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Est. 2026
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The Practice Behind the Publication

Twelve engagements.

Twelve next steps.

Every issue of The Letter ends with a question worth answering. These are the engagements that answer them — scoped, fixed-fee, calendar-bound, with a working artifact at the end of each one.

Fixed Fees

Calendar Bound

Real Artifacts


Volume I

Operational and Financial Discipline

Issues 01–06


Issue

01

The KPI Dashboard Build

A working dashboard, wired into your data, in 30 days.

Format

30-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$7,500 Fixed

Outcome

Working KPI dashboard

You have financials. You don't have visibility. This engagement builds a connected KPI dashboard that shows revenue, margin, cash, and capacity in a single view — updated monthly without manual effort.

Best for owners who

Have a bookkeeper producing monthly financials but no real dashboard. Want to see the business at a glance without building it yourself.

Issue

02

GATEWAY

The Working Capital Diagnostic

Know exactly where your cash is going — and when it's coming back.

Format

2-week, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$5,000 Fixed

Outcome

Diagnostic memo + 13-week forecast

Revenue is growing. Cash isn't keeping up. This engagement maps your working capital cycle, identifies the drag, and delivers a 13-week cash forecast you can actually use.

Best for owners who

Are growing revenue but cash-poor. Watch the bank balance daily. Feel like the business is working against them.

Issue

03

The ERP Selection Engagement

Pick the right system without being sold the wrong one.

Format

60-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$15,000 Fixed

Outcome

Recommendation + 18-month roadmap

Your current system is the constraint. You've heard pitches for 6–18 months but can't decide. This engagement runs an independent selection process — requirements, scoring, demos, and a final recommendation with an implementation roadmap.

Best for owners who

Know their current system is a constraint. Have heard pitches for 6–18 months. Are afraid of a $300K implementation mistake.

Issue

04

Featured

The Exit Readiness Audit

Know your number before anyone else does.

Format

2–3 week, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$10,000–$15,000

Outcome

Scorecard + 18–36 month roadmap

You're 18–36 months from a transaction and someone told you to "clean up the books." This engagement tells you exactly what a buyer will find, what they'll discount, and what you should fix — in priority order.

Best for owners who

Are 18–36 months from a transaction. Have been told to "clean up the books" without being told what that means.

Issue

05

The Decision-Grade Reporting Build

Financials you actually read and act on.

Format

45-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$10,000 Fixed

Outcome

Monthly close package + reporting suite

You get monthly financials. You don't read them. This engagement rebuilds your close package into a decision-grade reporting suite — structured for owners, not accountants.

Best for owners who

Get monthly financials but don't read them. Know the numbers aren't helping them make decisions.

Issue

06

The EBITDA Defense Build

Defend your number before a buyer or lender questions it.

Format

30-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$15,000 Fixed

Outcome

Defended adjusted EBITDA bridge

Within 18 months of a transaction or debt raise, your EBITDA will be scrutinized. This engagement builds a defensible adjusted EBITDA bridge — documented, sourced, and ready for a buyer or lender's quality of earnings process.

Best for owners who

Are within 18 months of a transaction or debt raise. Have never formally defended their add-backs.

Volume II

Leadership and the Operating System

Issues 07–12


Issue

07

GATEWAY

The Owner Decision-Touch Reset

Map every decision the owner doesn't need to be making.

Format

30-day, calendar-bounded

Fee

$8,500 Fixed

Outcome

Decision map + delegation framework

Best For Owners Who

Are bottlenecks to their own business — approving too many things, too often, without a system for pushing decisions down.

Issue

08

The Cost Architecture Review

Find where the margin went. Quantify the recovery.

Format

45-day, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$12,500 fixed

Outcome

8–12 quantified opportunities

Cost structure analyzed across fixed/variable, direct/indirect, discretionary/committed dimensions, benchmarked against industry norms. Identification of 8–12 specific cost-reduction or cost-reallocation opportunities with quantified impact and implementation difficulty ratings. Includes a 90-minute review and 30 days of email support during initial implementation.

Best For Owners Who

Have grown revenue meaningfully in the last 24 months but watched margin compress. Don't have a clear answer for which costs grew with revenue and which grew without.

Issue

09

The Senior Team Architecture Build

The senior team you need. In the right order. Sixty days.

Format

60-day, calendar-bounded

Fee

$20,000 fixed

Outcome

Roles, sequence, scorecards, comp

Written role definitions for the 4–6 senior positions your business needs, in priority order. Hiring sequence with timing recommendations. Scorecards for each role. Compensation architecture — base, variable, equity-equivalent. 12-month integration plan. Includes facilitation of two senior team alignment sessions during the engagement.

