Capacity and cash

Proposed monthly capacityLink

Use a replaceable 160-hour month: 80 client delivery, 25 commercial work, 20 company operations, 15 learning and planning, and 20 uncommitted buffer. Reduce for leave. Count client communication and specialist oversight within delivery.

Trial no more than four monthly partnerships, one active sprint and one scheduled diagnostic. A large project can replace the sprint and diagnostic. Reserve full monthly allocations even when clients use fewer hours. Check actual dates as well as monthly totals.

Pause new commitments if delivery exceeds 80 hours, dates cannot be supported or the separate 20-hour buffer is routinely consumed. Reschedule, narrow or decline before adding unsupported obligations.

Illustrative balanced portfolioLink

Four standard partnerships reserve 40 hours and earn 240,000. A 120,000 sprint uses 20 hours; a 45,000 diagnostic uses 7. Total: 405,000 revenue and 67 delivery hours, leaving 13 delivery hours plus the separate buffer. The example has no specialist costs and is not a sales forecast or required audience split.

Proposed collection rulesLink

Bill diagnosis in advance. For defined projects, trial 50% at booking, 30% at a demonstrable milestone and 20% before the agreed final handover or deployment. Bill monthly capacity in advance with a proposed seven-day payment window. Confirm payment before reserving a new period. Assess procurement exceptions explicitly.

On a 300,000 project, the 150,000 booking receipt leaves 70,000 after an early 80,000 external commitment. Advances fund unfinished obligations; they are not freely distributable profit.

Reserve and concentrationLink

Proposed reserve: three months of planned overhead and founder cash needs, plus uncovered committed delivery costs. At 40,000 + 240,000 monthly, the base is 840,000. Confirm the founder’s actual minimum cash need. Keep reserves separate from advances needed for unfinished work and other liabilities.

Maintain a rolling 13-week cash view: opening cash, dated collections, committed payments, owner payments and closing cash. Distinguish earned revenue, invoices and cash received.

Review a client above 30% of trailing three-month earned revenue or committed forward capacity; above 40% requires a strong exception and replacement plan. Count each agency as one counterparty across its end clients. Agree late-payment pauses, rescheduling and cancellation treatment before work starts.