From daily cash worry to a plan the bank backed
An owner-led company that builds to order checked cash every day. The problem was not in the cash but in the pricing: cost plus, with not all costs included. I spent 22 hours on four workshops and two bank meetings, and the bank extended the overdraft.
The situation
Every project is unique and has its own cost base.
When I started working with the owner in March 2026, the company had closed 2025 with revenue of about 6 million DKK and a profit before tax of about 400.000 DKK. Cash was checked every day, and the overdraft was what held each month together.
The work started in March 2026, before Alfen existed. I delivered it personally. The case is anonymised and used with the client's approval.
What I did
When cash pressure is really a pricing problem
It looked like a cash problem. It was not. Prices were set cost plus, but not all costs were in the calculation. Projects that looked profitable earned less than assumed, and growth made the squeeze worse, not better.
So the question was not how to make the cash balance bigger, but what a project must earn before you say yes to it. That is a question about decision support and project economics.
When a cost plus calculation leaves costs out
Over four workshops, the owner and I mapped the full cost of each project type and set the margin each type has to reach. The model is still cost plus. The difference is that every cost is now in it, so the owner knows before quoting what a project must earn.
Then came two meetings with the bank, and they were the hardest part. The owner and I could see that the business underneath was healthy, and that it would be a shame to stop because of a short-term cash constraint. I led the communication and took the bank through the plan, so they could see what the owner and I saw.
What changed
The owner did the hard work. Prices were changed and sales carried on with no noticeable effect. The bank extended the overdraft.
Where the company stands in October 2026, according to the owner: the overdraft is still there, but the company is ahead of its plan for reducing it and can prepay vendors. Revenue is growing 25 to 30 percent this year, and the forecast is a profit before tax of about 1 million DKK, up from 400.000 DKK in 2025. The plan for 2027 is about 25 percent growth and 2 million DKK in profit before tax. That last figure is a target, not a result.
In total, I spent 22 hours across the workshops and the bank meetings, from March to October 2026.
What the owner has in hand now
The owner knows before quoting what a project must earn, and has a plan for reducing the overdraft.
Martin Sørensen, Alfen Consulting
Do you have the same question about your prices or your overdraft? Book a meeting.