Consultants can map options, but only the owner can choose which product lines to shrink, which staff roles to protect, and whether personal drawings pause for a defined period. Those choices define the recovery path more than any polished document.
Three decisions appear in almost every engagement we run from Truro. First: which customers and jobs actually contribute cash after materials and wages. Second: which costs are truly essential for the next quarter. Third: how much information key staff and family need so rumours do not outrun the plan.
Owners sometimes delay the hard cuts hoping revenue will rebound. In recovery work, delay is itself a decision — usually one that spends the remaining goodwill of creditors. A clear, early choice, even an imperfect one, is easier to manage than a drifting status quo.
Write your decisions in plain language and revisit them at the 30- and 60-day marks. Recovery is not a single meeting; it is a sequence of owner commitments kept under pressure.