Data-Driven Profitability — Business Diagnosis, Cash Flow & Pricing Strategy
What you'll learn
- Read any financial number on three levels — how much, is it normal, and what to do about it
- Diagnose a company's health from its P&L, balance sheet and cash flow statement
- Compute and interpret a full set of financial ratios, including DuPont analysis and the Cash Conversion Cycle
- Break down unit economics — CAC, LTV, payback, MRR, churn and net revenue retention — to test if a business model actually works
- Link sales, marketing, supply-chain, HR and customer KPIs into a single causal chain that explains financial results
- Apply advanced techniques — variance decomposition, benchmarking, correlation vs. causation and root-cause (Issue Tree) analysis
- Build a one-page executive dashboard and a full business health-check report with red/amber/green ratings
- Tell the difference between profit and cash, and diagnose why a profitable company can still run out of money
- Calculate burn rate, cash runway and the cash conversion cycle, and know when to raise capital
- Understand the growth paradox — why accelerating growth can drain cash even when unit economics are healthy
- Apply the four core levers — contribution margin, CAC, churn and ARPU — to improve cash flow and profitability
- Set prices using value-based methods instead of guesswork — including Van Westendorp, conjoint and fast validation techniques
- Use psychological pricing tactics — anchoring, decoy pricing, charm pricing, bundling and framing — ethically and effectively
- Identify which customers are truly profitable using a CLV vs. cost-to-serve analysis
- Find and close the gap between list price and pocket price, one of the largest hidden profit levers in any business
- Build your own pricing model in a spreadsheet, from cost floor to value ceiling
- Know which software tools — CRM, subscription analytics, BI, ERP, HRIS — hold the data you need for each type of diagnosis
Introduction
Most business courses teach frameworks. This one teaches you to read a business the way a consultant does — through its actual numbers. Using one case company followed from start to finish, you'll learn to look past a healthy-looking top line and find out what's really happening underneath: whether the business is truly profitable, whether it can pay its bills, and whether its pricing and growth strategy are quietly destroying value. Every topic is taught example-first — real figures before formulas — so the theory always lands on something concrete. By the end, you'll be able to take any company's financial statements and operating data and produce a complete, professional health-check report: diagnosis, root cause, and prioritised recommendations.
Course content
- Foundations of Data-Driven Diagnosis — how to read any number like a consultant, and turn raw figures into judgment
- The Three Financial Statements, Decoded — profitability, solvency and cash, seen through one real business
- A Complete Financial Health-Check Toolkit — the ratios, models and warning signs that reveal what's really going on
- Unit Economics That Predict the Future — what makes a business model actually work, before the financials catch up
- Cross-Functional Diagnosis — connecting sales, marketing, operations, people and customer data into one clear story
- Advanced Diagnostic Techniques — the sharper tools that separate a surface read from a rigorous one
- From Insight to Deliverable — building dashboards and health-check reports clients and leadership actually use
- Why Profitable Companies Run Out of Cash — and how to see it coming before it happens
- Mastering Your Cash Cycle — the mechanics of collecting faster, paying smarter, and freeing up working capital
- Burn, Runway & the Growth Paradox — the cash math every founder and operator needs before scaling
- A Complete Playbook for Cash Flow Improvement — the levers that move the needle, and how to sequence them
- The Psychology & Math of Pricing — why price is the most powerful profit lever most businesses never touch
- Building a Real Pricing Model — from cost floor to value ceiling, with the methods to validate it
- Applied Repricing Workshop — a full, real-world pricing redesign, worked start to finish
Course Material including
- Data-Driven Profitability — Business Diagnosis, Cash Flow & Pricing Strategy 101 Detail notes.
- Business Health Check report for input Ai analysis.PDF
Diagnosis isn't reporting numbers — it's explaining why, and what to do next.
Course Materials Prepared By:
Charles — The Marketing Director of Kingacademic. Charles has served as Head of Digital Marketing for major corporations, with 12+ years leading marketing strategy, cross-channel planning and revenue-system design — helping businesses generate 8-figure annual revenues. With deep expertise in business-model mapping, income-stream structuring and full-funnel planning, he has unified marketing for companies across the healthcare, education, e-commerce and corporate sectors — giving teams the structure and clarity to build, manage and grow a high-performing marketing ecosystem. He brings practical, data-driven business education — the kind used in real consulting engagements — to founders, operators and finance professionals who want to move beyond theory and actually read their own numbers.
Course features
- 100+ slides across three integrated modules, delivered as narrated video lessons
- One case company followed from start to finish across all three subject areas
- Example-first teaching — real numbers before formulas, in every lesson
- Downloadable templates, checklists and cheat sheets for immediate use
- Suitable for self-paced learning, with clearly signposted modules
- Bilingual course library available (English course; Traditional Chinese version also offered by Kingacademic)
- Practical software and tool recommendations for every diagnostic technique taught
Who this course is for
- Founders and business owners who want to read their own financials with confidence
- Finance, FP&A and accounting professionals moving into a more analytical or advisory role
- Marketing and operations managers who want to connect their KPIs to financial outcomes
- Consultants and advisors who need a repeatable framework for diagnosing client businesses
- Startup operators managing cash runway and fundraising timing
- Anyone responsible for setting or reviewing prices who wants a data-driven approach
- MBA and business students who want applied, case-based financial analysis skills
Disclaimer
- This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, accounting, tax or legal advice
- All figures, companies and case studies (including "UWell") are fictional or illustrative and used for teaching purposes only
- Software and tool names mentioned are for reference only; Kingacademic is not affiliated with and does not endorse any specific vendor
- Learners should consult a qualified accountant, financial advisor or legal professional before making business, financial or investment decisions
- Results from applying course concepts will vary by business and are not guaranteed
This course is organised into 17 sections covering 17 lectures. The full curriculum unlocks after you enrol.
