Specialty products distributor

What we built

• Implemented a structured price increase
• Tightened inventory tracking and reconciliation
• Built a tax set-aside plan with clear monthly targets
• Cleaned up the books and rebuilt the chart of accounts for clarity

Narrative

When we started this engagement, we were taking over for a bookkeeper who had left things a mess. So, the first order of business was cleaning up the books and building a chart of accounts the business owner actually understood.

Once we got them clarity in their numbers, it was clear pricing needed to be tackled. Costs had increased, but prices hadn’t followed. We were able to show how that was impacting profit, which got the owner to pull the trigger.

Once we did this increase, we focused on improving cash flow. Their supplier was taking more than half a year to get them inventory, which locked up cash and made it hard for them to respond to changes in demand.

We helped them find a supplier that reduced their lead time to 15 (!) days and immediately tripled their cash balance. This helped the owner, who felt the stress of his tax burden, get cash back into the business and take his first-ever lifestyle distributions.