The Terms

What Do These Business Terms Mean?

Terms marked Dr. Paul's Tool are working tools from Stressed Out, Burned Out, Tapped Out. The rest are standard business and management terms. The link under each definition goes to the fire or guide where the term gets put to work.

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What Is the 30-Day Rhythm?Dr. Paul's Tool
Dr. Paul's monthly operating habit: ten minutes a day on the plan, thirty minutes a week with the crew, and sixty minutes a month with the Run-Without-Me File.
The Foundation →
What Is a 90-Day Bill List?Dr. Paul's Tool
Every bill due in the next 90 days with its amount and date, including the quarterly and yearly ones that sneak up on you.
Fire 12: Spending by the Bank Balance →
What Is the Away Test?Dr. Paul's Tool
A planned absence in steps (one day, then a long weekend, then a week) to find out what breaks when the owner is gone.
Fire 9: No Real Vacation →
What Is a Backward Plan?Dr. Paul's Tool
A plan that starts with a five-year goal and works down through three years, one year, and six months to the one step for this month.
Planning in Management →
What Is a Bottleneck?
The one narrow point every piece of work has to squeeze through. In many small businesses, the bottleneck is the owner.
What Is a Bottleneck? →
What Is Burnout?
A syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been managed, according to the World Health Organization. Its three marks are exhaustion, growing cynicism about the work, and feeling less effective at it.
How to Avoid Burnout →
What Is a Business Plan?
The written plan for what the business is, who it serves, how it makes money, and where it is going. One of the five sections of the Run-Without-Me File.
Business Plan Tutorials →
What Is Cash in Business?
The money actually in the bank, and when it is there. Not the same as profit.
What Is Cash Flow? →
What Is Cash Flow?
The timing of money coming into and going out of the business. A profitable business can still run short when the timing is wrong.
Profitable but No Cash →
What Is a Cash Forecast?
A look ahead at the next few months of money: bills going out on one side and money expected to come in on the other.
13-Week Cash Flow Forecast →
What Is a CFO (Chief Financial Officer)?
The person responsible for watching a company's money: cash, profit, pricing, and the numbers behind big decisions.
Fractional CFO and COO →
What Is a Change Order?
A short written note, signed by the customer, for any change after a job is agreed. It states what changed and what it costs, so extra work does not turn into free work.
Fire 13: Which Jobs Make Money →
What Is a Checklist?
A short written list of steps or checks done the same way every time. The simplest tool for consistent work.
Standard Operating Procedures →
What Is a Coverage Sheet?Dr. Paul's Tool
One page naming who covers each task that would break while the owner is away, and what is urgent enough to reach the owner anyway.
Fire 9: No Real Vacation →
What Is a Decision Line?Dr. Paul's Tool
A three-column list the crew builds with the owner: decide it, decide it and tell me, or bring it to me. It ends the flood of small questions.
Fire 3: Putting Out Fires →
What Is Diffusion of Responsibility?
The more people who share a task or see a problem, the less any one of them feels it is theirs to handle.
Fire 5: Who Is Responsible? →
What Is Feast or Famine Marketing?
The cycle of marketing hard when business is slow, stopping when it gets busy, and going quiet again just in time for the next slump.
Fire 14: Which Marketing Works →
What Is a Financial Plan?
One page on what the business owes, what it charges, and what its jobs leave after their own costs. One of the five sections of the Run-Without-Me File.
Financial Projections →
What Is a Fire Cost Tag?Dr. Paul's Tool
A two-minute rating of what a fire costs in four places (hours, cash, crew, and customers), each low, medium, or high. Red Flags go first, then the fire with the most highs. Ties go to the higher cash rating.
The Self-Check →
What Is Fire Mode?Dr. Paul's Tool
The Organize-Plan-Grow steps aimed at one problem that is burning right now.
Organize, Plan, Grow →
What Are the Five Must-Know Sheets?Dr. Paul's Tool
One page each for the five things the business cannot run without, kept where the work happens, not in the owner's head.
Fire 7: It Is All in My Head →
What Is Foundation Mode?Dr. Paul's Tool
The Organize-Plan-Grow steps aimed at the structure underneath the business: core documents, a plan worked backward from five years, and daily action toward 30-day goals.
Organize, Plan, Grow →
What Is a Fractional CFO?
A part-time chief financial officer. Senior financial help without a full-time salary.
Fractional CFO and COO →
What Is a Hand-Off Card?Dr. Paul's Tool
One card per handed-off task: the task, five steps, what done looks like, and a check-in date.
Fire 8: Doing Everything Myself →
What Is an Implementation Intention?
A simple if-then plan for when and where you will act, such as "When it is 8 a.m., I work on this." It turns good intentions into a set time.
Fire 4: Never Finishing Priorities →
What Is Job Costing?
