Every business has a number it is not looking at

When I took over Aquaduck, a ticket cost $36.

The owners before me were certain $40 was the ceiling. Cross it and the phone stops ringing. Everybody knew that.

I took the price to $50 over a few years, with a plan behind it. Net profit per customer went from $1 to $3. Same boat, same tour, same crew.

I did not find new customers. I found the money that was already sitting in the business.

That is what I do now for other owners.

Busy is not the same as profitable

I have run eight businesses over 20 years. I have sat where you sit, made payroll and carried the risk personally.

The pattern I see most often looks like this.

Sales are up. Everyone is flat out. The bank balance has not moved.

So the owner does the obvious thing. Take on more work. Add a product. Chase a bigger client. Hire someone. More pressure, more overheads, more risk, and the profit sits exactly where it was.

I have to say it plainly. Growing an unprofitable business just gives you a bigger unprofitable business.

The number most owners cannot tell me

Turnover is a vanity figure. It hides more than it shows.

The number that matters is what you keep from each customer, each job, or each project.

Let's say you completed 400 jobs last year and made $20,000 net. That is $50 a job. Lift it to $150 a job and the same business makes $60,000. Same 400 jobs. Same staff. Same vans, same software, same hours.

Nothing about how hard you worked changed. What changed was the price and the mix of work.

A healthy net profit margin in most service businesses sits between 15% and 25%. When I ask an owner what theirs is, most cannot tell me. That is not a criticism. It is just not a figure your accountant puts in front of you.

Where the needle actually moves

Three things shift it, and none of them are marketing.

Your price. Most owners set a price years ago and have adjusted it by a few percent since. Costs have not moved by a few percent. Your fear of losing customers is almost always larger than the number you would actually lose. At Aquaduck I pushed straight through a ceiling everyone told me was real.

Your mix of work. Not all customers are worth the same to you. Some jobs pay well and run smoothly. Others eat a week and leave you with nothing. Very few owners have ever sorted their work into those two piles and looked at the result. When you do, the decision usually makes itself.

Your channels. Where does the work come from, and what does each source cost you? Referral partners, agents, platforms, tenders and marketplaces all take a cut, sometimes 20% to 30%. At Aquaduck I shifted direct sales from 4% to 47% of turnover. That single change altered what I kept from every customer who walked on board.

What working with me looks like

I start with your numbers, not your ideas.

Your capacity across the year, day by day. Your cashflow. Every discount you have handed out, written down in one place. Where your work comes from, reviewed month by month against what you sell directly.

Then I ask hard questions and I hold you to the answers.

That last part is what most owners have never had. Making every call on your own is lonely and slow. It is the reason good businesses sit still for years while the owner works harder and harder.

I am not interested in being another expense on your P&L. My value should show up in your sales and in the price you charge.

One thing to do in the next thirty minutes

Take your net profit from last financial year. Divide it by the number of customers, jobs or projects you delivered.

Write that figure down and look at it.

Now ask what would happen if it doubled. Not your customer numbers. Just that one figure.

For most owners, doubling margin per job is a far easier task than doubling the number of jobs. It costs you no extra staff, no extra overheads and no extra hours away from home.

I am Sarah Colgate. I have owned 8 businesses including Aquaduck, Southern Cross Tours, The Book Bag, Bead Search and more. I now work with owners who are working far too hard for what they keep.

If you want an honest look at your numbers, book a conversation with me