This demonstrates the revised analysis engine. It is separate from the original published sample. Payment and customer delivery verification are still outstanding.
Reduce the decisions that cannot move without the owner
The answers indicate reliance on the owner or limited cover. Clear authority may be part of the solution, but confirm whether capability or owner preference also matters.
51
Practice index / 100
20 of 20 known answers. Unknown answers are excluded, not scored as poor practice. Partial assessments are not directly comparable with complete ones.
Why start here?
If work and exceptions depend on one person, additional demand may increase that person’s workload. This is a capacity and continuity issue as well as a lifestyle issue.
Your first move
Record one week of recurring owner decisions. Transfer one repeatable decision with a named person, clear authority, financial limits and escalation rules.
Build on what is working
Customers
This index describes reported practices. It is not an industry percentile, verified business rating or forecast. The report’s evidence is more useful than the score alone.
02 · Connected findings
What the answers mean together
Priority 1
Reduce the decisions that cannot move without the owner
What you told us
How clear are responsibilities and decision limits? — People have broad roles but decision limits are unclear.
How well can another person cover essential work? — All essential work has documented instructions and trained cover.
What happens if the owner is unavailable for two weeks? — The business would run with frequent calls to the owner.
What most often sends a decision back to the owner? — Staff lack agreed decision authority
Your example: The service adviser can handle bookings but asks the owner to approve routine quote variations each day.
What that suggests
The answers indicate reliance on the owner or limited cover. Clear authority may be part of the solution, but confirm whether capability or owner preference also matters.
Why this matters
If work and exceptions depend on one person, additional demand may increase that person’s workload. This is a capacity and continuity issue as well as a lifestyle issue.
What to do first
Record one week of recurring owner decisions. Transfer one repeatable decision with a named person, clear authority, financial limits and escalation rules.
Starting point: Reported owner decision and cover practices
Measure: Weekly owner hours, avoidable interruptions and decisions resolved within agreed limits.
Supported by answers and follow-up; records not independently checked
Priority 2
Find which work pays its way before pursuing more volume
What you told us
How do you establish whether your work is profitable? — We review overall profit, but not profit by job, product or service.
How do you manage demand against the capacity to deliver? — We plan workloads but key constraints are often missed.
How reliable are the costs behind your profit figure? — Owner pay or some normal costs are missing
Your example: Owner pay treatment needs checking. Job-level technician time and rework are not consistently costed.
What that suggests
Overall sales or profit does not show which jobs, products or services recover the time and costs they consume. More volume could add pressure without sufficient return.
Why this matters
A clearer view of work-level margin helps decide which work to price differently, improve or stop. It also informs whether extra demand or extra capacity is worthwhile.
What to do first
Select three common job or service types. Record price, direct costs, labour time, rework and owner involvement. Confirm owner pay and normal overheads are included appropriately before changing prices.
Starting point: Reported approach to understanding profitability
Measure: Contribution per job or service, labour time and rework; compare like-for-like work.
Supported by answers and follow-up; records not independently checked
Priority 3
Improve follow-up before increasing lead spending
What you told us
How clearly can you see future sales? — We maintain a list but do not consistently record next steps.
What happens after a worthwhile enquiry arrives? — Follow-up depends on someone remembering.
How do you decide which marketing activity to repeat? — We record enquiries but cannot reliably connect them to their source.
How do you keep track of enquiries after the first conversation? — We track each enquiry through to its outcome
Your example: Enquiries are tracked to a booking decision, but declined quotes do not receive consistent follow-up.
What that suggests
The answers describe gaps in tracking or following up enquiries. The follow-up answer helps distinguish how enquiries are recorded from how consistently they are followed through. The assessment does not estimate sales lost or the size of a conversion opportunity.
Why this matters
Tracking outcomes distinguishes insufficient demand from poor fit, delayed decisions, pricing issues or inconsistent follow-up.
What to do first
Record each worthwhile enquiry, source, quote, next action, responsible person and outcome. Follow the same enquiry group long enough to reflect the buying cycle; ask why lost customers did not proceed.
Starting point: Reported enquiry tracking and follow-up practices
Measure: Source-recording coverage, follow-up completed on time and conversion of comparable enquiry groups.
Supported by answers and follow-up; records not independently checked
Why this order?
Reported cash shortfalls come first, followed by immediate cost or cash exposure, major dependencies and delivery or owner constraints. Better financial visibility supports decisions about more demand and capacity. Sales and marketing improvements follow where the supplied evidence supports them. This is an explicit rule-based starting order, to confirm against actual deadlines and business impact; it is not a measured return-on-investment ranking.
Other areas to revisit after the first priorities
Connect marketing activity to customers worth winning
03 · Sense checks
How the answers fit together
These checks compare your assessment answers. No financial figures or financial statements were requested, and no financial results have been calculated.
No specified large gap between paired answers was detected. This is a limited consistency check, not independent verification of the business.
The report describes patterns in the practices you selected. Where a conclusion needs further confirmation, it is identified as a matter to check rather than a proven cause.
04 · Your 30/90-day plan
Turn the reading into a useful next step
Your 30-day goal
Establish margins for three common job types and define the service adviser’s decision authority.
Your 90-day goal
Reduce avoidable owner interruptions while maintaining quality; agree an owner-hours target after the first week’s time log.
