This is what “getting it out of your head” actually looks like.
Your Business Genome is the operations manual your business never had. Kira builds it from ordinary conversations while you work — no forms, no homework — and organises it around the questions a buyer's advisor will ask you anyway. Below is a worked example, so you can see exactly what you would end up owning.
A plumbing business, 31 years old, 9 staff. An example Genome, built from the kind of conversations Kira has week to week.
This one is finished. It is what a business looks like once the work is done — every area answered, the owner-dependent parts named, nothing left that only he could explain. Yours starts empty and fills up as you talk to her. Yours is here.
The nine areas, finished
Every area a buyer's advisor works through, answered. This is the shape you are aiming at — yours starts empty and fills as you talk to her.
Where the work comes from
Well coveredHow work is priced and quoted
Well coveredHow the work actually gets done
Well coveredMoney in, money out and terms
Well coveredLicences, insurance and the calendar
Well coveredWho does the work
Well coveredWhat the business owns
Well coveredWhat is run by them, and what they can tell you
Well coveredWho buys, and who owns the relationship
Well covered
- You told us — you have mentioned it
- Just started — she has the basics
- Building up — most of it is written down
- Well covered — a buyer could use it
Every area is well covered. From here the work is confirming what Kira holds — a fact she has read back to you and you have agreed with is the form a buyer cannot discount.
Transferability — the number that moves
100/100
This is the number that moves. Every conversation fills in a little more, and the parts still carried in one person's memory are named rather than glossed over — because those are exactly what a buyer discounts you for.
Where the work comes fromWhere does revenue come from, and does it depend on the owner?covered
Three builders supply roughly 60% of turnover
Hartley Constructions, Vaughan Homes and Ridge Developments. All three came through the owner personally; Hartley since 1998. None are on a written contract — work is allocated by a phone call to the owner, usually on a Friday.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 12 March
Domestic work arrives by phone and word of mouth
No advertising spend. The office mobile diverts to the owner after 5pm and on weekends, which is when roughly a third of domestic jobs are booked.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 12 March
Maintenance contracts with two aged-care facilities
Annual, renewed each June. Renewal has never been competitive — both are handled by the owner directly.
Captured — not yet confirmed · Conversation, 2 April
Still only in your head
- · Why the fourth builder stopped calling in 2023 — and whether that relationship is recoverable
- · Which domestic suburbs are worth travelling to and which are not
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
How work is priced and quotedCan someone else quote a job and get the same number?covered
Standard hourly rates, by job type
Maintenance $135/hr, new build $118/hr (volume), after-hours $210/hr first hour then $135. Apprentice time charged at $65 and not billed separately on builder work.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 19 March
The builder discount is not written anywhere
Hartley gets roughly 12% off list and 45-day terms. The owner describes this as "what we agreed years ago". It is not in the accounting system, not on the quote template, and nobody else knows the figure.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 19 March
Quoting rule of thumb for bathroom renovations
Fixtures at cost plus 22%, labour estimated at 1.4× the plumber's own first guess. "It is always worse than it looks."
Captured — not yet confirmed · Conversation, 7 May
Still only in your head
- · When to walk away from a job — the owner has a clear instinct and has never articulated the rule
- · How variations are priced once work has started
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
How the work actually gets doneDoes the business run without the owner on site?covered
Two crews, allocated each morning by the owner
Allocation is done from memory at about 6:15am, balancing who is closest, who works well with whom, and which jobs the owner does not trust to the newer crew.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 26 March
Compliance sign-off is the owner's licence
Every certificate of compliance is issued under the owner's licence number. No other staff member holds the licence class required. This is the single largest transferability constraint in the business.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 26 March
The Thursday run sheet, and who builds it
Jobs for the following week are allocated on Thursday afternoon from the whiteboard in the office. Since March this has been done by Karen with the owner reviewing it, rather than by the owner from memory. Two weeks in the last six months needed no changes at all.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 5 June
What happens when a job goes wrong on site
The apprentice calls Danny, not the owner. Danny has authority to spend up to $2,000 to keep a job moving without asking. Written down in May after the Ridge job stalled for a day waiting on a phone call.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 22 May
Still only in your head
- · Which jobs the newer crew is not ready for, and what would make them ready
- · The morning allocation logic — currently unwritten and done from memory
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
Money in, money out and termsWhat do the input costs depend on, and are they portable?covered
Reece account since 1996, negotiated pricing
Roughly 18% below trade list on regular lines. The rep visits quarterly. Account is in the business name, not the owner's.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 2 April
Two backup suppliers used for stock outages only
Tradelink for urgent, a local independent for anything unusual. Neither has negotiated pricing.
Captured — not yet confirmed · Conversation, 2 April
Who chases, and at what point
Karen runs the aged debtors on the first Monday of the month and calls anything over 45 days. The owner is only involved above 60 days or over $10,000. Before February he made every one of those calls himself.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 5 June
Still only in your head
- · Whether the Reece pricing survives a change of owner — it has never been tested
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
Licences, insurance and the calendarWhat must not lapse, and who is watching it?covered
Plumbing licence, public liability, workers comp — all current
Renewal dates are 14 March, 30 June and 30 June. All three renew from the owner's personal email inbox.
