Advice from someone who has run the numbers.
I am a business consultant for entrepreneurs and owner-operators. I have run a business, led operations inside one, and spent the last several years helping owners make the decisions they keep postponing.
Headshot placeholder.
Placeholder story. I started in a business where the margins were thin enough that one bad month meant a hard conversation with the bank. That is where I learned to read a P&L like a weather report, and to distrust any plan that could not be checked against a number by Friday.
Later I ran operations for a company growing faster than its systems. Pricing, hiring, fulfilment, the sales script: everything that had worked at ten people broke at forty. Rebuilding it, one decision at a time, is the job I still do today, just for other people's businesses.
Now I work with a handful of owners at a time. Some are stuck on pricing, some on operations, some on where AI actually fits. The pattern is always the same: the plan is fine, the deciding is not. So that is what we fix.
Five rules I do not bend.
- 01
The number first
Every engagement starts by agreeing which number we are trying to move. If we cannot name it, we are not ready to start.
- 02
Talk to the floor
Owners describe the business they intended to build. The people doing the work describe the one that exists. I need both.
- 03
Fewer things, done
A plan with seven priorities has none. We pick three, decide what stops, and put the rest in writing so it is not lost.
- 04
Build it with you
I do not hand over a deck. I sit in the room while the pricing page, the script or the workflow gets built and tested.
- 05
Leave it running
Success is the business not needing me. Every engagement ends with a playbook the team owns and a number they check weekly.
Where the scar tissue comes from.
- 2013
First business
Placeholder: ran a small operation and learned the difference between revenue and cash.
- 2016
Operations lead
Placeholder: led operations at a growing company; built the pricing and hiring systems that scaled it.
- 2019
Started advising
Placeholder: first independent engagements with owner-operators in food, retail and services.
- 2023
Practical AI
Placeholder: began building AI-assisted intake, reporting and sales workflows for small teams.
- Today
Consulting, courses, content
Placeholder: advisory engagements, a course in the works, and daily writing for owners.
Worth saying out loud.
- Slide decks that describe the problem back to you.
- Twelve-month retainers with no defined outcome.
- Growth advice that ignores cash and margin.
- AI for its own sake. If a checklist solves it, we use the checklist.
- Pretending every business needs the same playbook.
Have a decision you keep postponing?
Send a few lines about where the business is and what is stuck. I reply within two working days with an honest read, whether or not we work together.