A clear, outside read on where your business actually stands, and what to fix first

What you get for $2,500

It is a proper diagnostic run by me personally. It is not a questionnaire but a real conversation about what is working, what is not, and what you have stopped looking at because you have been too busy.

1. A deep-dive discovery session

   I go through the business with you rather than around you, in person or online.

2. An owner interview

   Where you actually want this company to go: your goals, your timeline, and what you want your own role to look like when you get there.

3. Your Business Health Report Card

   All eight fundamentals, each with a Performance Index, a score, specific observations and a plain statement of what the gap is costing you. You can see at a glance where the business is strong and where it is exposed.

4. Your Roadmap

   The major moves from where you are to where you want to be, in the order they need to happen. If you continue with me, I develop it into the detailed Master Plan we work from inside the Master Plan Program.

5. A walkthrough session

   Then we sit down and I walk you through it. That is how the report reaches you: in the room with me, not as a PDF by email.

6. A Next Step Recommendation

   Which of the gaps to close first, in what order, and what it realistically takes. At the end of the session I tell you which path I would recommend.

If you continue, it costs you nothing.

There is no obligation to continue, and the Report Card and Roadmap are yours either way. The credit terms are set out in the fee section.

A walkthrough session, not a PDF by email

Your Report Card and Roadmap are delivered in a session, not as a PDF by email. We sit down together, in person in Vancouver or online, and I walk you through what I found, why each gap matters and the order to close them in. You can question anything as we go.

By the end you will want to know what I would do in your position, and I tell you. Then it is your call: run the plan yourself, bring me in on the parts that matter most, or hand me the whole plan.

Most owners do not have a performance problem. They have a visibility problem.

You know something needs to change. The hard part is knowing which thing, and in what order. Most owners are working on whatever hurt most last week. That is not a strategy, it is triage, and it is why year three looks a lot like year two.

You have built something real. But somewhere along the way the business got complicated enough that you stopped being able to see all of it at once, and it is hard to fix what you cannot see. You may recognise one of these.

• Your revenue is fine, but you cannot say with confidence which parts of the business are actually carrying it.
• Growth has flattened and you cannot put your finger on why.
• You are working more hours than the business should need from you, and it is not getting better.
• You know there are bottlenecks in how the work gets done, but they are buried in day to day delivery.
• Someone has told you the business is not ready to sell, and you are not sure what that would take. If a sale is the plan, see the Exit Readiness Assessment.

An outside read on all eight areas at once tends to surface the answer quickly. Usually it is not where the owner expected.

Which stage is your business in?

Most businesses sit in one of four stages: Startup, Stressed, Steady or Self-sustaining. Between Stressed and Self-sustaining there is a gap most owners never cross. They stay stuck running a business that depends entirely on them, working harder every year for the same result.

Part of what the Health Check tells you is which stage you are actually in, and what specifically is holding you there. That answer is different for every business, and it is almost never the thing the owner assumed. The four stages are described in full on the Self-Sustaining Business Program page.

The eight fundamentals I score

Every business runs on the same eight things. When one of them is weak, the owner usually feels it somewhere else entirely, which is why the problem stays hidden for so long. The Health Check scores each one and shows you how they are affecting each other. This is what I look at in each.

1. Mindset

   Whether you see the business as an asset or a job, and whether you are working in it or on it. Whether you have had the awakening that your company should be able to exist without you, and whether there is a growth mindset toward continuous improvement.

2. Vision

   Whether you have clarity on your own life's purpose. Whether your values, vision and mission are defined and your team knows them, and whether your core purpose and core focus are clear enough to make decisions against.

3. Marketing

   Whether there is a marketing strategy with defined uniques, a named target market, a proven process and a guarantee. Whether there is a ten-year target, a five-year picture and a one-year plan, or growth is being left to referrals and luck.

4. People

   Whether you hire against a clear vision and values. Whether the right people are in the right seats, meaning they get it, want it and have the capacity for it. Whether there are current and future accountability charts, and what you are still doing that should have been delegated.

