The Underlying Question
A brother-and-sister team were successfully running the multi-line business their family had built, achieving an impressive €15 million in turnover. But this success was masking a critical problem: the bottom line was a mere 1%. They were skilled operators, consumed by the day-to-day chaos of ringing phones and hands-on customer service, and they knew it. While they felt the business had far more potential, they lacked the financial literacy and the strategic breathing room to find it. They knew what they didn't know, and the core question was: how could they get out of the engine room and onto the bridge to steer their company toward real profitability?
"We were working harder than ever for a 1% margin. The revelation wasn't that we had to work harder, but that the real value was sitting right under our noses the whole time. We just needed someone to show us where to look."
The 360° Revelation
Our 9-week, 360° diagnostic was designed to give them the expert financial lens they needed. We dug into every aspect of the business—sales, working capital, and the balance sheet—and the results presentation was a moment of revelation. We uncovered several significant, high-impact opportunities that were hidden in plain sight: from untapped cross-sales opportunities between their business lines, to major working capital optimizations in their inventory management, to the significant dormant capital on their balance sheet. For the siblings, this was the ultimate 'aha!' moment—the realization of the immense 'trapped' value they could access, either to reinvest in the business or to secure their personal financial futures.
The Decisive Result
The outcome was a complete shift in perspective and potential. Armed with a clear, fact-based roadmap, the siblings were no longer just operators; they were strategic owners in command of their financial destiny. The plan we delivered gave them the clear potential to increase their bottom line by five times, almost immediately. By implementing a series of clear, high-impact initiatives across sales, working capital, and their asset structure, they had a tangible plan to turn their high-volume, low-margin business into a highly profitable, strategic asset for their family's future.