Leak Stoppers isn't a business I walked into cold. Before The Margin Lab existed, the operational groundwork was built firsthand as their operations manager. I moved bookings off a whiteboard and into ServiceM8, introducing data tracking, success-rate reporting and financial modelling where there'd been none previously. This doesn't show up on an org chart, although it demonstrates the difference between advising a business and having actually run its Monday morning.
Leak Stoppers has since re-engaged me directly, this time for a different kind of question. Not "how do we run better," but "where do we grow, and can the numbers justify it."
The brief: three markets, one growth budget
The business is weighing expansion into South-East Queensland, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Three genuinely different markets, three different cost structures, three different regulatory and competitive pictures, but one finite amount of capital and attention to put behind whichever gets chosen.
That's not a pricing-review problem or a supplier-cost problem. It's a forward-looking modelling problem. The question(s) may be simple enough, “what is the cost of entry?”, “what's the realistic revenue ramp?”, and “which one clears the bar first?”. Answering these properly means predictive financial modelling built around each market's specific assumptions, not a single spreadsheet with three columns changed.
Why this is a return engagement, not a referral
The first Leak Stoppers engagement was hands-on. As Operations Manager, the goal was to get the systems and the reporting in place so the business could see itself clearly. This recent engagement only became necessary for two reasons. Nathan, Leak Stoppers MD, has built a unique business model, which he and I had earlier laid the groundwork to be in this position. You can't model an expansion decision credibly on a business that doesn't yet have clean success-rate and financial data to build the model from.
That sequencing is important in this context, because it's what (should) shape most growth decisions. But… without fully understanding the current financial picture of a business line-by-line, or, having all operational black holes filled in, any type of strategic modelling is just a fickle idea, prone to proverbially being blown over in a slight breeze.
“Before Matt, our bookings ran off a whiteboard. Across two stints as our Operations Manager, he moved us onto an automated service and booking platform ServiceM8. For the first time we could actually see and track our numbers, our success rates, financials, how the team was performing, not just gut feel. He also built out our onboarding so new team members weren’t just thrown in. Years later, when we needed to work out whether expanding into SE Queensland, Abu Dhabi and Dubai were real opportunities or just ideas, he was the first call.”
