Run a small business for a month and find out what happens.

• The First Ninety

  Rye Corner · 90 days

  Clear the bar the shop was solved against.

  Running the shop exactly as it already runs sends it under. Something has to change, and ninety days is long enough that whatever you change in week two is still paying you — or still costing you — in week eleven.

• The Slow Sixty

  Tide Line Detailing · 60 days

  Clear the bar the van was solved against.

  This one sells time, and the drive between jobs is time nobody pays for — so the cheap quick job is the worst one in the book. Running the price list as it stands goes under; the same sixty days clear the bar on a price that accounts for the driving.

• The Full Chair

  The Chair · 90 days

  Clear the bar the chair was solved against.

  Three services, one chair. Ranked by ticket the colour is the biggest sale in the shop; ranked by what it earns per minute of the chair it is the worst. Running the price list as it stands goes under. What the shop sells is the lever, and price is how you move it.

• The Lunch Rush

  Rye Corner · 28 days

  Reach the end of the month with the doors open.

  Four hours of trade pays for twenty-four hours of lease. Running the counter as it stands does not cover it, and a month is not long enough to build your way out — so what you charge in week one is most of the answer.

• One Quarter

  Rye Corner · 90 days

  Clear the bar the counter was solved against.

  Ninety days is long enough for a queue you built in week two to still be paying you in week eleven — and long enough for a mistake to compound the same way. More than one line clears this, and they do not all clear it by the same margin.

• The Long Haul

  Tide Line Detailing · 90 days

  Clear the bar the van was solved against.

  The van sells time and the drive between jobs is time nobody pays for. A small price rise keeps the doors open for ninety days; it takes a real one to clear the bar. The gap between those two is the whole lesson.

• The Quiet Month

  The Chair · 28 days

  Reach the end of the month still standing.

  One chair, twenty-eight days, and $250 in the account. There is no room to grow your way out of this in a month — the only thing that moves fast enough is what you charge for the chair.

• The Last Quarter

  A Blockbuster store, winter 2004 · 90 days

  Corporate just deleted a tenth of your revenue. Keep the store where it was.

  A decision made three states away can take a tenth of your income on a date you did not pick. What is left is the part you control, and it is smaller than you think.

• Thirty-Four Against Forty-One

  A RadioShack store, 2014 · 90 days

  You keep 34 cents of every dollar and spend 41 selling it. Sell your way out.

  When the cost of selling exceeds the margin on what you sell, every additional sale makes it worse. No amount of volume fixes a business that loses money per unit — and volume is the first thing everybody reaches for.

• The List

  A Borders superstore, winter 2011 · 90 days

  Your margin has fallen seven points in two years. Find out whether this store can be saved.

  Some businesses cannot be run out of trouble. When what you keep per sale falls below what the building costs, volume is not the answer and neither is effort.

Want to play one of the demo shops without a set ask, or run the month on your own numbers? Open the sandbox.