Back to Business Basics: The Fundamentals of Building a Firm

Most professional services founders know these fundamentals. But in the day-to-day grind of building a business, it can be easy to forget them or let them drift.

This post is a reminder. A quick audit of the core elements that make firms successful. If you’ve got these dialed in and things are scaling nicely, great. If not, this might help you identify what needs attention.

Let’s get back to the business basics.

1. Problem(s)

What it is: The specific, painful problem(s) your firm solves and who you solve it for.

Why it matters: Everything else in your business relies on this. From service offerings to pricing to your team and expertise.

Key parts:

• Evidence the problem is urgent, pervasive, clients are willing to pay for it, and it’s in a growing market (not just your assumptions or based on confirmation bias).
  
  
• A specific ideal client profile (ICP) based on firmographic and demographic profiles, and buyer personas for psychographic profiles.
  
  
• Direct feedback from as many ICP prospects as possible against the above variables.

What founders get wrong: They assume they know the problem without testing it. They avoid prospect conversations because they think they have a perfect solution. They try solving multiple problems instead of staying focused on core expertise.

2. Pricing

What it is: Setting your prices based on the outcomes you deliver, not the hours you put in.

Why it matters: Clients want results. Your price should reflect the value of solving their problem. When you price by hours, you sell time. When you price by value, you sell outcomes.

Key parts:

• Desired outcome(s) delivered.
  
  
• Quality of the solution (better).
  
  
• Time to complete (faster).
  
  
• Effort to execute (cheaper).
  
  
• Bonus: How much $$$ would the prospect be willing to pay for you to solve their problem based on the above levers?

What founders get wrong: They price based on time, competitors, or cost +. They focus on features instead of outcomes. They can’t demonstrate how their solution helps their clients increase revenue, decrease cost, or reduce risk.

3. Positioning & Brand

What it is: Your positioning is a clear statement of who you help, what problem you solve, and why you’re the best choice. Your brand is the associations people make with you.

Why it matters: Clients want to know three things fast: Can you help? Do you understand my problem? Can I trust you to fix it?

Generalists get passed over because they seem adequate for everything but excellent at nothing. Specialists get picked because they understand the specific challenge and have solved this problem before.

Key parts:

• A clear reason why you’re uniquely qualified to help. How you’re differentiated.
  
  
• Social proof that demonstrates you’ve solved this problem before
  
  
• A reputation built on delivering high-quality results.
  
  
• Clear, short, and sweet positioning. For example:
  
  
  • “We help [ICP] get [outcome] without [pain]”
    
    Example: We help founders of professional services firms get to an exit faster without wasting years building a business that can’t sell.
    
    
  • “We deliver [outcome] for [ICP] by solving [problem] with [solution].”
    
    Example: We deliver a mastermind community for founders of professional services firms by solving the expertise gap with the boutique framework.

What founders get wrong: They think complexity is better than clarity. They don’t differentiate. They position based on what they do rather than what clients achieve. 

4. Marketing

What it is: How you make your ICP aware you exist.

Why it matters: The best offer fails if nobody knows you exist, and a terrible offer can have success if the whole world knows you exist.

There are five channels that generate the majority of leads for service firms: expansions, referrals, word of mouth, paid advertising, and outbound.

(For more details on each channel, see my post on building a repeatable system for the top 5 lead sources)

Key parts:

• Speaking to a well-defined audience (ICP).
  
  
• Being consistently relevant and always providing value.
  
  
• Establishing expertise and credibility in solving specific problems.
  
  
• Providing simple, clear next steps with a single CTA.

What founders get wrong: They bounce between channels without giving any one enough time to work. They confuse being busy with being effective. They don’t test and iterate for what works / what doesn’t. They don’t provide any value, ever.

5. Sales

What it is: The process of acquiring new clients.

Key parts:

• A simple sales funnel to track prospect advancement.

• A simple buyer journey map to understand what buyers are thinking and feeling at every step.

• A repeatable sales methodology to advance prospects through the funnel.
  
  
• Tools like a CRM, meeting recorder, and dashboards to track conversations, notes, next steps, metrics, and provide better coaching insights.
  
  
• Training around objection handling, sales frameworks, and closing techniques.

What founders get wrong: They wing every conversation and wonder why results vary wildly. They avoid building systems. They think their memory is better than using tools. They become bottlenecks because “only they can close deals.”

6. Service Delivery / Client Experience

What it is: The way you help clients get where they want to go, the way they want to get there.

Why it matters: Clients are the reason you have a business in the first place. They help you create and refine your offerings, become advocates to help you grow, and generate referrals amongst a million other things.

