Have you done this for a business like mine?
Almost certainly, though probably not for the reason you’re asking. What makes a business hard to help isn’t its industry. It’s the shape of its day.
A restaurant and a plumber have nothing in common on paper, and much the same problem in practice: the hours when the phone rings are the hours nobody can pick it up. A solicitor and an estate agent both live or die on how fast they reply to something. Once you know the shape, the trade is detail.
Below are the shapes, written out properly. If yours isn’t one of them, that isn’t a problem — it just means yours hasn’t been written up yet.
Examples, not a menu
Find the one whose day looks like yours.
Restaurants and food service
I run a restaurant. What would this look like?
The phone rings hardest during service, and a table nobody booked at eight can't be sold at eleven.
Trades and home services
I'm on site all day. What would this look like?
You can't answer with both hands under a sink, and the quoting happens after the last job of the day.
Professional services
I run a firm. What would this look like?
An enquiry worth thousands arrives while you're with a client, and it has about an hour before somebody else takes it.
Shops and e-commerce
I sell things. What would this look like?
Most full baskets never become orders, and what sold over the counter this morning is often still for sale online.
Healthcare practices and groups
I run a practice. What would this look like?
An empty chair at three o'clock is gone for good, and the patients due back are the ones nobody has time to ring.
Property and lettings
I run a property business. What would this look like?
A new listing brings every enquiry it will ever get in one afternoon, and lettings runs on dates that turn into fines.
Schools, colleges and training
I run a school. What would this look like?
Six weeks decide the year, every enquiry in them arrives while you're teaching, and two people are reading who want opposite things.
Multi-site and franchise operators
I run several sites. How do I keep them consistent?
Six copies of one business drift apart in eighteen months, and the location that has gone quiet is the one nothing will tell you about.
Hotels and hospitality
I run a hotel. What would this look like?
The second stay is the one worth owning, and the desk is staffed -- which is exactly why nobody notices the enquiries going unanswered.
Software and technology
I run a software company. What would this look like?
You could build all of it, which is the problem -- it gets done on a Sunday instead of the product getting shipped.
What if mine isn’t there?
Then you’re in the majority, and it changes nothing. I take on whatever a business needs building. Six pages is what I’ve had time to write up, not the extent of what I work on.
The six above exist because their days are so unlike each other. A restaurant’s problem is ninety minutes long. A solicitor’s lasts about an hour. A clinic’s happened eight months ago and nobody followed it up. Reading one that isn’t yours is still worth doing, because you’ll recognise the shape even when the trade is wrong.
And if none of them fit, tell me how your Tuesday actually goes. That’s the conversation either way.
Your trade doesn’t change what the audit tells you.
It reads your site, not your sector. Free, and whatever it finds is yours.