Turnaround
7 Warning Signs Your Business Needs a Turnaround
Most owners see the signs a year before the crisis. What each sign means.
Turnaround consulting
When the business is bleeding, you don't need a report. You need a plan — working by Friday.
Next Level's turnaround consulting stabilizes cash, triages operations, and returns your company to profitability — with an accredited consultant implementing beside you, on-site in Dallas–Fort Worth or anywhere in the country.
Confidential. No obligation. Straight answers within one business day.
300+businesses served nationwide
Top 1%consultant recognition
2×1written net-profit guarantee
The honest picture
Most struggling companies don't have a revenue problem. They have five smaller problems compounding.
In hundreds of engagements we've rarely seen one fatal flaw. We see stacked leaks: pricing set years ago, jobs that lose money quietly, payroll misaligned with workload, receivables nobody chases, and an owner too deep in daily fires to see the pattern.
That's actually good news. Stacked problems can be unstacked — in a deliberate order, starting with the ones that move cash first. That sequencing is the difference between a turnaround and a slow-motion wind-down.
- Margins shrinking while everyone works harder than ever
- Payroll and vendor payments getting uncomfortably tight
- Losing bids you used to win — or winning work that loses money
- Bank or bonding company starting to ask harder questions
- Key people burning out, quitting, or checked out
Client's business
A client's first real management meeting.
What we do
A turnaround engagement, step by step
Stabilize cash
A 13-week cash view built from your real numbers, immediate triage of payables and receivables, and the two or three moves that buy breathing room this month — not next quarter.
Find the leaks
Deep discovery inside your operations: job costs, pricing, labor utilization, purchasing, and scheduling. Every problem is priced in dollars per year, so priorities pick themselves.
Fix in sequence
Using critical-path thinking, we fix constraints in the order that compounds fastest — implemented in weekly working sessions with your team until the profit shows up in the statements.
$847K
“The amount of money losses and missed opportunities that Mr. Juárez identified in our company totaled approximately $847,000 — with a projected recovery over 12 months.”
“Armando taught us Critical Path Methodology and the Theory of Constraints to manage and grow our business.”
Why owners choose Next Level
A consultant who has stood where you're standing
Turnarounds are as much about people as spreadsheets. Your crew is nervous, your family is worried, and every advisor seems to want a retainer before they'll say anything specific. Armando Juarez has led operations with 2,500+ employees, served over 300 companies, and holds accreditation as a small business consultant (ASBC). He works your turnaround personally — walking the floor, sitting in the morning meeting, and putting every recommendation in dollars.
And because we know money is exactly what's tight right now, the engagement is covered by our 2×1 guarantee: at least two dollars of net profit for every dollar invested in consulting, in writing, before we start.
Is this you?
Who turnaround consulting is built for — and who it isn't
This engagement fits if…
- You run a $1M–$10M company that's still making payroll — but every month feels tighter than the last
- The statements have shown losses or shrinking margins for several quarters and you can't isolate why
- Vendors are calling, the credit line is near its limit, or the bank and bonding company have started asking pointed questions
- You're in the business daily and can sit in weekly working sessions while the fixes get implemented
- You're willing to open the real numbers — bank activity, aging reports, job costs — during discovery
It's probably not the right fit if…
- You're pre-revenue or still at the idea stage — free SCORE mentoring (Armando is a SCORE Certified Mentor) is the right first stop
- Revenue is far below $1M — the engagement math rarely works yet; start with the free playbooks in our insights library
- You want a one-hour fix or a report to file away — a turnaround is weekly, hands-on work alongside your team
- You've already decided to close and only need the wind-down executed — we can sanity-check that decision, but the execution belongs with your attorney and CPA
Turnaround FAQ
Common questions
Is it too late for a turnaround if I'm already behind with vendors?
Usually not. Vendor arrears are common at this stage and most vendors prefer a credible payment plan over losing a customer. The real deadline is cash for payroll and taxes — if those are still being met, there is almost always room to work. The sooner we look, the more options you have.
Will my employees and customers find out?
Engagements are confidential. On-site, Armando works as part of your management team; how the work is framed internally is your call, and we'll help you script it. Most teams respond with relief — they've usually seen the problems longer than you think.
How fast will I see results?
Cash-stabilizing moves typically start in the first two weeks. Structural profit improvements — pricing, job costing, labor utilization — usually begin showing in the monthly statements within the first quarter of the engagement.
What if the honest answer is that the business can't be saved?
Then you'll hear it from us early, with numbers, and we'll help you think through an orderly wind-down or sale instead of a crash. That happens in a minority of cases — owners almost always wait longer than they should, but rarely too long to act. See how we frame that decision.
How much does turnaround consulting cost?
There's no rate card, because no two turnarounds carry the same scope. The fee is scoped after the initial discovery, once we know what your situation actually requires — and it's covered by the written 2×1 net-profit guarantee: at least two dollars of net profit for every dollar you invest, agreed before the engagement starts. If discovery shows the math doesn't work for your company, we'll say so.
What do the first two weeks actually look like?
Week one is triage: we build the 13-week cash view from your bank activity, walk the operation, and start pricing every leak we find. In week two the first cash moves go live — collection calls, vendor payment plans, purchasing stops — while deeper discovery continues. When a company is actively losing money, the sequence is deliberate: stop the bleeding first, optimize second.
What if my managers push back on the changes?
Some will — usually the ones whose habits the numbers expose. We work with evidence rather than authority: every change is tied to a dollar figure the whole team can see, and managers help build the fix instead of receiving it. Armando has led operations with 2,500+ employees; bringing a skeptical crew along is part of the job, not an obstacle to it.
Do you work on-site, or can you help a company outside Texas?
Both. In Dallas–Fort Worth, Armando works on-site — on your floor, in your morning meeting. Outside DFW, engagements run on an immersion model: concentrated on-site visits to see the operation firsthand, followed by weekly remote working sessions to drive implementation. Turnarounds especially benefit from that first immersion visit, because cash problems hide in places you can only see in person.
Related insights
Read before you decide
Turnaround
The First 90 Days of a Business Turnaround
Stabilize cash, triage the P&L, win back your team — in that order.
Turnaround
Surviving a Cash Crunch
What to pay, what to renegotiate, and the calls to make before Friday.