Best For Owners Who

Are ready to commit to building the senior team but don't know what roles to hire in what order. Have the financial capacity for $300K–$800K in senior comp over twelve months.

Issue

10

The Decision Velocity Diagnostic

An outside read on whether your senior team is deciding — or just meeting.

Format

3-week, deliverable-bounded

Fee

$7,500 fixed

Outcome

Decision-rate diagnostic + procedural fixes

Two weeks of meeting observation, decision log capture with named-decider attribution, decision-rate analysis by meeting type, written diagnostic with the four procedural fixes applied to your specific meetings. Includes a 60-minute findings review with owner and senior team.

Best For Owners Who

Have a senior team in place who suspect the meetings aren't producing decisions, but couldn't diagnose internally because the team is the diagnostic instrument.

Issue

11

The Senior Team Meeting Rebuild

Ninety days of embedded facilitation. Measured improvement at the end.

Format

90-day, calendar-bounded

Fee

$15,000 fixed

Outcome

Charter set + internalized architecture

The 90-day plan executed: Week 1 audit, Week 2 architect, Weeks 3–4 announce, Weeks 5–8 run with embedded facilitation, Weeks 9–12 refine, Day 90 re-audit. Final deliverable is a written charter set for each meeting and a senior team that has internalized the new architecture rather than tolerated it.

Best For Owners Who

Have confirmed (via Issue 10 or independently) that meetings aren't producing decisions. Have a senior team in place to make the rebuild meaningful.

Issue

12

Featured

The Annual Planning Facilitation

An annual session. Four quarterly reviews. The rhythm that compounds.

Format

12-month engagement, renewable

Fee

$25,000 annually

Outcome

The operating system, run for you

Pre-work, facilitated 2-day annual session, four facilitated quarterly reviews, year-end retrospective. The plan and review templates become your intellectual property at engagement end. If you choose not to renew, your senior team has the architecture to run the rhythm on their own. Most clients renew — the value of an outside facilitator compounds across years rather than running out at twelve months.

Best For Owners Who

Have a senior team and recognize that planning rhythm only compounds when it runs continuously. Want the operating system, not just the plan.

Twelve engagements. One scrollable view.

For owners who want to see the whole architecture before reading any single piece.

Engagement

Format

Fee

Outcome

01

The KPI Dashboard Build

30-day, deliverable-bounded

$7,500

Working KPI dashboard

02

The Working Capital Diagnostic

2-week, deliverable-bounded

$5,000

Diagnostic memo + 13-week forecast

03

The ERP Selection Engagement

60-day, deliverable-bounded

$15,000

Recommendation + 18-month roadmap

04

The Exit Readiness Audit

2-3 week, deliverable-bounded

$10–15k

Scorecard + 18-36 month roadmap

05

The Decision-Grade Reporting Build

45-day, deliverable-bounded

$10,000

Monthly close package + reporting suite

06

The EBITDA Defense Build

30-day, deliverable-bounded

$15,000

Defended adjusted EBITDA bridge

07

The Owner Decision-Touch Reset

30-day, calendar-bounded

$8,500

Decision map + delegation framework

08

The Cost Architecture Review

45-day, deliverable-bounded

$12,500

Cost architecture map + margin recovery plan

09

The Senior Team Architecture Build

60-day, calendar-bounded

$20,000

Senior team org design + role clarity

10

The Decision Velocity Diagnostic

3-week, deliverable-bounded

$7,500

Decision audit + velocity scorecard

11

The Senior Team Meeting Rebuild

90-day, calendar-bounded

$15,000

Rebuilt meeting cadence + operating rhythm

12

The Annual Planning Facilitation

12-month, renewable

$25,000/yr

Annual plan + quarterly rhythm system

Three commitments, without exception.

I.

Fixed fees, calendar bound

Every engagement has a fixed fee and fixed end date. No retainers that drift.

II.

A real artifact at the end

Every engagement produces a tangible deliverable your business did not have before.

III.

Graduating clients, not retained ones

The best outcome is that your team can run the work without you afterward.

“The Letter is the publication. The engagements are how the practice runs in private. They’re the same work, told differently for different moments in an owner’s decision.”

Sean McCormick • Founder, Drystone Finance

Read first. Engage when ready.

The letter is free. The engagements begin with a conversation.

The Trades CFO Letter

MONTHLY · FOR $5M–$50M OWNERS

A monthly publication for founder-led businesses in the trades, manufacturing, distribution, and construction. Drawn from real engagement experience.

PUBLISHED FROM NEW ORLEANS & ATLANTA

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