Confirm how each action supports these goals before assigning it. Your goal text is preserved as supplied; it is not independently assessed or used to infer an unreported cause.
1. Reduce the decisions that cannot move without the owner
First week: Record one week of recurring owner decisions. Transfer one repeatable decision with a named person, clear authority, financial limits and escalation rules.
By day 30: Trial one transfer or cover arrangement; review quality, speed and escalations weekly.
By day 90: Test a planned absence appropriate to the business. Agree an hours target after measuring avoidable involvement.
Track: Weekly owner hours, avoidable interruptions and decisions resolved within agreed limits.
2. Find which work pays its way before pursuing more volume
First week: Select three common job or service types. Record price, direct costs, labour time, rework and owner involvement. Confirm owner pay and normal overheads are included appropriately before changing prices.
By day 30: Establish a costed baseline for the three categories and identify one evidence-supported change.
By day 90: Compare the changed work with its own baseline, including customer response and owner time.
Track: Contribution per job or service, labour time and rework; compare like-for-like work.
3. Improve follow-up before increasing lead spending
First week: Record each worthwhile enquiry, source, quote, next action, responsible person and outcome. Follow the same enquiry group long enough to reflect the buying cycle; ask why lost customers did not proceed.
By day 30: Build four weeks of records, allowing additional time for longer sales cycles.
By day 90: Compare comparable groups and the reasons for lost work before expanding acquisition spending.
Track: Source-recording coverage, follow-up completed on time and conversion of comparable enquiry groups.
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05 · Your evidence record
What this report is based on
Business: Harbour Auto & Service — fictional review example · Automotive workshop Contact: Demonstration owner · example@example.invalid
All 20 core answers
1. How clearly does the business define success for the next 12 months? We have a measurable goal, but rarely review it.
2. How does the team know which work matters most? We have a short list, but competing work often wins.
3. How do you establish whether your work is profitable? We review overall profit, but not profit by job, product or service.
4. How far ahead can you see cash commitments? We track bills and expected receipts for the next month.
5. How clearly can you see future sales? We maintain a list but do not consistently record next steps.
6. What happens after a worthwhile enquiry arrives? Follow-up depends on someone remembering.
7. How specific is your picture of a worthwhile customer? We can describe customer needs, buying triggers and where they find us.
8. How do you decide which marketing activity to repeat? We record enquiries but cannot reliably connect them to their source.
9. How do you encourage worthwhile customers to return? We have a repeatable contact or retention process suited to our buying cycle.
10. How does customer feedback change what the business does? We record recurring themes and assign improvements.
11. How consistently is work delivered to the promised standard? We use clear standards, checkpoints and ownership.
12. How do you manage demand against the capacity to deliver? We plan workloads but key constraints are often missed.
13. How clear are responsibilities and decision limits? People have broad roles but decision limits are unclear.
14. How well can another person cover essential work? All essential work has documented instructions and trained cover.
15. Where does essential operating knowledge live? In a shared place, but important information is incomplete or outdated.
16. How reliably do you review the business’s operating measures? We review some measures, but definitions or timing vary.
17. How well do you understand dependence on a few customers, suppliers or channels? We have identified dependencies and some possible alternatives.
18. What would happen after a material business interruption? We have a basic plan, but key contacts or responsibilities are missing.
19. What happens if the owner is unavailable for two weeks? The business would run with frequent calls to the owner.
20. How much control does the owner have over their working time? There is little protected time and plans are often displaced.
Follow-up answers and examples
Could the next month’s essential bills be paid if receipts were delayed? Only if expected receipts arrive Compare supplier due dates with expected customer payments.
How reliable are the costs behind your profit figure? Owner pay or some normal costs are missing Owner pay treatment needs checking. Job-level technician time and rework are not consistently costed.
How do you keep track of enquiries after the first conversation? We track each enquiry through to its outcome Enquiries are tracked to a booking decision, but declined quotes do not receive consistent follow-up.
What most often sends a decision back to the owner? Staff lack agreed decision authority The service adviser can handle bookings but asks the owner to approve routine quote variations each day.
What is the clearest current delivery pressure? No significant delivery pressure Protect standards while testing decision authority.
What evidence connects marketing to paying customers? We know enquiry sources but not customers won Source records are incomplete and need reconciliation with bookings.
How practical is your alternative if a major dependency fails? An alternative is named but untested An alternative parts supplier is identified but has not been tested.
Method and limits
questionnaire-pilot-2026-10-25. Twenty questions cover ten areas. Known answers map to practice levels 1–5. Each area averages its known levels and converts them to 0–100; the overall index averages all known answers in the same way. Unknown answers are excluded and coverage is shown. Commercial priorities use explicit answer combinations, follow-ups and cross-checks between answers, rather than simply selecting the three lowest scores.
This edition uses structured rules, not independent examination or a trained predictive model. Optional written examples are quoted as supplied; their meaning is not automatically verified. Financial figures and financial statements are not requested. Any recommendations involving your records are for your own review. No industry benchmark, causal proof, guaranteed result or market superiority is claimed. The owner review edition still requires real-business validation and end-to-end customer delivery checks before a paid release.
General business diagnostic guidance. Seek the relevant professional advice for specialist decisions.
