Run the business on numbers, not nerves.
Most owners feel their finances more than they see them — a checking-account balance and a knot in the stomach. We build the clean monthly picture, the honest margins, and the cash discipline that turn anxiety into decisions.
Profit on paper, panic in the account
The P&L says you made money; the bank account disagrees. Jobs get priced off habit, the busiest service line earns the least, and risk lives wherever nobody looked — an uninsured gap, a single dominant customer, a personal guarantee long forgotten.
We make the numbers tell the truth: margin by job, service, and customer; a thirteen-week cash view; pricing with intent; and the short list of risks that could actually hurt you, each with a mitigation that fits a real budget.
AI now belongs on that risk list. Firms that cut staff on optimistic AI assumptions have watched the savings fail to materialize, and 65% can't even trace the productivity gains they claim (EY, 2025). A 2026 Cornell SC Johnson study stresses that AI touching any money decision must be governed — defensible, auditable, kept under human review. We treat AI like any financial control: prove the number before you bet on it.
What changes
Monthly numbers you trust by the 10th; prices set with intent; cash predictable enough to plan hires and equipment.
How we track it
Gross margin by line, days-to-close the books, 13-week cash forecast accuracy, concentration and coverage ratios.
Where it shows up
Money recovered from mispriced work; borrowing on your terms because the bank sees order; an owner who sleeps before payroll week.
Four disciplines, one calm owner
Visibility
A monthly close that lands on time and a one-page scorecard the owner actually reads — margin, cash, pipeline, and the two numbers unique to your business.
Pricing
Cost reality plus market position, applied job by job. The goal isn't raising every price; it's knowing which work deserves you.
Cash
Thirteen weeks forward, every week. Collections tightened, payment terms negotiated, the line of credit used as a tool instead of a crutch.
Risk
Customer concentration, key-person exposure, insurance gaps, covenant terms — ranked by damage, mitigated by priority, reviewed yearly.
Every engagement runs the same way: conceptual agreement on objectives, measures, and value — then one proposal, three options, one fixed fee.
See how we engageAn illustrative engagement
Composite scenarios drawn from the kinds of situations we work on. Details altered; client identities not used.
- Objective
- End the quarterly cash crunch despite growing revenue and a 'profitable' P&L.
- Measures
- Days sales outstanding, gross margin by contract, 13-week forecast vs. actual, line-of-credit utilization.
- Value
- Two underpriced contracts renegotiated, collections pulled forward, and the first year in three without a covenant conversation.
Illustrative composites for explanation of method — not statements of past performance, and not a guarantee of results.
Grounded in peer-reviewed research
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Across 732 firms, structured management practices — monitoring, targets, incentives — correlate strongly with productivity, profitability, and survival.
Bloom & Van Reenen (2007) — “Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(4). doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2007.122.4.1351
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A randomized trial with SMEs: subsidized access to consulting improved productivity and grew employment measurably against controls.
Bruhn, Karlan & Schoar (2018) — “The Impact of Consulting Services on Small and Medium Enterprises,” Journal of Political Economy, 126(2). doi.org/10.1086/696154
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A 2026 study of finance, consulting, and technology firms finds that where AI touches financial decisions, the discipline that matters is governance — human-in-the-loop review and auditable, defensible outputs — not raw speed.
Doucette, Gaur, Dixit, Gao & Koo (2026) — “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on MBA Hiring, Skills Expectations, and Business School Curriculum,” Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Research informs our methods. Findings describe study populations — not a promise of results for any engagement.
Stephen Velasquez
Founder-owner of ZipHealthy for ten years — profitable, with no outside capital — and a former technology-product executive at Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The advice you get has been paid for with the advisor's own payroll, and stress-tested at Fortune 1 scale. Every engagement is led personally, start to finish.
Asked by owners, answered directly
No — we make their work decision-grade. Your bookkeeper keeps the ledger, your CPA keeps you compliant; we build the management view between them: margins, pricing, cash, and risk.
Exactly this service. Concentration risk has a playbook: contractual protection, deliberate diversification targets, and a cash buffer sized to survive the worst quarter while you replace the revenue.
Yes. Lenders and buyers pay for confidence. Clean monthlies, defensible margins, and documented processes move both the answer and the price you're offered.
Real gains, hard to prove
96%
of firms report AI productivity gains — but 65% can't trace them to anything.EY, 2025
34%
have actually redesigned a process around AI — the rest stay surface-level.Deloitte, 2026
$2.9T
projected annual U.S. value from AI agents and robots by 2030.McKinsey, 2025
Industry figures as compiled in Cornell SC Johnson's 2026 review; original sources attributed inline — not promises for any engagement.
See your business clearly.
One conversation with the principal — a Cornell MBA who treats AI like any financial control: governed, measured, and proven before you bet on it. We'll show you where the real risks and margins hide, and how we'd track them. If we can't help, we'll say so.
Prefer the phone? (479) 259-1390 · 240 S Main St, Suite #270, Bentonville, AR 72712
Most of our clients come to us by referral from other Northwest Arkansas owners. If someone sent you here — tell us who, so we can thank them.