A value-creation plan is the operating document for making your company worth more. It takes the findings of the value-driver assessment and turns them into a short list of initiatives with owners, targets and dates, starting with a tightly defined first 100 days and extending into a two-to-five-year roadmap.
The plan's job is to make value creation as routine as month-end. Without one, improvement work tends to happen in bursts when the owner has energy, and stall when the busy season arrives.
What the plan contains
Every plan we write has the same five parts, so you can read any page of it and know where you are.
- The baseline: your current scorecard and the three to five value gaps that matter most.
- The ambition: a plain statement of what the company should look like in two to five years, in numbers where possible: margin, share of recurring revenue, owner hours, management roles filled.
- The 100-day plan: three to five initiatives, each with one accountable owner, one leading metric and a date.
- The roadmap: the initiatives that follow, sequenced by year, with dependencies made explicit.
- The review rhythm: monthly check-ins on initiative metrics and a quarterly re-score of the eight drivers.
What a good 100-day initiative looks like
"Improve margins" is not an initiative. "Raise the gross margin on residential service calls from 41% to 46% by repricing the three most common call types, owned by the operations manager, measured weekly from job-costing reports" is. Illustrative figures; your targets come from your own numbers. The test is whether someone other than you could tell, on day 100, whether it worked.
Who it is for
The plan suits owners who already have, or are about to commission, an assessment and who want structure for the work that follows. It suits owner-operators who intend to keep the business as much as those who expect to sell, because the improvements are the same.
It is especially useful when there is a deadline you care about: a partner joining, a family member taking over, a refinancing, or a sale window you have in mind.
A typical sequence over five years
No two plans are alike, but the order of work tends to follow the same logic.
| Stage | Main focus | Why it comes here |
|---|---|---|
| First 100 days | Monthly close, pricing quick wins, one recurring-revenue pilot | Clean numbers are needed to measure everything else |
| Year 1 | Margin by service line, cash conversion, first management role defined | Profit and cash fund the later stages |
| Year 2 | Recurring revenue scaled, customer concentration reduced, second-layer hires | Durability takes time to show up in results |
| Year 3 | Owner steps back from daily decisions in planned steps | Management needs a year of practice before it is tested |
| Years 4–5 | Sustained results under management, records ready for scrutiny | Track record is the evidence buyers and lenders read |
A company with a sale in mind for year three would compress this; a company with no exit plans might stretch it.
What is included
- Plan workshop with you and your key managers, online by video call or in person
- The written plan and a one-page summary for your team
- Initiative charters: owner, scope, metric, target and date for each
- A simple tracking sheet built in your own tools, owned by you
- Monthly check-ins and quarterly re-score sessions on a retainer, if you choose ongoing support
How results are measured
Two levels of measurement run side by side. Each initiative has a leading metric checked monthly, such as quote-to-close rate, gross margin on a service line or renewal rate. The eight-driver scorecard is re-scored each quarter, and the total is the plan's headline measure.
We also track financial outcomes such as EBITDA and cash, but we treat them as lagging measures: they confirm the plan is working rather than tell you what to do this month. Our monthly value dashboard guide shows the numbers we would put in front of an owner.
Mistakes to avoid
- Too many initiatives. Five is the ceiling. Your best people are also running the business.
- Owners on every line. If you own every initiative, the plan is reinforcing owner dependence.
- Targets without baselines. Set the starting number before the target, or nobody can tell what changed.
- Skipping the quarterly re-score. It is the only thing that tells you whether value is actually moving.
- Announcing instead of proving. A buyer or lender trusts results held over time, not plans.
Price and how to start
Writing the plan is usually a fixed project; ongoing check-ins and reviews usually run on a monthly retainer. The ranges are on our pricing page, in Canadian dollars plus GST/HST based on your province (GST and QST in Quebec). To see how the first stage works in practice, read our guide to the first 100 days, or call or text (604) 632-4959.
Frequently asked questions
Why two to five years and not one?
Because most value drivers are judged on a track record. A buyer or lender reading your numbers wants to see an improvement held for several years, not a single strong quarter. Some drivers, like management depth, simply take that long to build.
How many initiatives should a plan have?
Three to five at any one time. Owners who try to run ten initiatives at once usually finish none, because the same few people are responsible for all of them.
What happens at a quarterly review?
We re-score the eight drivers, compare each initiative's metric with its target, and decide what to stop, continue or start. It takes about half a day and produces a one-page update.
Can the plan change after it starts?
It should. The roadmap is a sequence of intentions, and each quarterly review is a chance to change it based on what the numbers show.