Writing down what a job really took (labor, materials, return trips, and changes) and comparing it with what you charged.
Construction Job Costing →
What Is a Job Scorecard?Dr. Paul's Tool
One line per finished job: what you charged, what it really took, what was left for overhead and profit, how long it tied up the crew, and whether to chase or fix that kind of job.
Fire 13: Which Jobs Make Money →
What Is a Lead Source?
Where a customer first heard about your business.
Marketing Attribution →
What Is a Lead Source Scoreboard?Dr. Paul's Tool
A monthly tally of calls and paying customers by lead source, used to decide which marketing to keep and which to cut.
Fire 14: Which Marketing Works →
What Is the Leave-the-Shop Test?Dr. Paul's Tool
A short standard, five to ten lines, that every common job is checked against before it leaves the shop.
Fire 6: Inconsistent Quality →
What Is a Marketing Plan?
One page on where customers come from, what marketing to keep doing, and what to stop. One of the five sections of the Run-Without-Me File.
How to Set a Marketing Budget →
What Is the One In, One Out Rule?Dr. Paul's Tool
Only one project is active at a time. A new one starts only when the active one is finished or formally closed.
Fire 10: Launching Everything →
What Is an Operating Plan?
One page on who decides what, who owns what, and who covers what. One of the five sections of the Run-Without-Me File.
Organizational Structure →
What Is Organize-Plan-Grow™?
Dr. Paul's three-step system. Organize: find what is really happening and why. Plan: choose the fix with the people involved. Grow: act, check, and build on what works.
The Full Strategy →
What Are Outside Eyes in Business?
Someone outside the business (a trusted owner, accountant, banker, mentor, or consultant) who can see what the people inside are too close to see.
Business Consulting →
What Is Owner Dependence?
When a business cannot run, grow, get funded, or be sold without the owner.
Can Your Business Run Without You? →
What Is the Planning Fallacy?
The habit of underestimating how long your own tasks will take, even when similar tasks ran long before.
Fire 10: Launching Everything →
What Is a Price Review?Dr. Paul's Tool
A regular check of what your top products or services cost then and now, and what you keep from each sale, to decide which prices to raise first.
Fire 11: Prices Stuck, Costs Up →
What Is Profit?
Revenue minus expenses. What is left after the business pays for itself.
Gross vs. Net Margin →
What Is Psychological Detachment?
Actually switching off from work, mentally, during time away from it. Checking email from the beach does not count.
Fire 9: No Real Vacation →
What Is the Readiness Test?Dr. Paul's Tool
Five yes-or-no questions to answer before any expansion. Five yeses mean you are ready to evaluate a specific expansion. Every no becomes a step in the plan.
Fire 10: Launching Everything →
What Is a Recurring Task?
Work that repeats on a schedule: daily, weekly, or monthly. Every recurring task needs one owner.
Fire 5: Who Is Responsible? →
What Is a Red Flag?Dr. Paul's Tool
Any fire that can do serious harm within 30 days: payroll or a critical bill that cannot be met, a safety or legal problem, a key employee or customer about to leave, or the owner's own health giving out. Red Flags go first.
The Self-Check →
What Is Revenue?
What the business earns from sales, before any expenses come out.
Gross vs. Net Margin →
What Is a Root Cause?
The real reason underneath a problem, not the symptom you can see.
Root Cause Analysis →
What Is a Run-Without-Me File?Dr. Paul's Tool
Five sections in one place (business plan, marketing plan, operating plan, SOPs, and financial plan), each opening with a one-page summary. The operating sections stay where the crew can reach them. The financial section stays private.
The Foundation →
What Are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)?
Written step-by-step instructions for how recurring work gets done, so anyone trained can do it the same way.
What Is an SOP? →
What Is the Weekly Money Check?Dr. Paul's Tool
A 20-minute check every Monday: bank balance, minus everything due in the next 30 days, minus this month's set-aside for yearly and quarterly bills, minus a minimum cushion. What is left is free to spend.
Fire 12: Spending by the Bank Balance →
What Is the Weekly Top Three?Dr. Paul's Tool
Three specific results to finish this week, written as finished outcomes. Everything else waits.
Fire 4: Never Finishing Priorities →
What Is a Who-Owns-It Chart?Dr. Paul's Tool
Every recurring task in the business with one owner's name beside it, posted where everyone can see it.
Fire 5: Who Is Responsible? →
Stressed Out, Burned Out, Tapped Out book cover

A definition does not put out a fire. A tool does.

Every tool on this page comes with a one-page worksheet in the book, plus a short story that shows it working. 14 fires, the Run-Without-Me File, and the 100 Fires checklist.

Get the Book →

Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, business consultant, strategic planner, and business plan writer with 14+ years and 1,000+ businesses served.

This page is for general educational purposes only. It is not medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice.