Planning•Performance•Profit
Clear thinking on your business, backed by the numbers.
Business consultancy for owner-run companies in Manchester. Where the profit is really coming from, what is holding it back, and what to change.
What it costs to leave it
Most businesses run on instinct and a monthly bank balance. That works until it doesn’t: a quiet patch nobody saw coming, a price that has quietly fallen behind, a part of the business that takes all the effort and gives little back. By the time it shows in the accounts, a year has gone.
What you get
Someone who listens first
The right questions, asked in the right order, and the patience to hear what the business is actually saying before anyone talks about solutions.
A clear picture
Your figures regrouped so they answer the questions you actually have: which customers, which products, which parts of the business deserve more of your time. Done to the standard of a large company’s finance team, at the pace of a small one.
A decision you can stand behind
Not a report to file away. A specific change, with the reasoning and the numbers behind it, that you can explain to anyone. The hard work happens between the meetings, and it is mine, not yours.
Who you are dealing with
Yitzie Steinberger, Business Consultant and CIMA Chartered Management Accountant. Ten years inside large companies (GE, Whitbread, DSM, CBRE, Intertek), building the profit views their directors run on. Now bringing the same discipline to owner-run businesses in Manchester.
How it works
A meeting
Forty-five minutes, at your premises. You describe the business; the questions start there.
A scope
A short written plan: what we are looking at, what you will have at the end, the price and the dates.
The work
Weekly meetings, the analysis done in between, and decisions made and acted on at the end.
Whatever you sell
The questions differ for a business that sells goods, one that provides a service and one that works in property. The method is the same.
Forty-five minutes is usually enough to find the first thing worth looking at.
Book a meetingWho do you actually need?
A few questions, each depending on the last. Bookkeeper, accountant, coach, marketing, consultant or AI: usually two, in a particular order. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Yitzie Steinberger
Business Consultant and CIMA Chartered Management Accountant. Ten years inside GE Healthcare, Premier Inn, Costa Coffee, DSM, CBRE and Intertek, building the profit views their directors run on. Now the same discipline for owner-run businesses in Manchester.
LinkedIn profileHow I work
It starts with a forty-five minute meeting at your premises, then a short written scope with a fixed price and dates. Most first projects run a few weeks: a weekly meeting, the analysis done between meetings, and a clear set of decisions at the end. Where it suits both sides, that continues as an ongoing arrangement, a few sessions a month, in the way a finance director would for a larger company.
I work alongside your bookkeeper and accountant, not instead of them. Every meeting is prepared for and followed up, and the case for any change is built from your own figures rather than a textbook.
Based in Prestwich, Manchester. Meetings in person; ongoing work in person and remote.
Career
Business Consultant, Storm Planning
Owner-run businesses in Manchester: goods, services and property. Fixed-price projects first, an ongoing role where it fits.
Commercial Finance Business Partner, Intertek
Profitability per customer and per team, management dashboards that sped up invoicing, weekly forecasts across multiple sites, aged and bad-debt tracking.
Financial Controller, CBRE
Full month-end, cost analysis and reporting for senior management; on-site with operations understanding how outsourced providers drive cost.
Finance Analyst, DSM
Transfer-pricing queries and analysis for a global nutrition business.
Finance Graduate Programme, Whitbread (Costa Coffee and Premier Inn)
Business partnering procurement, product and marketing at Costa; rent, rates and capex forecasting across hundreds of hotels at Premier Inn.
FP&A Intern, GE Healthcare
Consolidating European risks and opportunities; a new budget model.
Education
BSc Business & Financial Management, First Class Honours, University of Salford. CIMA Chartered Management Accountant, with a practising certificate.
Questions owners ask
Straight answers on what this is, what it costs and how we start.
What does a business consultant actually do for a company my size?
Listens first. Then looks at the business as a whole, works out where the profit is really coming from and where it is leaking, and helps you decide what to change. The accounts tell you what happened. This is about what to do next.
Is this bookkeeping or accounting?
No. Your bookkeeper and accountant carry on exactly as they are, and I work alongside them. CIMA is the management accounting body: the side of the profession that works inside businesses on performance and decisions.
What is the difference between this and a business coach?
A coach works on you. This works on the business: your customers, your prices, your product lines, your costs, with your own figures as the evidence. It is consultancy, so the analysis and the building are done for you.
Can’t I just do this myself with AI?
You can get a long way, and I use it heavily for the heavy lifting: sorting thousands of ledger lines, pulling figures out of spreadsheets, testing a model. What it cannot do is sit across the table, ask the question you had not thought of, and know from ten years inside large finance teams what good looks like. The tools make the work faster and deeper. The judgement is the job.
How much does it cost, and how much of my time does it take?
Every project has a fixed price agreed in writing before it starts. A smaller budget gets a focused kick-off project on the one question that matters most; a larger budget gets a comprehensive project across the whole business. Your time is the meetings and a little gathering of figures at the start. The rest happens between meetings, on my desk.
How do we start?
Book a forty-five minute meeting. By the end of it we both know whether there is something worth doing.
Book a meeting.
Pick a time, answer four short questions, and I confirm by reply. Forty-five minutes, in person.
Ready to book a meeting? Pick a day.
None of these suit? Suggest your own day and I'll fit around it.
Request sent.
If your email app didn't open, write to Yitzie.S@StormPlanning.co.uk with the same details.
What happens at the meeting
Most first meetings are at your premises. Forty-five minutes is enough to understand the business and find out whether there is something worth doing, and what the first project would look like.
Manchester based. Meetings in person.