What should a 30-day business diagnostic include?
Inputs, outputs, and the week-by-week shape — so you can tell a diagnostic from a discovery call with a longer invoice.
A thirty-day diagnostic should end with a written picture of the business — where the risk is, where the leverage is, and what to do first — built from the actual documents, numbers, and conversations rather than a questionnaire. If it cannot name the top three pressures and a sequence for addressing them, it was not a diagnostic.
The short checklist
- Inputs: documents, financials, contracts, and the live meetings — not a survey.
- Interviews with the founder and at least one direct report.
- A ranked list of the top three pressures, with evidence.
- Where the leverage sits — the one or two moves that change the shape.
- A ninety-day sequence: what first, what second, who owns it.
- A proposed next scope and price, written down.
- Run by the principal, not delegated to an analyst.
- Not a workshop, not a deck, not a sales call in disguise.
What goes in during the thirty days?
The business as it actually exists, not as it is described:
- Documents — operating agreements, key contracts, the org chart as practised, the last board or investor update.
- Numbers — P&L by month, cash position, receivables ageing, the three metrics the founder checks first.
- Conversations — the founder, at least one direct report, and where possible the meeting where decisions actually get made.
- The live situation — whatever is unfolding this month: the dispute, the hire, the deal, the shortfall.
What comes out at the end?
A written picture in five parts: the situation as it is, the top three pressures ranked with evidence, where the leverage sits, a ninety-day sequence with owners, and a proposed monthly scope with a price. Short enough to read in one sitting. Specific enough to act on Monday. A sample deliverable is published here.
How is it different from a discovery call or a strategy workshop?
A discovery call is the firm reading you to decide whether to sell. A workshop is a room and a whiteboard for a day, producing what the room already knew. A diagnostic is someone reading the documents you have not opened in a year and telling you what they say.
The test: could it have been produced without access to your files and your numbers? If yes, it was one of the first two.
What does week one, two, three, four look like?
The shape of a founder-led thirty days:
| Week | Focus | Output by Friday |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read everything. Documents, numbers, contracts. First founder interview. | Working list of open questions; first draft of the situation |
| 2 | Conversations and meetings. Direct-report interview. Sit in the decision meeting. | Pressures identified and evidenced; early read on leverage |
| 3 | Pressure-test. A recorded pressure-test session with the founder. Sequence drafted. | Ranked pressures; draft ninety-day sequence |
| 4 | Write the picture. Propose the monthly scope. Walk the founder through it. | The written deliverable and a proposed monthly with a price |
Who should run it — the principal or an analyst?
The principal. A diagnostic is judgment applied to raw material, and judgment is the thing you are paying for. An analyst can summarise a contract; an operator who has signed a hundred of them will tell you which clause is going to hurt.
At Clemons Wright the Operating Risk Assessment is run by the founder personally, for $500 for the first thirty days, with the monthly price agreed afterward.
What happens after day thirty?
You hold the written picture and a proposed monthly scope. You can stop there — the diagnostic stands on its own. Or the monthly begins, sized to the focus the assessment surfaced. If the work is obvious by week two, the monthly can begin before the thirty days are up; if the assessment needs the whole window, it follows. Nothing auto-renews.
Last reviewed:
One way in: the $500 Operating Risk Assessment.
Thirty founder-led days inside your business, then a monthly price agreed to your focus. Clients are never named. Related service: Management consulting.