Marginal Gains: The 1% Improvements That Can Transform Your Business (Without Burning Everything Down)

Most businesses aren’t broken.

They’re just leaking.

Leaking time. Leaking money. Leaking energy.

What I do (fractional COO / fixer / advisor — call it what you like) is not “tear it all up and start again”. It’s the opposite. I look for the quiet leaks and close them.

That’s marginal gains.

And if you’re running a small business, agency, practice, firm, or you’re self-employed — this is probably the most useful mindset you can adopt right now, especially in the UK where cost, tax, and pressure are all going up.

This article will walk you through:

• What marginal gains actually means in business

• Why most owners get stuck chasing “big wins” instead of fixing easy wins

• 10 areas where tiny changes compound into real profit

• Practical next steps you can do this week

This is plain English, real world. No fluff.

What does “marginal gains” actually mean in business?

Marginal gains is the idea that you don’t try to fix everything at once.

You improve lots of little things by a small amount — 1%, 3%, 5% — and those gains stack.

It’s not “double your revenue by Friday”.
It’s “stop losing what you’re already earning”.

Here’s why this matters:
Businesses rarely fail because of one dramatic event. They slowly drown in friction:

• Work going out “nearly right” and coming back to fix

• Quotes going out too cheap

• Invoices going out late

• Proposals not followed up

• The owner doing low-value work because “it’s quicker if I just do it myself”

None of those on their own feels like an emergency. Together, that’s your stress, your evenings, and your margin.

That’s what we’re changing.

The lie: “We just need more sales”

Most teams I work with say the same thing on day one:

“We just need more leads. We just need more sales.”

Here’s the truth you don’t want to hear:
You usually don’t need more sales.
You need to fix the holes in delivery, cash flow, and pricing.

Because if you won’t send an invoice until the end of the month… and you’re undercharging by 10%… and you’re re-doing jobs for free… more sales won’t save you. They’ll break you faster.

Growth on a broken machine just gives you a louder problem.

Marginal gains is about tuning the machine before you floor it.

10 Marginal Gains That Create Real Money (and Less Stress)

These are small changes I make inside businesses all the time. None of them are dramatic. All of them move profit.

1. Send invoices the same day, not “end of the week”

Cash is oxygen. If you wait to bill, you wait to get paid.
Action: Invoice on job completion, same day. No exceptions.
Impact: Faster cash in, less chasing, fewer “I forgot about that, can we sort it next month?” conversations.

2. Add 5% to your next 3 quotes

Not across the board. Just the next three.
Action: Don’t ask “Will they pay this?” Ask “Is this worth it to deliver properly without resenting it?”
Impact: That tiny increase often covers rising costs you’ve quietly absorbed.

3. Standardise jobs so they’re “right first time”

If work keeps coming back for a fix, that’s unpaid labour.
Action: Write a simple “before it leaves the building” checklist for recurring jobs. Everyone uses it.
Impact: Less rework at 9pm. Less embarrassment. Stronger reputation.

4. Follow up every proposal within 24 hours

If your sales process is “send quote and hope”, you’re leaking conversions.
Action: Every quote gets a 24-hour check-in: “Any questions? Do you want to move ahead?”
Impact: You’ll win work you were about to mentally write off.

5. Stop doing £15/hour work as the owner

You being “helpful” is killing scale.
Action: Make a list of everything you did in the last 7 days that someone else could do with 1 hour of training. That list is the next hire / outsource brief.
Impact: You buy back hours for higher-value work (pricing, clients, direction).

6. Shorten how long people owe you money

If you’re on 30-day terms, and they pay in 45, you’re acting like a bank.
Action: Move new clients to upfront or 50/50 split. For recurring work, move them to direct debit / standing order.
Impact: You get predictable cash instead of constant “can you just resend that invoice?”

7. Fix “scope creep by kindness”

“Can you just add this as well?” sounds harmless. It’s not.
Action: Train yourself and your team to say, “Yes, we can do that. That would be an extra £X. Do you want me to add that to the invoice?”
Impact: You stop giving away margin just to be liked.

