Short field notes and tools you can use in your own business, whether or not you ever hire us.
Margin rarely disappears in one big decision. It leaks a few points at a time, quote by quote.
Look for: the same item priced differently for similar customers; discounts that grow with the size of the relationship, not the order; cost increases passed on to some customers and not others; small orders priced like large ones; and quotes that cannot be traced back to a cost.
Any two of these usually mean a structured pricing review will pay for itself within months.
A single rule, such as "hold eight weeks of everything", treats a fast-moving, low-value item the same as a slow, expensive one. The result is too much of what rarely sells and not enough of what does.
Classifying each item by value and by how often it is demanded, then setting a policy for each group, typically frees cash and improves availability at the same time.
The analysis is no longer hard. With modern tools it can run across tens of thousands of items in days.
The best first uses of AI are not the most exciting ones. They are the repetitive, skilled tasks that slow the business down: reading enquiries, building quotes, checking orders against what was agreed, assembling reports.
Start where skilled people spend hours re-typing or re-checking, keep a person approving every output, and measure the hours returned.
Get that right, and the case for the next tool writes itself.
Practical tools drawn from our methods. Join the list and we will send each one as it is released.
A one-page test for where margin is leaking in your quoting and pricing process.
How much of a material, freight or tariff increase you need to recover, and how fast.
A template for classifying items by value and demand, and setting a stock policy for each group.
What a small order really costs to serve, and where to set a minimum without losing key customers.
A one-page view linking goals, priorities, measures and owners, with a monthly tracking sheet.
A simple way to rank AI opportunities by hours saved, risk and ease of build.
Each field note maps to a fixed-fee diagnostic. Start with a 30-minute conversation.
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