I find the money leaking out of your business. At least £50,000 of it, in one day.
One day inside your operation. Every leak found, documented, and priced in pounds. If I don't identify at least £50,000 in recoverable cost, wasted time, or leaked revenue, you don't pay.
No pitch deck. No presentation. If it isn't a fit, I'll tell you on the call.
Three things I hear in almost every business I walk into
"We're flat out, but we aren't making any money."
Utilisation looks healthy. Recovery doesn't. The gap between work delivered and work actually billed is where the first chunk of the money usually sits.
"I spend my time managing systems instead of growing the business."
Past £1m, most firms run on a patchwork of spreadsheets and disconnected tools. Someone is rekeying data by hand, and it is costing more than anyone has counted.
"I can't find staff who care, so I end up doing it myself."
Usually this isn't a hiring problem. It's an absence of documented process and clear accountability, and the owner absorbs every gap it creates.
Eight leaks, and what they typically cost
These are UK market benchmarks, not your numbers. On the day we replace every one of them with your actual figures. They are here to show you the size of what is usually sitting in plain sight.
Sources include CIPD replacement cost data, ONS business insights, Sage professional services benchmarks and UK practice lock-up reporting. Figures are sector averages and vary by firm.
What happens on the day
Before we start
You complete a structured intake covering revenue, margin, headcount, and how a lead becomes paid cash. It comes back 48 hours ahead so the day is spent finding money, not gathering facts.
We map the operation end to end
Six hours, remote or on-site. Every step from first enquiry through delivery to cash collected, including the parts that live in someone's head or a spreadsheet nobody else opens.
Every leak gets a number
Not "you could tighten this up." A figure, a method behind it, and a rank by return and effort. You see exactly how the total was reached.
You get a 90-day roadmap
What to fix first, what it should return, and what it takes to do it. Plus the process map, the quantified opportunity list, and the recording.
Remote £5,000. On-site anywhere in the UK £7,500, inclusive of travel. Paid in full before the day. Not VAT registered, so the price is the price.
A UK litigation firm, 90 days
The owner was working six days a week and had plateaued. We restructured how work was won, priced, and delivered, and removed the steps that were costing time without producing revenue.
I have been finding operational waste since I was nineteen
I am not a coach and I don't sell theory. My background is lean process optimisation, business analysis, and two decades of sales inside real operations, from a bank call centre to a Deloitte site to the door of a Bond Street jeweller.
I work alone, deliberately. The person who diagnoses your business is the person who delivers the day and the person who stays for the implementation. Nothing is handed to a junior.
- NatWest, aged 19. Found a process where one customer request meant three forms faxed to three departments, with staff queueing over 15 minutes at machines that kept breaking. Designed the electronic replacement. It was adopted, and I received a corporate award.
- Mitie, on site at Deloitte. Automated operational reporting that took 4 to 5 hours by hand. It ran in 23 minutes.
- Brand promotions management. Took over a team whose performance had collapsed below 10% of prior figures. Retrained them, rebuilt a relationship that had lost us a prime location, and delivered a further 34% increase once we were back.
- Boghossian, Bond Street. Selected personally by the owner to secure the store. Found no meaningful security protocol protecting millions in stock. I was offered bribes to help move it. I refused, and designed the protocol instead.
What people who have worked with me say
"Darren is a brilliant sales and business development coach. His expertise and unique approach have created excellent results - beyond my expectations! Highly recommended - 10/10."Jaz B.Co-Founder & Head of Business, KEY Sports Academy & Football Club · February 2011
"Darren is an incredible person - not only does he bring a lot of value with his marketing skills, but he's also an incredible coach and mentor. In our first session Darren managed to inspire me, show me how I can make my dreams come true in a short time with a solid plan and gave me a lot of self belief that I need. I'm on fire now."Kamil K. WawrzyszkoCo-Founder, Oriel London · November 2015
"I've known Darren for years and had the pleasure of working with him during the launch of my business Verve Rally. He is professional, talented and brings with him a wide experience including business development and NLP. We worked for a short while but I very much enjoyed having him as a part of our team. I recommend Darren and his work."Darshana UblCo-Founder & CEO, Mayfairsilk · July 2016
"In our call he was both compassionate and at the same time unyielding. His purpose, to make a beneficial difference to my life in the short time a call allows was so evident it inspired me to dig deeper for the answers to his well chosen questions."Sam DeaneFounder, The Secure Internet Guide · October 2015
These are recommendations from people who worked with me or hired me earlier in my career, reproduced as written. They speak to how I work rather than to the Profit Diagnostic, which is a newer offer. The litigation firm result above is the engagement figure I can evidence.
If I don't identify and document at least £50,000 in recoverable cost, wasted time, or leaked revenue, I refund the fee in full and you keep every deliverable.
The trigger is factual, not a matter of opinion. Either the documented number reaches £50,000 or it doesn't.
Reasonable questions
What actually happens on the 20-minute call?
I ask how a lead becomes paid cash in your business and where things stall, get redone, or get chased. From that I tell you honestly whether I can find £50,000 in a day. If I can't, I say so and we leave it there. There is no presentation and nothing to sit through.
How is this different from a consultant?
Most consulting engagements produce a strategy document and end before anything changes. The diagnostic produces figures you can act on, and I stay for the implementation if you want me to. You are also not paying for a discovery phase: the answer arrives in a day.
Isn't £50,000 a stretch for a business my size?
Above £1m turnover it is usually conservative. Unbilled work alone runs around 4.3% of revenue in professional services, and scope creep takes 15 to 25% of project margin in agencies. On a £2.5m firm either one clears the figure on its own.
Do you need access to our systems?
No. The intake questionnaire and the conversation on the day give me what I need. If you want me to look inside your systems I will, but it isn't a condition.
What happens after the day?
You have a documented map, a priced list of opportunities, and a 90-day roadmap. Many clients then bring me in for an eight-week implementation engagement to build what the roadmap specifies. That is a separate conversation and there is no obligation.
Do you work outside the UK?
Remote diagnostics work anywhere. On-site outside the UK is quoted individually.
Twenty minutes to find out whether the money is there
You will know by the end of the call whether there is £50,000 sitting in your operation, because I will tell you either way. Bring a rough sense of your turnover and headcount. Nothing else to prepare.