Reader Resource
Pause here.
Then move.
The companion worksheet to Before You Make the Move. Six questions to answer before you sign, hire, borrow, expand, or walk away.
Get the worksheetFree for readers. Takes about 30 minutes.
Most expensive decisions are not reckless.
They are rushed.
The new hire. The bigger space. The line of credit. The partnership. By the time the pressure is on, the decision usually feels like it has already been made.
The pause is where the cost gets counted. It is where you find the number you did not add up, the risk you did not name, and the answer you already knew.
Do this work first. The move gets easier after.
Inside the worksheet
Six questions. One decision.
Work through them in order. Each section builds on the one before it, and the last one asks you to commit in writing.
- 01
Name the move
Write the decision in one sentence, with a date attached. A decision you cannot state plainly is a decision you cannot evaluate. You leave with: the actual decision, separated from everything attached to it.
- 02
Count the real number
Not the price. The total cost. Setup, staffing, software, taxes, insurance, your time, and the twelve months that follow. You leave with: a full cost figure instead of a first quote.
- 03
Check the cash
What is in the account, what is already committed, and how many months you can cover if revenue pauses while this move takes hold. You leave with: your true available cash and your runway.
- 04
Test the return
What has to be true for this to pay off, by when, and what evidence you have that it will. Write the assumptions down so they can be checked later. You leave with: a break even point and a date to review it.
- 05
Name the risk
What breaks if this goes sideways. Who is affected. What you would have to stop doing to recover, and what it would cost to undo. You leave with: your exposure, in plain language, and an exit.
- 06
Draw the decision line
Move, wait, or let it go. Record the reason, the conditions that would change your answer, and the date you will revisit it. Then sign it. You leave with: a decision you can stand behind and defend later.
Toki Simmons
I have spent more than 35 years helping organizations make better financial decisions. Privately owned businesses. Nonprofits. Multi million dollar organizations. I started in finance at sixteen and have been trusted since to step into high pressure situations, find the risk, strengthen the systems, and lead the way forward.
My role is not to judge what happened. It is to help you decide what should happen next. That is the whole reason this book exists, and the reason the worksheet asks the questions it does.
Before you make the move
Take the pause.
Download the worksheet, block thirty minutes, and answer the six questions before your next decision.
Download the worksheetA companion to Before You Make the Move by Toki Simmons.
Most expensive decisions are not reckless.
They are rushed.
The new hire. The bigger space. The line of credit. The partnership. By the time the pressure is on, the decision usually feels like it has already been made.
The pause is where the cost gets counted. It is where you find the number you did not add up, the risk you did not name, and the answer you already knew.
Do this work first. The move gets easier after.
Toki Simmons
I have spent more than 35 years helping organizations make better financial decisions. Privately owned businesses. Nonprofits. Multi million dollar organizations. I started in finance at sixteen and have been trusted since to step into high pressure situations, find the risk, strengthen the systems, and lead the way forward.
My role is not to judge what happened. It is to help you decide what should happen next. That is the whole reason this book exists, and the reason the worksheet asks the questions it does.