business gets built around you, which makes it harder to fund and worth less to a buyer.
Risk Point
"Growth makes cash flow worse. Bigger customers pay slower. Bigger jobs tie up more cash. You're busier than ever and the bank account doesn't show it."
● EXECUTIVE OBJECTIVES
One plan. Three things change.
01
OUTCOME 01
More profitable.
You see gross margin by product, by service, by job, and by customer. Not one blended number. You find out where money is made and where it's given away. Then you fix the price.
Granular unit economics
02
OUTCOME 02
More fundable.
You see what your banker sees, what they could lend against, and the gap between the two. Most lost borrowing power is lost in translating your year-end statements into what the banker wants to see, not in your business performance.
Bank-aligned reporting
03
OUTCOME 03
More valuable.
You see what makes your company transferable and what makes it fragile. Owner dependency. Customer concentration. Reporting the buyer can trust. You learn which two or three things to fix first.
Enhance enterprise value
Who this is for
This is for you if:
IDEAL FIT
- You own an established B2B company in agri-business, industrial services, or manufacturing.
- Revenue is between $3 million and $50 million.
- Sales are up and profit isn't, or costs are rising faster than your prices.
- Growth is eating cash and the bank is asking harder questions.
- Someone has asked about buying your company and you don't know what it's really worth.
- You have accountant-prepared statements and books that are reconciled monthly.
It's not for you if:
EXCLUSIONS
You are in arrears with taxes or bank loan payments, or you are in special loans.
You have less than five years of experience in your industry.
You need bookkeeping, cleanup, or someone to build spreadsheets.
You want a valuation certificate or a second opinion on your tax return.
You're not ready to look at real numbers, or to let your team spend a few hours pulling data.
You don't want to make more money and are happy just being your own boss.
"If your books aren't in shape yet, say so on the call. I'd rather tell you that before you pay me anything."
The Capital Confidence Blueprint™
A 30 to 45 day diagnostic and written plan. It's not a report about last year. It's a plan for the next twelve months, in language you can act on and your banker can trust.
What I look at
Margin. Gross margin by product, service, job, and customer. Not one blended number.
Cost. What it really costs you to deliver the work, and what you should be charging.
Cash. Total days from the moment work starts to the moment the money is in your account.
The bank. What your lender sees, what they could lend you, and the gap between the two.
Valuation. What makes your business worth more, and what's holding it back.
CUSTOMER DISCOVERY INSIGHT
Then I talk to three to five of your best customers. 20 to 30 minutes each. They tell me why they buy from you and what it's worth to them. Owners tell me this is the part they remember for years. It's also where pricing power shows up. An owner who hears their best customer say what they'd pay to keep the relationship stops apologizing for price.
What you get
One written plan, presented in person. Not a slide deck emailed to you. Not a data dump.
- Where your money actually comes from
- What your work really costs, and what to charge for it
- How much you could borrow, and what has to change to get there
- What your business is worth, and what's holding that down
- What your customers said, in their own words
- A twelve-month plan, in order, with who owns each item and what it should produce
- The monthly reports you need, and why the ones you get now don't do the job
"The plan is the product. Everything before it is the evidence."
How it works
Day 1. On site.
I spend a day at your place. I meet your team, walk the operation, and find out where your numbers live and who holds them.
Weeks 1 to 3. Rebuild.
I get access to your books and rebuild the numbers. Your team helps pull the data.
Weeks 2 to 4. Clients.
Customer conversations. Three to five, arranged by you, conducted by me.
Weeks 4 to 6. Blueprint.
I write the plan.
Week 6. Decision.
I come back. We sit down for half a day, go through it, and you decide what happens next.
What owners and bankers say
“We increased revenues and profits in the first month of working together. Phil's insights helped us to build on our strengths and position ourselves to continue to be leaders in our industry.”
- MARLAINE MCAULEY, PRESIDENT, APEX FACILITY RESOURCES
"Phil helped us set our books up to do the right kind of reporting for bankers and to help me understand my costs so that I can negotiate with customers. That's probably one of the most important things he's helped me with."
- CEO and Founder, $8 million B2B service company
"Our ISO certifier said that he is amazed that we're a little company that is run like a big company."
- Teresa Hensrud, Industrial Scale Ltd.
"Phil behaves and talks like an owner, not just an accountant. I knew that he would help us institute big changes effectively."
- Lorne Schnell, MBA, PEng, Morsky Industrial
"Phil's experience, innovative process and ability to bring clarity to our team and roles made this an outstanding experience."
- John Hein, CEO, Shoemaker Manufacturing
"Immediately, Phil helped us organize our budgets, prepare necessary presentations for bankers, and develop processes and implement them to help us run the company more smoothly."
- Ken Pickering, President, Globe-Elite Electrical Contractors
"For years I struggled negotiating with them and I routinely left money on the table and didn't even know it. Thanks for levelling the playing field with the big boys and for putting more money on our table."
