Count the real number first, because most people have never actually done it. Then work the 3 levers that move it: what leaves your account every month, how fast money arrives after the work is done, and what you are paying for that you no longer use. Together they routinely find 6 months.
Almost nobody knows their real number
Ask a first year founder how long they can last and you usually get a rounded guess based on the balance in an account. That figure ignores the annual charges that have not landed yet, the tax that is owed but not yet due, and the difference between what the business needs and what the household needs.
The real number is a date, not a feeling. Until you have that date, every other decision is being made in the dark, and the fear tends to be worse than the arithmetic.
The 3 levers, in order of what they are worth
| Lever | What it usually finds | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Getting paid sooner | Often the largest single gain, because the money already exists | Low, mostly terms and invoicing habits |
| Cutting what you no longer use | Meaningful and immediate | Low, 1 afternoon |
| Substituting expensive tools | Steady, compounds over a year | Moderate |
| Cutting essential costs | Smallest, and the most painful | High |
The ordering surprises people. The instinct is to start with sacrifice, which is the hardest lever and the least productive one. The gap between finishing work and being paid for it is usually the biggest and most fixable drain on a runway.
Open the statement, list every recurring charge, and mark each one used, occasionally used, or forgotten. Almost everyone finds something they signed up for during a hopeful week and have not opened since. It is not glamorous and it is often worth a month on its own.
Getting paid sooner is mostly a habit
- Invoice the day the work is delivered. Not at month end. The delay is entirely self imposed and it is expensive.
- Ask for a deposit. It is standard in most fields and it moves cash to the front of the job.
- Shorten the terms. 14 days is a normal ask. 30 is a convention nobody will defend if you change it.
- Chase on a schedule. A polite reminder on a fixed day is not confrontational and it works.
Then decide what the extra months are for
Buying time is only useful if you spend it on the thing that produces revenue. Months bought and then filled with more building are months spent. The full system for counting the number and working every lever is the runway toolkit.
