Work with Hannum Advisory.
Josh Hannum works directly with business owners to apply The 5Q Method: deciding what matters, turning it into committed action, and holding the discipline until the outcome changes.
Execution advisory for business owners, from the firm that developed the Method.
5Q keeps the focus. Hannum maintains the discipline. The owner owns the outcome.
Simple method. Serious discipline.
The Method can be understood in minutes. Q1 stays in place until the outcome is achieved or something else genuinely matters more. Q2 is the current set of commitments. Q3, Q4, and Q5 are asked at every 5Q Review, and the decision from Q5 creates the next Q2. Applying it consistently is harder: Q1 drifts toward what is comfortable, commitments get written generously and reviewed gently, and the review slides when the month gets busy.
- Q1What matters right now?
- Q2What will we do about it?
- Q3How are our actions progressing?
- Q4Where do we stand on what matters?
- Q5What next?
The Method supplies the structure. It does not supply the judgment. What an owner hires Hannum Advisory for is the experienced challenge, interpretation, memory, and persistence that make five simple questions hard to hide from.
What the advisor adds
Anyone can learn the five questions in an afternoon. Choosing, confronting, interpreting, challenging, and repeating them, review after review, is the discipline the relationship provides.
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Clarity
Reduce competing priorities to the one, two, or three outcomes that actually matter now.
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Precision
Turn broad ambitions into defined outcomes with a magnitude, a date, and evidence that will show whether they moved.
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Challenge
Question assumptions, make tradeoffs explicit, and name avoidance when it appears.
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Reality
Put what was expected next to what actually happened, for the commitments and for the result.
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Judgment
Interpret the numbers, the circumstances, and the behavior behind the result, and tell a reason from an excuse.
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Continuity
Remember what was committed, keep the standard from quietly moving, and hold the review rhythm until the outcome changes.
How the relationship works
The engagement begins with the outcomes that matter now, and then runs as a recurring review for as long as they do.
To begin
- Identify the active Q1, or Q1s. One to three, never more.
- Challenge whether each one genuinely deserves priority now.
- Define every outcome with a magnitude and a date.
- Agree what evidence will show whether it is moving.
- Set the first Q2 commitments.
- Set the review rhythm.
At every 5Q Review
- Q3How are our actions progressing. Did we do what we said?
- Q4Where do we stand on what matters. Did the outcome actually move?
- Q5What next. The decisions that create the next Q2.
- Repeat until the outcome is achieved, or something else genuinely matters more.
Between reviews
- A simple record is kept of the active Q1s, the current Q2 commitments, the evidence of progress, and the decisions from previous reviews.
- It is the memory of the engagement, not a project plan.
Reviews are scheduled at a cadence appropriate to the active priorities — often monthly, and more frequently when the work requires it.
The owner owns the outcome. The company’s people execute the commitments. Hannum Advisory does not manage projects, supervise staff, or step in as an operator or CFO. Its job is to make sure the right things are chosen, defined, confronted, and decided, review after review.
A good fit
Hannum Advisory suits an owner who
- runs an established private business
- has one to three meaningful outcomes that need focused execution
- values direct challenge
- is willing to make explicit commitments
- wants an outside advisor rather than another employee
- will confront results rather than explain them away
Probably not a fit for someone who
- wants general motivation or encouragement
- wants Hannum to manage employees or projects
- is unwilling to choose among priorities
- needs bookkeeping, tax preparation, or a fractional CFO
Josh Hannum, CPA
Founder, Hannum Advisory
Josh has spent decades working alongside owners of privately held businesses on finance, operations, cash, reporting, decisions, and execution. Much of that time has been spent at the table where an owner is deciding what to do next, with the numbers in front of them.
One pattern became hard to ignore. Owners usually know many of the things their companies need. The harder problem is deciding which of them actually matter now, and maintaining execution long enough to change the outcome. The 5Q Method grew out of that work.
The CPA background is a source of judgment, not the service. Financial information often helps quantify a Q1, establish evidence, and expose what actually happened. The practice itself is about the decisions an owner makes and whether the company follows through on them, whatever the subject: leadership, hiring, operations, sales, capacity, customer service, the owner’s own time, succession, or preparing the business for sale.
- The firm
- Hannum Advisory
- The category
- Execution Advisory for Business Owners
- The method
- The 5Q Method
- The review
- The 5Q Review
- The promise
- Get the things done that matter.
What matters right now?
Name the one, two, or three outcomes that deserve focused execution over the coming months. That is where the conversation starts, and I’ll be the one replying.