- Founder and President, Industrial services company
● FEATURED VIDEO CASE STUDY
Steve McKenna
Grounded Agency
I was bottlenecking my own growth right now, literally turning away customers. And Phil guided me to see that I was getting in my own way. By four PM today, I have a second in command hired.
THE BANKING PERSPECTIVE
"Phil helps businesses improve financial management, attract financing to grow their businesses and retain their key people."
— Doug Yaremko, MBA, former Director, Scotiabank
"Phil helps his clients borrow wisely."
— Ryan McLean, BDC
Advising owners since 1994. 65 industry segments. 7 countries.
Empirical financial strategy for companies with $3M to $50M in annual revenue.
Why I'm grumpy
When I was a teenager my parents bought a lodge with my aunt and uncle. The accountant told them not to buy it because it didn't make money. He was right. The bank lent them the money anyway, not because the business worked, but because the loan was covered by home equity, second mortgages, personal guarantees, and three government pensions. The bank never needed the lodge to succeed. It only needed my family to keep existing.
Interest rates hit 23%. Years of financial stress followed in a house where nobody had done the one calculation that mattered. That's why I became a CPA. It's also why I stopped doing tax returns two years later and started doing this.
"The grumpiness points at the system, not at people. Your accountant is doing the job they were hired for. This is a different job."
Here's what I see over and over:
"Do you want to minimize taxes?" is the wrong question.
There's only one answer to it, so it isn't a question. It's a decision made for you. A full year of choices gets steered toward a smaller tax bill instead of a stronger, more valuable company.
Nobody asks the second question.
Almost no owner gets asked, "Do you want advice on growing this business and making it more profitable and more valuable?" That's the question that would change your life. It sits there unasked, year after year.
Less equity means less funding, and it has nothing to do with performance.
Here's how it works, in round numbers. A company earns $500,000. It pays $100,000 of tax and keeps $400,000 as retained earnings. Banks commonly lend two to three times equity to a healthy business, so that $400,000 supports $800,000 to $1.2 million of borrowing. Bonus the profit down to zero instead, and the retained earnings from that year are zero. So is the borrowing capacity. Same company, same customers, same year. One version can fund growth and the other can't.
After the Blueprint
The Blueprint ends with a plan. Most owners want help doing the work. That's the Business Wealth Builder System: twelve months of Strategic CFO work that puts the plan in place. The monthly reporting you actually need. The pricing changes. The banker-ready package. Steady work on the value drivers ranked in your plan.
We talk about that at the decision meeting, not before. Some owners take the plan and run with it themselves. That's a fine answer, too.
About Phil
I'm Phil Symchych, CPA, MBA, CMC, ICD.D. I've advised owners of B2B companies since 1994, across 65 industry segments and 7 countries. Before that I articled as a CA and ran my own accounting practice for two years, which is where I learned that the reports I was producing didn't help anyone run a business.
I co-wrote The Business Wealth Builders with Alan Weiss. I've sat on boards, financed growth, and sat across the table from bankers more times than I can count. This isn't my first banking conversation.
When I'm not in a boardroom, I'm on a mountain bike, in a kayak, or behind a camera.
Questions owners ask
How is this different from what my accountant does?
Your accountant reports the past for the tax return and the bank. That's compliance, and it matters. The Blueprint is a plan for the next twelve months, built on numbers your accountant's reports don't produce: margin by customer, true cost to serve, days to cash, and borrowing capacity.
Is this a fractional CFO service?
No. I don't produce your monthly statements or sit in your management meetings. The Blueprint is a fixed-scope project with a start, an end, and one written plan. If you want help executing it afterward, we talk about that at the decision meeting.
Will you talk to my banker?
The Blueprint produces the organized information a lender needs and the plan behind it. Bankers have told me for years that their biggest complaint is borrowers who show up disorganized. Representing you to a lender is a separate piece of work.
Do you guarantee results?
No. CPA rules of conduct don't allow it and it isn't needed. The track record speaks for itself: 30 years, 65 industry segments, 7 countries.
What does it cost?
It's a fixed fee, paid in advance, with no hourly billing and no change orders. We cover the number on the call.
What do you need from me?
Accountant-prepared statements for three years, monthly bank reconciliations that are done, access to your accounting system, one person on your team for a few hours a week, and your time on day one and at the final meeting.
Have a question?
Schedule a confidential 30-minute introductory conversation directly with Phil Symchych.
Non-disclosure & confidentiality guaranteed
Find out where your profit
really comes from.
One call. Thirty minutes. We talk about your numbers, your bank, and what your company is worth. If the Blueprint fits, I'll tell you. If it doesn't, I'll tell you that too.
Strictly Confidential
●
30 Minutes
●
Zero Sales Decks
Audience Notice: CPAs and CFOs who want to bring this kind of work to their clients: visit Symco Growth Group. Bankers: I'm always glad to talk about a mutual client.
