How a $14M Multi-Location Venue Went From Survival Mode to Board-Ready in Months
Helped a multi-location venue build the financial infrastructure and left them with a board system, a cash model and a leadership team that finally clicked.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Situation
Multi-Location Revenue With No Structure to Sustain It
WhirlyBall was generating $14M to $15M across multiple locations but sales had dropped year-over-year, cash was tight, and the leadership team had no structure for making decisions or tracking what was ahead. They were negotiating leases with percentage-rent clauses, exploring refinancing options, and managing landlord and lender conversations without a financial narrative to support any of it.
Key Situation Factors
The Challenge
Lenders Had Questions the Numbers Couldn’t Answer
The leadership team was capable but there was no system keeping everyone accountable. No defined close cadence meant the numbers were always a little behind. No structured board process meant decisions got made in hallways instead of meetings. And when lenders or landlords asked hard questions, the answers were coming from memory instead of documented financials.
Good operators were working harder than they needed to because the infrastructure around them was not keeping up.
Key Risk Factors
- No defined month-end close timeline or ownership
- KPIs tracked inconsistently across sales, marketing and finance
- Liquidity decisions made without modeling the operational tradeoffs
- No accountability structure between leadership meetings
- Lender and landlord conversations not backed by documented assumptions
- Unit economics and labor costs never formally pressure-tested
Our Approach
Built the Infrastructure Before We Touched the Growth Plan.
Three phases. Each one building on the last from getting the board functional, to making finance a leadership tool, to pointing everything toward growth.
1
Step 1
Set Up the Board Cadence
Locked meeting dates upfront, set a pre-read process one week before every meeting, and defined who owned what across the CEO, CFO, and board chair. Meetings had agendas, minutes, and action-item tracking so nothing fell through the cracks between sessions.
2
Step 2
Put Structure Around the Close and KPIs
Set a weekly leadership meeting rhythm, defined the month-end close window with a hard target of the 15th and no later than the 21st, and built KPI dashboards with named owners across sales, marketing, and finance.
3
Step 3
Built the 13-Week Cash Flow Model
Modeled weekly inflow targets against operating outflows of roughly $197K per week excluding rent and $250K including rent. Rent scenarios, funding needs, and runway were visible in one place and updated on a consistent basis.
4
Step 4
Tied Everything to a Budget and Growth Plan
Pressure-tested unit-level labor costs, revenue targets, and cash break-even assumptions at the location level. Set the FY2026 budget deadline at January 31 with year-end financials due February 15 and assigned clear ownership across the leadership team.
1
Step 1
Set Up the Board Cadence
Locked meeting dates upfront, set a pre-read process one week before every meeting, and defined who owned what across the CEO, CFO, and board chair. Meetings had agendas, minutes, and action-item tracking so nothing fell through the cracks between sessions.
2
Step 2
Put Structure Around the Close and KPIs
Set a weekly leadership meeting rhythm, defined the month-end close window with a hard target of the 15th and no later than the 21st, and built KPI dashboards with named owners across sales, marketing, and finance.
3
Step 3
Built the 13-Week Cash Flow Model
Modeled weekly inflow targets against operating outflows of roughly $197K per week excluding rent and $250K including rent. Rent scenarios, funding needs, and runway were visible in one place and updated on a consistent basis.
4
Step 4
Tied Everything to a Budget and Growth Plan
Pressure-tested unit-level labor costs, revenue targets, and cash break-even assumptions at the location level. Set the FY2026 budget deadline at January 31 with year-end financials due February 15 and assigned clear ownership across the leadership team.
The Turning Point
When the Cash Position Was No Longer a Daily Surprise
The pre-reads started landing a week before every meeting. Leadership walked in already aligned on cash, open items, and priorities. Decisions got made in the room instead of after it. The 13-week model gave everyone a shared view of runway, rent scenarios, and funding options. Executives stopped getting pulled into daily cash checks and started operating from a plan with clear owners on every key metric.
Quantitative Results
Outcomes From Getting the Fundamentals Right
1
%
Demo Heading
Of customers recently chose a financial product from a provider other than their main bank.
1
B
Demo Heading
Of revenues at risk between now and 2025 if card-issuing banks are slow to invest in next-gen payment options.
1
%
Demo Heading
The share of US banks’ working hours which could be impacted by technologies like generative AI.
Qualitative Results
From Daily Cash Checks to a System That Ran Itself
The CEO stopped spending time on cash monitoring and started spending it on the business. Decisions that used to drag got made in the room. Landlords and lenders got consistent, documented answers instead of estimates. The whole leadership team was finally working from the same plan.
Key outcomes
- Board meetings ran on pre-reads with documented action items
- KPI ownership assigned across sales, marketing, and finance
- Lender and landlord conversations anchored to consistent reporting
- Escalation paths defined so nothing fell between meetings
- Close cadence established with named owners and hard deadlines
- CEO confidence in decisions improved with structured team support
Testimonial.
"I needed a solution that was
cost effective but high quality and high caliber. So that's where Frack comes into mind.. They take care of what your needs are and they tailor it exactly to what your business requires. You're not just hiring Frack, you're hiring an entire team of experts and you're not just getting this one individual on your team, you're getting our entire network."
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
No System Behind the Revenue
Revenue was there. The board cadence, close deadline, and cash model were not.
One Model Changed Everything
A 13-week cash view made landlord and lender conversations straightforward.
Every Metric Needed an Owner
The team was capable. What was missing was named ownership on every KPI.
Governance Was the Missing Piece
Pre-reads and a board cadence gave the CEO confidence to focus on the business.
Client Profile
Industry
Location-Based Entertainment & Hospitality
Company Size
~$14M–$15M Annual Revenue
Timeline
Ongoing Engagement
Stage
Stabilize, Realign, Reset for Growth
Engagement Type
Fractional CFO
Board Facilitation
Advisory Board Buildout
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