Build a business that can carry your plan.
For business owners, from the first $500K to $100M a year
Most plans do not fail on the idea. They fail on the way the business runs. I spent 20 years judging which businesses hold up. Now I line up how yours runs with where you are taking it, so growth does not break it, and it stops depending on you.
30 minutes · Free · No pitch deck · No follow-up sequence
The plan is fine. The way it runs cannot carry it.
Most owners do not have a plan problem. They have a gap between the plan on paper and how the work actually moves day to day. That gap is where growth stalls, margin leaks, and the business gets valued for less than it should be.
- Grow sales without adding chaos
- Hand the decisions to the managers under you
- Be worth more, whether you sell, bring in a partner, or take some off the table
- Every new job adds work that lands on your deskStalls
- Your managers ask you instead of decidingWaits
- Most of what the business is worth walks out with youDiscount
Every line runs through you.
Almost every business I look at has the same widest gap: the plan assumes a team, and the work still routes through the owner. Buyers call this key-person risk. They pay less for it.
Same business. Three times the value.
Closing the gap changes the price the business commands. Below is a worked example on a $5M business, using what buyers paid in 92 completed sales in one industry. It is a model, not one of my clients.
Every big relationship sits with an owner. Paper files and spreadsheets. Three owners, three ways of doing the same job. Nobody underneath is ready to take it.
The work is written down. Second-line managers carry the key accounts. A future leader runs a profitable line the business used to hand away. Margin is above average for the industry.
Selling is only one use for that number. It is also what a junior partner has to buy into, what a bank will lend against, and how much cash can come off the table without starving the business.
Where those two prices sit against 92 completed sales in the same industry
What would have to change
- The office manager writes down how the work gets done, and the three owners start doing it one way
- The owners leave 25% of the earnings in the business and spend it on better systems
- Work the business used to hand to someone else becomes its own line, run by a future leader
- The owners put their managers on the key accounts and tell clients it is a just-in-case measure
- Some of the perk budget moves into training the team
- The owners start transition planning with a small circle inside the business
A modeled example, not a client result. Prices are from DealStats, covering 92 completed sales of insurance agencies and brokerages between January 2021 and December 2025, measured against net sales: median 1.56×, mean 1.73×, range 0.06× to 5.85×. The 1.0× starting point reflects a business in the bottom half of that range. The 2.5× is deliberately conservative for a business in the top half. The working rule behind all of it: every $1 of real improvement should return $5 to $10 or more in value. Your industry has its own numbers, and I will pull them for yours.
30 minutes · Free · The memo is yours either way
A $500K business and a $100M business break in different places.
The problems are different at each size, and so are the fixes. What I look at first does not change.
The goal: a business that earns while you take the week off
There is no structure yet. Just you, working harder. I build the first one: prices that cover the work, one owner for each job, and one number you check every week.
The goal: a business that decides and grows without you
The structure exists. It just all points at you. I move the decisions down: managers who can approve without asking, and margin broken out by service line.
Where you are. Where you're going.
Getting from one to the other takes work in a set order. That is where I come in.
Today
- Everything routes through you
- Busy, but margins are flat
- Two weeks off feels impossible
- Worth less than it should be
I walk it with you, month by month.
Where you're going
- Your managers decide without you
- Margin you can see and defend
- Real time away, nothing breaks
- Worth more to a buyer, a partner, or a bank
A straight read. Then next steps.
Thirty minutes on a call, then a written page you keep whether we work together or not. A first read, not a finished plan.
I look at how the business runs
Who decides, who executes, what stalls when you are out.
You get an honest map of where it depends on you
I mark what holds the business back
Single points of failure. Margin leaks. Wrong seats.
You get your three biggest risks, named
RISK #1 · KEY PERSON
WORTH FIXING · YES
You get it in writing. You decide.
One page: what I saw, what it costs you, what to fix first.
You get the memo, either way
30 minutes · Free · The memo is yours either way
Figures, not adjectives.
The same read that judged billion-dollar loan books, pointed at your business.
Lending fund under my authority as Chief Credit Officer
AgAmerica Lending · 141-person teamLoans bundled and sold to investors, across 18 states and about 2 million acres
Ag Resource Management · Chief Credit & Risk OfficerTeam output doubled while headcount fell by half through attrition
Quality standards heldFull risk and revenue split delivered on a board deadline
Customer experience intactThese are figures from my years running credit. I am writing my first client memos now. That is why the diagnostic costs nothing.
Most owners already have one of these. Here is what each one leaves to you.
How much of the work each option covers
30 minutes · Free · The memo is yours either way
A fraction of what a fractional COO costs. Month to month, no annual contract. Founding clients hold their rate while I write the first case studies. I give you the number on the call.
Who this works for.
This is for you if
- You own the business, whether it does $500K or $100M
- The business grew faster than the structure under it
- Too much still routes through you, and you know it
- You bought the system and adoption stalled, because nobody owns Day 2
- You want to hear what is actually wrong
It is not for you if
- You are pre-revenue or still finding the model
- You want encouragement more than an honest read
- You want it run for you. This is advisory, not staffing.
- You want the result without doing the work
The 30 minutes, exactly.
Thirty minutes. You will know where you stand.
Bring nothing. Leave with your three biggest risks in writing.
You meet me directly. No handoff. What you share stays between us.