The H.E.L.P Desk: Your Questions. Straight-Talking Answers. No Jargon, Just Clarity

By Sarah Radley & Martine Catton

Welcome to The H.E.LP. Desk, a new regular column in The Female CEO where we tackle the real, messy, sometimes sleepless-night questions that come with building and running a business. Think of this as your agony aunt with a balance sheet, a space where no question is too basic, too sensitive, or too complicated. Every issue, we take on the challenges you send us and give you honest, practical answers rooted in real-world experience. Whether you're navigating growth, leadership, cash, or the moments where it all feels like too much, we are here for you. Send us your questions, and let's get to work.

Q: My business is turning over more than ever, but I constantly feel under financial pressure. Why isn’t the success showing up in the bank - and what am I doing wrong?

First, take a breath, you’re not doing anything ‘wrong’. What you’re describing is one of the most common and most misunderstood growing pains in business. Turnover is a vanity number. Would you rather turnover £1,000,000 and make £50,000 or turnover £600,000 and make £150,000? The profit is the sanity, and that’s what’s left after everything else, and you need to understand where that money is right now.

Start with your invoices. If your revenue is growing but your cash isn’t, there’s a strong chance your money is sitting in unpaid customer invoices. This is called a debtor problem, and it is extraordinarily common. Look at your debtor days; that’s the average time it takes your customers to pay you. If it’s crept above 30 or 45 days, that’s cash your business has earned but hasn’t yet received. Tighten your credit terms, raise and send invoices the moment work is delivered, and follow up systematically, not apologetically. Chasing payment for work you’ve done isn’t awkward; it’s essential, and a sale is not a sale until the money is in the bank. Remember, the customer who gave you the work is unlikely to be the person in accounts paying your bill.  As you grow your business, you may find that working capital, even with the best of credit management processes, is stretched. This might be the time to look at the many growth funding options available to you.

Then look at your margins - both of them. Your gross margin tells you how much you’re making after the direct cost of delivering your product or service. Your net margin tells you what’s actually left after everything, overheads, salaries, software, the lot – this is your profit. Many businesses watch turnover climb while margins quietly erode, costs creep up, pricing hasn’t kept pace, or scope has expanded without the fees to match. Review the numbers honestly and critically. When did you last increase your prices to counteract your increasing cost base? If your gross margin looks healthy but your net margin has shrunk, your overhead base has grown faster than your profitability. That’s the real story, and it’s a fixable one, once you can see it clearly.

More revenue with less cash often means the business is growing into its own problems. The right answer isn’t always to grow faster, sometimes it’s you just have to tighten the internal plumbing of the business. The key to all of this, however, is giving yourself time to do the analysis and understand the outcome.

Q: I’m making every decision in the business, and I’m exhausted. I know something needs to change, but I don’t know what to let go of first. How do I get unstuck without losing control?

The fact that you’re asking this question means you already know the answer is somewhere inside it: it’s not sustainable. And here’s the harder truth: the exhaustion you feel isn’t a sign that you are not capable enough. It’s a sign you haven’t yet built the structure around you that you or your business now needs.

Start small with one hour a week. Not to catch up on emails or clear your to-do list. One protected, distraction-free hour where you work on the business rather than in it. This is your strategy time, and it is non-negotiable. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that 85% of senior leaders spend less than an hour per month working on strategy, yet organisations that engage in regular strategic conversations outperform their competitors by 60%.  Step away from the noise of your phone, your team, your inbox and give yourself space to think. It sounds simple, but all too often it is the thing most founders never do.

Change your physical environment. Your office will be full of distractions. Even the best laid plans for quiet time can be derailed by “emergencies of the moment”. Working from a different location creates your much-needed bubble of solitude and allows you to focus.

Use your time to identify your three Critical Success Factors. These are the three things that, if achieved, the business wins. Not ten things. Not a priority list. Three. It’s also a great place to start, with small foundational steps that don’t overwhelm you. It’s very likely that you know what these factors are. Once you are sure, hold them up against how you currently spend your days. If what you’re doing isn’t directly connected to one of those three factors, you need to ask yourself one simple question: Does this actually need to happen at all? And if it does, does it need to be you?

Delegation isn’t the same as losing control. The founders who scale well don’t do less; they do differently. They hand over tasks with clear expectations and the right oversight in place. They lean on their networks: a peer, a mentor, a non-exec who has been where they are. You don’t have to figure out what to let go of alone, and you probably shouldn’t. The people around you often see the answer before you do. Try reframing delegation not as a loss of control but as leverage of control.

Control doesn’t come from doing everything. It comes from knowing what matters most and making sure that’s where your energy goes.

Martine Catton and Sarah Radley are founders of The Lonely Tomato Limited a boutique business consultancy created to help founders navigate the challenges of running their businesses. They work alongside SME owners to untangle complex financial and strategic problems, helping them regain clarity, control and confidence. Drawing on their own 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, they combine practical expertise with human-centred, no-nonsense advisory support to help businesses stabilise, grow and make better decisions. You can connect with The Lonely Tomato on LinkedIn and their website, http://www.lonely-tomato.com