In doing so, clients expect you to provide a great experience while delivering the outcomes you promised.

Key parts:

• Providing a high-quality experience for the client. Put yourself in your clients’ shoes, how would you like to be treated?
  
  
• Delivering on the value / outcomes you promised. On time, on spec, on budget.
  
  
• Clear, timely communication.
  
  
• Building Voice of the Client programs (VoC). (For more detail on building a VoC program, read my post on why your firm needs a Voice of the Client program).

What founders get wrong: They don’t deliver on time, on spec, on budget. They treat clients poorly. They don’t invest in high-quality relationships. They don’t seek feedback. They don’t try to improve and deliver even better.

7. Operations

What it is: Turning strategy into execution through internal systems, tools, and processes that keep your business running smoothly.

Why it matters: Without solid operations, everything falls apart when you get busy. You need predictable systems that protect your time as the founder. Every system should save time, improve quality, or reduce your direct involvement.

Key parts:

• Documented processes for delivery, sales, marketing, and administrative functions.
  
  
• Clear role definitions and responsibilities for every function in your business.
  
  
• Basic tools for project management, communication, and client management (CRM).
  
  
• Implement time tracking for the entire team.
  
  
• Build out a Work Breakdown Structure and Activity Based Costing.
  
  
• Visibility into key metrics so you know what’s working and what isn’t.

What founders get wrong: They choose complicated software thinking complexity equals quality. They don’t track time. They don’t execute. They document nothing.

8. Finance

What it is: The three core financial statements that tell you how your business is performing: P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow.

Why it matters: These are your primary decision-making tools. Cash flow is the oxygen for your business. Your balance sheet shows what you own versus what you owe. Your P&L reveals your margins, profitability, where and what you spend.

Key parts:

• Monthly P&L showing revenue, cost to serve, gross margin, overhead costs, sales & marketing costs, and EBITDA.
  
  
• Cash flow showing when money comes in and goes out.
  
  
• Balance sheet tracking assets, liabilities, and equity.

What founders get wrong: They focus only on revenue growth while ignoring profitability. They don’t know how to structure a P/L. They don’t track cash flow timing and get surprised by shortfalls. They don’t use finance as a key decision-making tool.

9. Team and Culture

What it is: The people you hire, how you develop them, and the environment you create for high performance.

Why it matters: You can’t scale without great people, and culture is about establishing a standard for how you want your team to behave.

Key parts:

• Defining a clear Mission, Vision, and Values for the company. What is your purpose, where are you going, and how do you want your team to behave?
  
  
• Having a growth / development plan for each individual.
  
  
• Building a growth oriented environment where high-potential people can thrive.
  
  
• Having an A-Player scorecard, clearly defining what excellence looks like.

What founders get wrong: They hire too fast, and fire too slowly. They avoid difficult performance conversations hoping problems resolve themselves. They manage tasks instead of developing people. They don’t hold the team accountable to the standards set.

Bonus: Founder Skills and Mindsets

What it is: How a founder is able to keep going.

Why it matters: Being a founder isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s not for everyone. It’s difficult, stressful, and time consuming to only name a few.

Here are a few key skills and mindsets that separate successful founders from those who burn out:

• Adaptability: The ability to pivot and change course.
  
  
• Focus: Saying no to good opportunities so you can say yes to great ones.
  
  
• Decisive judgment: Making decisions with incomplete information and adjusting as you learn more.
  
  
• Self-awareness: Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots.
  
  
• Curiosity: Staying open to new ideas and feedback, especially when it’s uncomfortable. Having a growth vs victim mindset.
  
  
• Clear communication: Explaining complex ideas simply and getting alignment quickly.
  
  
• Leadership: The ability to lead, grow, and develop others, helping them reach their potential.
  
  
• Resilience: The ability to keep moving forward despite failures or setbacks.

What founders get wrong: They rely on technical expertise alone while neglecting business skills. They resist feedback because it feels like criticism of their competence. They stop learning because success makes them believe they have all the answers. They don’t know what they want out of there own life (Here’s a blog on building a personal Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals). They try to do this alone…

The Flywheel Effect

Here’s why this sequence matters: each element feeds the next, creating momentum that compounds over time. 

Understanding your problem helps shape your pricing strategy. Your pricing supports your positioning. Your positioning focuses your marketing. Your marketing fills your sales pipeline. Your sales convert prospects into clients. Your delivery creates satisfied clients who refer others and expand their engagements. Your operations make everything run smoothly. Your finances guide smart decisions. Your team executes consistently. And your personal development ensures you can stay in it for the long haul.

Get each piece right, and growth becomes the natural result of good fundamentals executed consistently.