You confirmed this · Documents + conversation, 14 April
Two apprentices mid-indenture
Completion dates November and the following March. TAFE reporting handled by the office manager.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 14 April
The renewal calendar, and who watches it
Plumbing licence, two vehicle registrations, public liability and workers compensation, with renewal dates and the broker’s contact. Karen holds the calendar; the owner is copied. Nothing has lapsed since it was written down.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 18 June
Who does the workWho is critical, how long have they been with you, and who would leave on announcement?covered
Two of the nine are load-bearing, and only one has a contract
The leading hand has been here 19 years and runs the two-man maintenance crew without being asked. He has no written agreement and no restraint. The office manager has both.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 22 April
Apprentice pipeline is deliberate, not accidental
Two apprentices at any time, taken from the same TAFE campus, on a rotation the owner set up after a bad hire in 2019.
Captured — not yet confirmed · Conversation, 22 April
Who would leave if the business changed hands
The owner believes Danny stays and the second-year apprentice follows him. Karen has said she would retire rather than learn a new system. None of this is in any file, and all three are load-bearing.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 18 June
Still only in your head
- · Which of the nine would follow the leading hand if he left
- · What the owner would pay to keep him through a sale
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
What the business ownsWhat do you own, what do you lease, and what is held in your own name?covered
Four vans owned outright, one on finance until 2027
Service history is with the mechanic, not on file. The financed van is the newest and the only one under warranty.
Captured — not yet confirmed · Conversation, 6 May
The yard is leased from a family trust the owner controls
Related-party lease, three years to run, currently under market. A buyer inherits the rate only if the lease transfers — which has never been tested.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 6 May
What is owned, financed, and held personally
Three utes and the trailer are owned outright; the 2023 ute is financed with 19 months remaining. The yard is held in the owner’s super fund and leased to the business at below market rent — which a buyer will normalise, and which is not in these figures.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 2 July
Still only in your head
- · Which plant is near end of life and what replacing it costs
- · Whether the yard lease survives a change of control
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
What is run by them, and what they can tell youWhere do your records live, who can reach them, and what is written down?covered
Jobs are scheduled in a whiteboard photo, sent nightly
The owner photographs the yard whiteboard each evening and sends it to the crew. There is no job-management system; the photo is the schedule.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 13 May
Accounts are in Xero; everything else is in the owner's email
The bookkeeper has Xero access. Quotes, variations and supplier agreements live in a personal inbox nobody else can search.
You confirmed this · Documents + conversation, 13 May
Where everything lives, and who can reach it
Accounts in Xero, jobs in simPRO, photographs on the office machine and on the owner’s phone. Karen and the owner hold admin on both systems; nobody else does. The domain and the business email were registered in the owner’s personal name in 2009 and have not been moved.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 2 July
Still only in your head
- · Which supplier agreements exist in writing and where they are
- · The pricing spreadsheet's formulas, which only the owner can explain
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
Who buys, and who owns the relationshipRevenue by customer, concentration, and who owns each relationship.covered
Which customers pay and which need chasing
The owner can name, without looking, the six accounts that always pay late and the two that must be phoned rather than emailed. None of this is in the accounting system.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 30 April
The history behind the Hartley relationship
A job in 2004 that went badly and was fixed at the business's own cost. The owner believes this is why the work has never gone to tender. A buyer would have no way of knowing this mattered.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 30 April
Revenue by customer, three years, and who owns each one
Hartley 34%, Vaughan 16%, Ridge 11%, the two aged-care contracts 9% between them, domestic the remainder. Hartley and the aged-care contracts are owned by the owner personally; Vaughan and Ridge have been handled by Danny since last October and have not asked for the owner since.
You confirmed this · Conversation, 12 June
Still only in your head
- · The informal arrangement with the council inspector about scheduling
- · Why the business does not take on strata work
- · What the owner would tell a buyer to never change
Kira will bring these up in conversation rather than sending you a form.
What you can take with you
It is yours, and it leaves with you in a form someone else can read.
A handover document
One pack a buyer's accountant or solicitor can read cold — the same sections you see above, with the gaps stated honestly. This is the thing that shortens due diligence.
A copy of the data
A machine-readable file of everything captured, exportable whenever you like. If you stop paying us, you keep it.
Privacy mode — on the roadmap, and not built yet
First, what is true today. Kira hears nothing at all unless you open a conversation and press the button, and she stops when you close it. There is no listening in the background, nothing waiting for its name, and nothing running between conversations.
What is coming is not more listening — it is a better way to stop. A pause you can hit mid-sentence without ending the conversation, and Kira offering it herself when what is being said is obviously not hers to hear: “want me to turn off for this?” A good executive assistant leaves the room without being asked.
We are telling you it is not finished because most owners reading this have not told their staff or their family yet, and you should know exactly what we can and cannot do before you say a word to us.
Three minutes, eleven questions, no card.