Fit and baseline assessment: find out before you sign

What the assessment is

It's a structured review of your recent numbers and processes, ending in a plain answer: yes, not yet, or no. It isn't a sales pitch dressed up as a review. Its job is to stop a bad partnership before it starts.

The assessment produces three things:

• a fit decision, with reasons
• a draft baseline drawn from your own records
• a short list of gaps that would need fixing before or during a partnership

If the answer is yes and a place is open, the baseline becomes part of the written terms for the Growth Partner Program.

Who it's for

Any established Ontario business owner who is curious whether pay-for-results could work for them. It is especially useful if:

• you've paid agencies or consultants before and couldn't tell whether it worked
• you have a decent sales record but no idea which marketing produced it
• you're growing and want to know what's holding the next stage back
• you want an outside view before committing to any growth spending

It isn't for businesses that are pre-revenue or still testing an idea. A start-up needs validation work first, which the fixed-fee consulting options can cover.

What's included

A look at the numbers, the sources and the sales process, in that order. Specifically:

1. Sales and customer counts for a recent period, ideally a full year so seasonal swings are visible.
2. Value per customer or job, with an honest view of gross margin.
3. Where customers come from, including referrals, repeat business, search, ads and walk-ins.
4. Enquiry handling: how calls, texts and emails are answered and how fast.
5. Capacity: how much more work your team could take on without hiring.
6. What can be tracked today, and what would need setting up.

For an Ontario business with seasonal demand, step 1 matters most. A snow-clearing operation in Barrie, a patio-season restaurant group in Niagara and a tax-season bookkeeping firm in Ottawa all have different peaks. A baseline that ignores that will be unfair to one side or the other.

Timeline

Usually a short engagement, set mainly by how quickly your records can be pulled together. The first conversation can happen within days. The rest depends on how easy your numbers are to export and whether a second conversation is needed to fill gaps.

We'd rather take an extra week and get the baseline right than rush it. Every later argument in a performance deal traces back to this step.

How the outcome is measured

By whether you leave with a clear decision and a starting point you both accept. That's the only result that matters here. A "not yet" with a concrete list of fixes is a good outcome; a "yes" built on shaky numbers is not.

If gaps in tracking are the main issue, the next step is usually the results measurement setup.

Mistakes owners make before an assessment

The common ones are about presenting the numbers, not the numbers themselves.

• Polishing the figures. An optimistic baseline makes later results look smaller, which works against you.
• Leaving out referrals. If half your work comes from word of mouth, that belongs in the baseline.
• Forgetting capacity. Saying yes to growth you can't staff is a trap.
• Mixing one-off sales with recurring ones. A single large contract can distort a whole year.
• Guessing the margin. Use last year's financial statements, not a figure from memory.

The guide on the numbers a growth partner needs explains how to prepare. When you're ready, call or text (604) 632-4959 or email Ali@Sedighi.ca, or see the contact page for what to include.