“Should we open in Riyadh?”
Before answering
Which of your customers are already there, and why they haven’t pulled you across. Whether the margin survives Saudi salaries, rent and 90-day payment terms. What it costs to be wrong: a lease, a licence, two hires, eighteen months. And whether Dubai can lose your attention for a year.
Where it usually lands
A smaller yes. One person, serving the two customers you already have there, with a number to hit before anyone signs a lease. Some years the honest answer is right market, wrong year: the cash is needed at home.
“Someone offered 40 for the company. Is that good?”
Before answering
40 of what. Before the company’s debt and its cash, or after them. Cash at closing, or 25 now and 15 if the next two years go well. What the company earns, and what buyers pay for businesses like it. What they are buying: the customers, the licence, the team, or you. And why now. Buyers rarely knock without a reason, and their reason tells you how much room there is on the price.
Where it usually lands
The terms matter more than the number. If half the profit depends on you, 40 comes with you attached: two years of work before they have paid all of it. If you would rather sell in two years, the work until then is making yourself unnecessary. That is also what lifts the price.
“Our biggest customer wants 10% off, or they walk.”
Before answering
What they earn you now, after the cost of serving them and the 120 days they take to pay. Most companies don’t have that number; it takes two weeks to build. Whether their volume carries the factory’s fixed costs, so losing it hurts every other customer’s margin too. And whether “they walk” is true. Procurement says it every year.
Where it usually lands
Rarely a flat no, rarely the full 10%. Something for something: part of the discount against shorter terms, a longer contract, or more of their business. And a quiet start on the next two customers, so that next year the threat is smaller.
“The family takes what it needs from the company. Is that a problem?”
Before answering
How much in total, counting the salaries not matched by work, the cars, the houses, and whether anyone has ever added it up. Whether the business can carry it in cash, not only on paper. And who in the family decides. In most families that is one person, and no spreadsheet changes that.
Where it usually lands
Not a confrontation. One page showing what the family took last year, shown once, without comment. Then a dividend the business can carry, agreed with the person who decides, and the drawings moved under it. It takes about a year. It is also one of the things a bank looks for, and one day a buyer.
“Sales are up 40%. Why is there never any cash?”
Before answering
Whether the growth is collected or only invoiced; sales you haven’t been paid for are growth you have lent to your customers. Where the cash went: stock bought for orders not yet shipped, invoices past their terms, or a loss hiding in one product line. The three look the same on the bank statement and need different fixes.
Where it usually lands
In trading and manufacturing, roughly a fifth of every extra dirham of sales is cash you need before you are paid for it. So the choice is to grow slower, change the terms, or fund the gap, and which one depends on the margin and on the bank. If a product line is losing money, that gets fixed first. A few months of numbers usually show which.