5. Finances & Metrics

   Whether the business is run on numbers or on emotion, subjective judgement and intangibles. Whether there is a scorecard, whether the measures are meaningful for your priorities, and whether every person on the team has a number they own.

6. Issues

   Whether there is a repeatable way to solve issues quickly and accurately, or the same problems keep resurfacing. Whether tasks are managed through weekly to-dos or held in your head.

7. Process

   Whether core processes are documented for each department. Whether systems deliver quality control, or quality still depends on you inspecting the work, and whether policies and procedures exist at a level that would genuinely let you step away.

8. Goals

   Whether your vision has been turned into yearly, quarterly and weekly goals that are set and reviewed. This is the component that produces the results.

These are the same eight the free Business Scorecard scores and the Self-Sustaining Business Program builds. The scorecard shows you where you are weak, the Health Check examines it properly, and the program builds it.

What the report looks like

This is the layout of the Business Health Check Report, built from the template I use for every report. It is a sample and it is redacted: names and scores are blanked, and the observations are left as placeholders, so nothing below is a real client's result. It shows what each part of the report is for.

A full report also covers where you told me you want to go and the gap between there and here. The recommendation, the three ways to carry out the Roadmap and your next step are not in the document. We cover them in the room.

How it works

1. Book your Health Check

   A short call first, to make sure this is the right fit for where your business is.

2. The deep dive

   I go through the business with you and interview you as the owner. In person in Vancouver, or online, for owners anywhere.

3. Your walkthrough session

   I walk you through your Report Card and your Roadmap: your performance across all eight fundamentals, and the major steps from where you are to where you are going.

4. Decide how you move

   Run the plan yourself, or bring me in to advise you through it or drive it with you. If you continue, your one month for the credit runs from the day you receive your Roadmap.

Who this is for, and who it is not for

The starting point for working with Eric

Most owners know something is not working, and fewer can say exactly what. The Business Health Check is where working with me starts. The free scorecard comes before it, and whatever you choose after it is easier to choose once you can see the business clearly.

1. The free Business Scorecard

   Eight minutes, free, with a score on each of the eight components and a written interpretation of your results. It is your own answers, scored, so it is the quickest first read. No sales call is required. Take the free scorecard.

2. The Business Health Check

   The outside read. I go through the business with you, interview you as the owner and walk you through what I found. This is where a first read becomes a plan.

3. Your choice from there

   Run the Roadmap yourself, bring me in on the parts that matter most, or hand me the whole plan through the Master Plan Program. The Health Check also tells us both whether the Self-Sustaining Business Program is the right next step.

Planning to sell? That is a different assessment

The Exit Readiness Assessment reads the same eight components for a different owner asking a different question, so the two are not combined. The Business Health Check asks where your business stands and what to fix first. The Exit Readiness Assessment asks what is suppressing your sale value and what it is worth to fix.

Why Eric Lee

• More than 25 years in businessI was an award-winning home and interior designer before that.
• I have built and run companies myselfI have not only advised them.
• Based in Vancouver, and online for owners anywhereI work with you in person in Vancouver, or online wherever you are.
• I tell you what I actually seeThat means telling you what is true, not what is comfortable to hear.

More about Eric Lee

What owners say

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$2,500, credited if you continue

The Business Health Check is $2,500, one time. It includes the deep-dive session, the owner interview, your Business Health Report Card with Performance Index, your high-level Roadmap, the walkthrough session and my Next Step Recommendation.

If you continue, it costs you nothing.

Join the Master Plan Program within one month of receiving your Roadmap and the full $2,500 is credited against your first monthly payment.

The one month runs from the day you receive your Roadmap, not from the day you pay, so the clock is something you can plan around. If you decide not to continue, there is no obligation. The Report Card and Roadmap are yours either way, and plenty of owners take the Roadmap and run it themselves.

Prefer to go straight to the calendar? Pick a time here.

Questions owners ask