8. Put a simple QA / sign-off step in delivery

A lot of reputational damage comes from avoidable mistakes.
Action: Before anything goes to a client (report, return, design, whatever), someone who didn’t work on it gives it a two-minute sense check.
Impact: You look more professional overnight without “branding exercises”.

9. Block “working on the business” time every week

If you don’t book time to improve, you’ll never improve.
Action: 2 hours, same slot every week, phone off, door shut. Non-negotiable. You’re not “available”.
Impact: You stop living in reaction mode and start running the company like an owner.

10. Kill work that creates noise but not value

You are almost definitely doing something because “we’ve always done that”.
Action: Ask “If we stopped doing this tomorrow, who would shout?” If the answer is “probably nobody”, stop doing it.
Impact: Instant capacity gain with zero cost.

Why these 1% changes multiply

Here’s where it gets interesting.

One small improvement is nice.
Ten small improvements, across the full client journey, change your entire business:

• Marketing gets easier because you’re more confident in your pricing

• Sales gets easier because you follow up properly

• Delivery gets smoother because jobs go out right first time

• Cash improves because you invoice sooner and get paid sooner

• Your personal load drops because you’re not the only adult in the room

This is why marginal gains beats “the big idea”.

Big ideas are loud but fragile.
Marginal gains are boring but reliable.

And reliable is what pays your mortgage.

How to start (this is important)

Here’s exactly what I’d ask you to do if I sat with you for a day.

Step 1. List the friction

Write down everything in the last 30 days that annoyed you, stressed you, or felt like duplicate effort.

Examples:

• “Client keeps sending stuff late and then wants a rush job.”

• “I’m doing evenings to fix mistakes we should’ve caught.”

• “We’ve got proposals out but I don’t know where any of them are up to.”

• “We’ve done the work but not billed it yet.”

That list is gold. That’s where you’re bleeding.

Step 2. Circle the fast wins

You’re not trying to solve everything. Circle the ones you could fix in under a week with a change of process, wording, or pricing.

For example:

• “Invoice same day” is a process change, not a big project.

• “Follow up within 24 hours” is a habit, not software.

• “That’s extra, do you want me to add it?” is a sentence, not a meeting.

Step 3. Implement one per week

Not 20 at once. One per week, every week.

After 90 days, your business will feel different without burning it down, hiring 5 people you can’t afford, or buying another bit of software you won’t actually use.

Who this approach is for

This is for:

• Sole traders and self-employed people who feel like they’re working constantly and still worried about tax and cash

• Small business owners who are “busy but tense”

• Agencies, accountants, bookkeepers, creatives, trades, hair & beauty, consultants, anyone selling expertise or service

• Founders who are stuck in the day-to-day and can’t seem to get out of it long enough to actually improve anything

If you’re already drowning, you don’t need a 60-page strategy.
You need oxygen. These gains are oxygen.

Who this approach is not for

If you’re chasing “We’re going to scale to 8 figures in the next 12 months 🔥🔥🔥” and you honestly think that’s realistic with your current delivery… this probably won’t land with you.

Marginal gains is for people who care about staying in business, not just looking successful on LinkedIn.

FAQ: Marginal Gains in Business

Is this just cost-cutting?
No. Cutting costs is “spend less”. Marginal gains is “waste less”. Very different energy.

Is this about working harder?
No. It’s about not doing the same job twice, not arguing for money you’ve already earned, and not doing £15/hour work as a £100/hour founder.

Do I need new software to do this?
Usually, no. Most problems are behaviour and process, not tools.

Will this help profit?
Yes. Higher price, fewer fixes, faster cash-in, less unpaid labour. All profit drivers.

Will this help my head?
Massively. A lot of burnout is rework, chasing, and silent resentment.

Final bit

Everyone wants the big move.

New offer. New market. New marketing agency. New senior hire. New “COO type person to come in and sort stuff”.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most of what’s hurting you is already in front of you. You’re just tolerating it.

Marginal gains is not sexy.
But it’s how businesses stop bleeding, start breathing, and actually become enjoyable to run again.

If you want help doing this inside your business — not theory, just sitting with you and fixing it — that’s literally what I do.

Now, your turn:

If you could fix ONE small leak in your business this week, what would it be?
Tell me. I guarantee it’s fixable.