A growing order book can use cash before it produces any. Customers pay later, stock builds up and the next job needs people before the last one is collected. I would want to follow an actual job from the promise to the payment. That often tells us more than a discussion about whether the company needs a bigger bank line.
I can work with management to connect the jobs, spending commitments and receipts in a cash plan, improve the information behind it and prepare for the lender conversation. My recommendation might be to seek funding, change customer terms or slow a commitment. We need to know what each choice would allow the business to do.
Before adding a senior salary, I want to know what you need off your desk. Is there experience missing, too much work or a decision nobody else is allowed to make? A capable manager can struggle if responsibility arrives without authority.
I would talk with you and the people doing the work, help define the role and identify the decisions it should carry. If someone already there could grow into it, that deserves a fair look. A new appointment also needs a workable handover and support from you.
An incentive for winning orders can look successful while delivery struggles and cash gets tighter. Before changing it, I would ask what the person can influence and how the reward affects everyone else’s work. Then we can develop measures with management that people understand and the company can sustain. The plan has to make sense to the person earning it as well as the person paying it.
It is hard to step back from something you have put money, time and reputation into. I would ask what you would commit to today, knowing what you now know. What protects the existing business? What has a credible path forward? What would waiting cost?
I can work with management on the operating assumptions, cash requirements and alternatives, then put a recommendation in front of the people who must decide. Once a choice is made, spending approvals, responsibilities and reporting need to reflect it. Otherwise the old commitments can continue long after the meeting.
You may have good reasons for holding on. A customer trusts you, a manager has not had enough experience, or the last attempt went badly. I want to hear those reasons. I also want to hear from the person being asked to take over. They may see an obstacle you do not.
We can start with an actual responsibility: who could take it, what they need to know, what they can decide and when you need to be involved. Then we see how it works. That gives you something firmer than an assurance that you should delegate. You may want less involvement, continued ownership or an eventual sale; those are different choices.
What do you want the choice to achieve? An acquisition brings work after closing. A sale changes your role and the future of people who helped build the company. I help examine what those choices require of the business and take on agreed preparation or implementation work alongside your transaction and other advisers. A well-supported decision to wait is useful too.
A startup makes commitments to customers, investors and employees before it has much financial history. An established company entering a new market faces unfamiliar conditions too. I help connect those promises to funding, information and responsibility inside the operation. In a director or audit-chair role, I question the assumptions and follow progress; management runs the business.