How do you coach a business to make more profit?

Matthew shares how he helps clients focus on what truly drives profit and success. From understanding management accounts to reducing costs, increasing sales, and improving margins, he explains the steps he takes to uncover opportunities for growth. While profit is often at the core of his coaching, he acknowledges that some business owners may prioritise work-life balance or other goals.

With years of experience growing and developing businesses, he highlights the importance of cash flow, gross margin, and operating profit, all while emphasising the critical role of financial clarity in achieving sustainable success.

Video Transcript

Interestingly, it’s one of the things that I nearly always focus on first. It’s not always because it may not be what the business owner needs or wants. Sometimes, you come across people whose sole focus is, “How on Earth am I going to see my children?” because, at the moment, they come home, and their kids are in bed, and they leave before they’re up.

But very often, it’s about profit, because I believe, at the bottom of it all, it’s about money. We’re in business to make money. We need to make money to be able to employ good people. If we make more money, we can employ better or more really good people. If you want better software, you’ve got to make money. Ultimately, we’re here to generate free cash.

Now, profit is a theoretical concept—I’m not going to go into it now—but it’s the theory of debtors, creditors, work in progress, stock, and all the rest. Cash is really important. So, I focus a lot, first of all, on what the existing management accounts are telling us. How can we interpret those better, in order to reduce costs, increase sales, maximise margins, or whatever it is that’s going to make an overall difference?

First, to gross margin, and then secondly, to operating profit—the pre-tax profit. I take it really seriously. I’m a businessman with a number of businesses that I’ve grown and developed over the years. I’m not an accountant, but I am a businessman who takes the numbers really seriously.