Is your business model financially sustainable? Key indicators to assess

Is your business really built to last?

You might be bringing in sales, securing contracts, or even expanding your team. But behind the scenes, something feels off. You’re chasing cash, bills keep piling up, and it seems like you’re always reacting instead of planning.

This is usually the point where business owners start wondering, “Is this model actually working? Or am I just keeping it going by force?”

A financially sustainable business is one that not only survives month to month but can grow without wiping you out mentally or financially. And to test this, you don’t need a 20-page strategy. You need to look at three core numbers: your margins, your overheads, and your delivery costs.

1. Start with Your Margins: Are You Pricing Right?

If you’re not clear on your gross margin, you won’t know if you’re even charging enough to cover your basic operations.

Look at what you charge for each product or service vs. what it costs to deliver it. Include labour, materials, and time.

Ask yourself:

• Are you consistently hitting at least a 30–40% gross margin?

• Are you factoring in ALL the true costs of delivery (not just direct materials)?

• Are some clients or products far less profitable than others?

If your answer is unclear or based on rough guesses, that’s a red flag.

2. Review Your Overheads: Are Fixed Costs Squeezing You?

Many business owners keep growing sales without reviewing whether their overheads are growing faster.

You need to understand:

• What are your biggest fixed costs?

• Are there unused subscriptions, tools, or office expenses eating into your margin?

• Could some roles be outsourced more efficiently?

This isn’t about cutting every expense. It’s about aligning your spending with what actually generates value and return. If your overheads eat up all your margin, you're just working to stay afloat.

3. Track Your Delivery Costs: Are You Scaling Trouble?

One of the most overlooked signs of an unsustainable model is when delivery costs go up as sales go up.

In other words, the more jobs you win, the more your profit shrinks.

Here’s what to track:

• Does it cost more to deliver larger projects?

• Are you constantly going over budget or running out of time?

• Do you need to throw more staff at delivery just to meet deadlines?

If scaling means lowering your margin, your model needs rethinking.

What to do next

Block out 1 hour.

Pull your last 3 months of jobs or sales. For each one, jot down:

• What you charged

• What it cost to deliver (labour, time, materials)

• What overhead it helped cover

  
  

You don’t just need accounting software to do this, you also need clarity.

Sustainability isn’t just about revenue. It’s about keeping what you earn and knowing you can repeat it without burning out or falling behind on tax, payroll, and debt.

Most business owners we work with don’t have a pricing problem. They have a visibility problem. They don’t know what their model is really doing underneath the surface before it’s too late.