Business Model Diagnostic
Find the main bottleneck in your business, clarify your numbers, and decide on your next practical steps.
You can have a busy business, a capable team and plenty of demand and still find that the income, workload or owner role does not look the way you expected.
When that happens, it can be difficult to know where to start.
The issue might be in pricing, capacity, utilisation, costs, team structure, leadership or the way the business model fits together.
The Business Model Diagnostic is a focused, one-time review for established service business owners who want to understand what’s getting in the way before committing time or money to another change.
If you're not sure whether the Diagnostic is the right starting point:
Many service businesses grow by evolution rather than design
A business usually grows one decision at a time.
You hire another person, add a service, buy equipment, extend the opening hours, move into larger premises or take an opportunity that makes sense at the time.
Over several years, those decisions shape your business model.
The question is, "Does that model still makes sense for the business you’re growing into next?"
It’s especially true when the business is busy but the commercial result feels disappointing, or when you have built a capable team but too much of the day-to-day decisions depend on you.
Is the business model working for the owner as well as the business?
Revenue is only one part of the answer.
The model also needs to make sense in relation to:
- the income you want the business to produce
- the day-to-day role you want to play
- the hours you want to work
- the team structure of the team you want to lead
- the actual capacity you have available
- the level of complexity you are prepared to manage
- where you ultimately want to take the business
Your numbers, your workload, and your daily role all show whether the current model is working.
The Diagnostic connects these pieces to find exactly which area needs your attention first.
Useful when you know something needs to change, but you’re not sure what.
The Business Model Diagnostic is designed for established service businesses with real numbers and operations to analyse
It’s usually useful when:
- The business is busy, but not producing the income or profit you expected.
- You’re doing a bit of everything and are unsure what deserves your attention.
- Too much of the daily operation still depends on you.
- You are considering another hire, or changing your team structure.
- You are thinking about expanding, consolidating, or moving premises.
- You are considering changing prices or service mix.
- You have unused capacity, but don’t know why it isn’t filling.
- You want to reduce your own billable hours without losing revenue.
- You’re weighing up a significant business decision and want to test the numbers first.
- You want a clearer 90-day priority list before committing time or money.
This process works best when you have an established business, real numbers, and real operating decisions to examine. If you’re starting a business from scratch, this is not the right place to begin.
Find the bottleneck before choosing the solution.
When several things feel off at once, it is easy to try to fix everything at the same time. This creates a lot of activity without solving the actual problem.
- A pricing issue can look like a capacity problem.
- A utilisation problem can look like a recruitment problem.
- A structural issue can look like a team performance problem.
- An owner carrying too much can mistake a business model flaw for poor time management.
The Diagnostic separates these issues so you can identify the single constraint that deserves your attention now.
Once you know that, the next decision is much easier to make.
A clear path from analysis to a 90-day priority map.
01 - ANALYSE
Business Analysis & Healthcheck
Before we meet, you complete a structured Business Analysis and Healthcheck.
This covers:
- your team capacity
- pricing
- utilisation
- service mix, and
- operating rhythm.
I review your data beforehand so we don't waste time reconstructing basic context during our session.
This allows us to focus entirely on testing assumptions and working through the decisions that matter.
02 - DIAGNOSE
90 Minute Diagnostic Session
We spend 90 minutes looking at the business model you have today against the business you actually want to run. We focus on your numbers and your operational reality, rather than generic business advice.
Depending on your situation, we may look at:
- the relationship between your business direction and your ideal role
- your actual capacity and current utilisation
- individual team member billings
- average transaction value
- your pricing structure and service mix
- the balance between billing staff and support staff
- your own working and billable hours
- your overheads and profit margins
By the end of the session, we will have a clear view of your primary constraint and where you should focus next.
03 - PRIORITISE
Written Summary & 90-Day Priority Map
After our session, I send you a concise written summary and a 90-Day Priority Map. This condenses our discussion into a few practical decisions you can act on.
You will leave with:
- a clear breakdown of how your current business model is performing
- the primary bottleneck that needs your attention first
- your next practical move … and what can wait for now
- one clear priority for the next 90 days
- my recommendation on what should happen next, if anything
Rather than a lengthy business plan that sits in a drawer, you’ll get to know what to focus on over the next quarter.
"Jono has given me a lot of guidance, and I’m very grateful for it. After working through the current challenges in the practice, I came away knowing what I needed to focus on next and with a clear plan for the next three months."
Helen Claybourn
Inspire Podiatry, Brisbane
Your numbers and your business structure must tell the same story.
A profit and loss statement shows the financial result. But to understand why you are getting that result, you have to look at how the business is actually running.
We look at how these key areas interact:
- Capacity: How much actual service capacity exists across your locations, calendars, and team?
- Utilisation: How much of that capacity is productively used and billed?
- Value: What is the business earning for the work it delivers?
- Team Structure: Does the mix of billing staff and support staff make commercial sense?
- Owner Role: How much of the business still relies on your personal billings or daily intervention?
- Costs and Profit: Does the model leave a healthy margin after the work is delivered and the overheads are paid?
These parts affect each other. Changing your pricing, adding people, taking on more space or reducing your own billable hours can change the economics of the whole business.
Where useful, we model those changes using the Ideal Business Scenario Builder before you commit to them.
It can’t predict the future, but it can show whether the assumptions and numbers behind a decision make sense for the business you are trying to build.
To get the most out of your Business Model Diagnostic, we both have responsibilities.
What You Bring
You complete the Business Analysis and Healthcheck and share the financial data we need to understand your current model. You also bring clarity about what you want from the business: your ideal income, workload, and role.
What I Bring
I review your data before we meet, identify the bottlenecks that deserve attention, and challenge your assumptions where helpful. This means we spend our session interpreting the business rather than trying to reconstruct the facts from memory
The Business Model Diagnostic includes:
- Business Analysis and Healthcheck review
- 90-minute diagnostic working session
- concise written summary
- 90-Day Priority Map
- Ideal Business Scenario Builder
- recommendation on the most useful next step
This is a standalone engagement. If the Diagnostic gives you the clarity to go make the changes yourself, that is an excellent outcome.
INVESTMENT
$800 + GST
If you're not sure whether the Diagnostic is the right starting point:
Our next step depends on what we find.
Often, the best move is simply to implement the plan yourself.
Sometimes, the Diagnostic shows that you need ongoing leadership support (Leadership Rhythm Advisory) or focused work with your team (Team Recalibration).
If we agree to start either of those engagements within 30 days, $500 of your Diagnostic fee is credited toward the next phase. This reflects the fact that we have already done the initial analysis.
There is no obligation to do further work together.
Practical questions about the Business Model Diagnostic
Do I need to know what the problem is before we start?
No. You might just feel that your business is busy, but your income, schedule, or momentum are off. Working out what the bottleneck is … whether in pricing, capacity, structure, or leadership … is exactly what we do during the Diagnostic.
What do I need to prepare?
You will complete the structured Business Analysis and Healthcheck before our session. This gives us concrete operating data to start with, rather than relying on guesswork or memory.
Can the Diagnostic help with one specific decision?
Yes. It is highly useful when you are deciding whether to hire, take on a new lease, change your pricing, or reduce your own billable hours. We can test the financial impact on paper before you make the commitment.
If you’re not sure what your business needs next, this is the best place to start.
We’ll begin with a short conversation about where your business is today and what you want to change. If the Diagnostic makes sense, we can set it up.
If your situation is already clear and the review won't add value, I’ll tell you.
If you're not sure whether the Diagnostic is the right starting point: