What is a Business Consultation?

A business consultation is a time to meet and go over the specifics of your business activity, and where things can be made more efficient. Before your consultation, we ask for as much information that you can think of to give us the context. This helps us to know how things are going, and where those things can be improved.

We recently came across a food-truck owner who is on the brink of bankruptcy after 1.5 years. Despite $15K in sales each week, there's never money in the bank, and they are in debt.

They are especially desperate now that the most recent payroll bounced.

With only knowing those few details, we have enough to get some traction on where things can be turned around.

Our initial response to start helping this business owner went as follows:

-First, take a day off to really sit with all your financials.

See exactly which items are your best sellers, and which items are your best for profit margin. (Typically soda, if you have a fountain, or fries we would assume)

-Which 5 items are your slowest sellers? Which 3 items are your lowest for profit margin?

Permanently 86 those as soon as they run out. Don't order more from your supplier.

-Which day is your slowest for sales?

How much revenue would you give up if you stayed closed that day? And how does that compare with the payroll you'd have to pay out for employees on that same day? Is it worth it? Could this be a day for you to focus on business operations and reduce burnout?

-What is your slowest hour of the day? Can you run the truck by yourself until the lunch rush?

-Can you find cheaper straws, cups, napkins, paper plates? Even saving just a few cents per customer would help!

Just guessing here, but assuming you operate 6 days/per week with $15K in sales, that's $2500/day. If each customer averages $15 for their meal, we’ll assume you serve about 166 meals each day.

Say you can save $0.05/meal, that would save you $8.30/day and $49.80/wk or $200/month. Not a lot, but it’s something, a babystep in the right direction.

-Are you able to increase prices by $0.50-$1.00 per meal? Perhaps increasing each individual item by $0.17 (soda, fries, burger, = $0.51 increase per meal). This could translate to nearly $1000 more in revenue per week, assuming customer habits remain the same.

-Can you consolidate your debt?

-Can you increase the deductible on your insurance to reduce the overall premium?


All of these questions are framed to help you “see the forest through the trees” as they say. It can be hard to gain a deeper perspective or insight when you can’t seem to keep up with the onslaught of day-to-day needs. Just doing the next thing as it comes up is survival-mode, and isn’t sustainable. We’re here to help you out of chaos and into a steady business rhythm.

Learn more about our consulting services by clicking here.