I had the Managing Partner of a marketing agency come to me after experiencing severe cash flow issues. The had already cut staff pay and stopped payments to partners. Vendor payments were late and key systems had been shut off several times due to nonpayment.
The first thing that I did was created a 13 week rolling cashflow forecast. I set up payment plans with key vendors allowing us to space out payments and keep them engaged. I negotiated with their bank, who was trying to convert their line of credit into a term loan. To prevent the conversion to a loan, I drafted projections and a written plan or how we were turning the business around. The saved thousands per month in payments. I streamlined some of the internal processes allowing us to more accurately track when invoices would be paid and when we would need to pay vendors. I also provided a plan to pay off $70,000 in credit card debt as well as restore the staff's pay and catch them up.
The engagement is still ongoing but with my help, the Partner group is able to free up time to go sell more work. After considering shutting the business down, they now see light at the end of the tunnel and will be poised to sell the business in 2-3 years.