Operations review
An independent look at how your business actually runs, and a written answer on what to fix first.
When a review is worth doing
Most businesses arrive at this point the same way. The work has grown, the team has grown with it, and the way things are run has not been revisited since it was half the size. Something is clearly costing money or goodwill, and from the inside it is genuinely difficult to say what.
It is worth doing when too much depends on a handful of people, when margin is slipping without an obvious cause, or when you are about to take on more work and want to know what will break first. It is also worth doing before you hire, because a good deal of the headcount added to growing businesses is there to absorb admin that should not exist.
What happens
How long it takes depends on the size of the business and how much is going on, so I scope it with you before either of us commits to anything. What it involves is the same either way: sitting with the people doing the work rather than only the people managing it, following a job from the first enquiry through to the invoice, and going over the numbers you already keep. No useless questionnaires, and no workshops unless they genuinely earn their place.
Talking to the people doing the work matters more than anything else in the process. The gap between how a business is supposed to run and how it runs on a wet Tuesday is where the money goes, and the people closest to the work already know where that gap is. They are rarely asked.
What you get
A proper piece of work rather than a top line summary, written plainly enough to hand to your team and honest about what is worth doing and what is not: where the time and money are going, what to deal with first, and what it would take to deal with it.
You are free to take that away and act on it yourself, and plenty of owners do. If you would rather not, the natural next steps are a systems and process build to fix the biggest item, or fractional operations support so the improvements keep moving alongside the day job.
Common questions
How long does an operations review take?
It depends on the size of the business and how much is going on, so it is scoped before either of us commits. A smaller business might need a few days, a larger or more complex one longer.
Will it disrupt the team?
Very little. Most of it is spent watching work happen and talking to people while they do it, rather than pulling them into meetings.
What does an operations review cost?
It is a fixed fee, agreed once we both know what is involved, so there are no surprises later. The first conversation costs nothing.
Do I have to use you for the work afterwards?
No. The report is yours and plenty of owners run the changes themselves. Nothing beyond the review is assumed.
What size of business do you work with?
Typically growing businesses from around fifteen to a hundred and fifty people, often where delivery happens away from the office.
Start with a conversation
Half an hour on the phone is usually enough for us both to work out whether there is something worth doing here.