One Prompt. Three Minutes. Finds Money Every Time.

I've run this prompt on dozens of businesses. Care agencies, trades, professional services, e-commerce. Every single time, it finds money — either being wasted or left on the table.

The average? £15,000 to £40,000 per year in recoverable costs or missed revenue.

Not theoretical savings. Real line items that the business owner can action this month.

Here's the prompt. Copy it, fill in your details, and run it tonight.

The Prompt

You are a senior business operations consultant specialising in UK small businesses. I'm going to describe my business operations and I want you to conduct a thorough cost and revenue audit.

My business:

• Industry: [your industry]
• Annual revenue: [approximate]
• Number of employees: [number]
• Main services/products: [list them]

My current tools and systems:

• Accounting: [e.g., Xero, QuickBooks, spreadsheet]
• CRM/client management: [e.g., HubSpot, spreadsheet, nothing]
• Communication: [e.g., email, WhatsApp, Teams]
• Scheduling/booking: [e.g., manual, Calendly, phone]
• Other software I pay for: [list everything]

My team structure:

• [Role 1]: [what they spend most of their time doing]
• [Role 2]: [what they spend most of their time doing]
• [Add more as needed]

My biggest operational headaches:

• [Headache 1]
• [Headache 2]
• [Headache 3]

Based on this information, give me:

1. Cost leaks — where am I wasting money? Look at software overlap, manual processes that cost staff time, and inefficient workflows. Estimate the annual cost of each leak in GBP.

2. Revenue gaps — where am I leaving money on the table? Look at pricing, upsell opportunities, client retention, and billing accuracy. Estimate the annual value of each gap in GBP.

3. Quick wins — what can I fix this week with less than 2 hours of work? Rank by impact.

4. 30-day priorities — what should I focus on over the next month? Give me a specific action plan with steps.

5. Tool consolidation — am I paying for overlapping tools? Which ones can I drop, and what should I replace them with?

Be specific. Use real UK-market pricing. Don't give me vague advice — give me numbers and action steps.

What It Checks

When you feed this prompt your real business data, it analyses five areas:

1. Software Waste

Most small businesses are paying for tools they don't fully use, or paying for two tools that do the same thing. The average UK small business spends £3,000-7,000/year on software subscriptions. Usually 20-30% of that is waste — duplicate tools, unused licences, premium tiers when the free tier would do.

2. Time Waste (Labour Cost)

The prompt looks at what your team actually spends their time doing. If your £35K/year office manager is spending 15 hours a week on data entry that could be automated, that's roughly £13,000 in misallocated labour cost. Not a redundancy — a redeployment. They could be doing work that actually grows the business.

3. Pricing Gaps

This is where the big money usually hides. Most small businesses haven't reviewed their pricing in 12+ months. Costs have gone up (energy, materials, wages), but prices haven't followed. The prompt flags this and estimates the gap.

4. Billing Leaks

Late invoicing, missed billable time, inconsistent rates — this is especially brutal in service businesses. If you're billing in arrears and your invoicing is 2 weeks behind the work, that's cash flow damage that compounds every month.

5. Retention and Upsell

Acquiring a new client costs 5-7x more than keeping an existing one. The prompt looks at whether you have systems in place for client retention and whether you're offering additional services to existing clients.

Real Results

Here are anonymised results from businesses I've audited using this approach:

Care agency (£1.2M revenue, 45 staff)

• £18,400/year in unbilled visits (billing system not synced with rota)
• £4,200/year in duplicate software (two scheduling tools doing the same job)
• £7,800/year in late payment costs (invoices sent 3 weeks after service delivery)
• Total identified: £30,400/year

Trades business (£380K revenue, 6 staff)

• £8,500/year in underpriced jobs (hadn't updated rates in 18 months)
• £3,200/year in admin time on manual quoting (could use a template system)
• £2,100/year in fuel costs (no route optimisation)
• Total identified: £13,800/year

Professional services firm (£650K revenue, 8 staff)

• £22,000/year in unbilled time (partners doing work but not logging it)
• £5,400/year in software subscriptions (3 project management tools, needed 1)
• £9,000/year in client churn (no follow-up system after project completion)
• Total identified: £36,400/year

How To Make It Better

The prompt works well out of the box, but you can sharpen it:

Add your actual numbers. Don't say "around £500K." Say "£487,000 last financial year." The more specific you are, the more specific the output.

Include your pain points honestly. If invoicing is a mess, say so. If you know you're undercharging but feel awkward about raising prices, say that too. The prompt can't help with problems you don't mention.

Run it twice. First time with the basic information. Read the output. Then run it again with the follow-up:

Based on your analysis, I want to dig deeper into [the area that surprised you most]. Give me a detailed action plan for fixing this specific issue, including exact tools, costs, and timeline.

Share it with your team. The prompt output is a conversation starter, not a final answer. Show it to your accountant, your operations manager, your business partner. They'll confirm which findings are real and which need adjusting.

What To Do Tonight

1. Copy the prompt above
2. Fill in your real business details — take 5 minutes to be accurate
3. Run it in Claude or ChatGPT — either works
4. Read the output — highlight the top 3 findings that surprise you
5. Pick one quick win and do it this week
6. Schedule 30 minutes to plan the bigger fixes

The prompt is free. The tools are free. The only cost is 15 minutes of your time. And if it finds even one £5,000 leak, that's the best ROI you'll get all year.

Want a deeper audit with someone who'll implement the fixes? Book a free assessment call — I'll run through your results and show you what to tackle first.