Diagnostic Sprints for Owner-Operators

Find where your business is leaking money.
In six weeks. With a number attached.

You built a real business. Now the numbers are blurry, the margins feel off, and the gut you used to scale on isn't enough.

We run a 60-day diagnostic that tells you exactly where the money is leaking — and what to do about it.

60
Day sprint to clarity
$2–10M
Owner-operator revenue range
Fixed
Fee. No retainer creep.
Quantified
Every finding in dollars
How We Work

Sprint first. Implementation second.

We don't sell open-ended retainers and we don't replace your team. We deliver a clear diagnostic, quantify the problems, and hand you a plan you can act on — with us or without us.

01
Discovery Call
Free · 60 Minutes

We listen for operational and financial pain — pricing that feels off, margins you can't explain, labor costs you can't pin down, customer concentration you can't see clearly. By the end, you'll know whether we're the right fit.

  • Operational pain mapping
  • Financial visibility check
  • Bottleneck identification
  • Honest fit assessment
Freeno obligation
02
Diagnostic Sprint
Fixed Fee · 60 Days

A deep operational and financial diagnostic delivered in six weeks. We reconstruct your margins, audit your labor utilization, benchmark your pricing, and deliver a prioritized action plan with a dollar figure attached to every recommendation.

  • Margin reconstruction by service line
  • True labor cost analysis
  • Pricing & customer concentration review
  • 3–5 highest-leverage actions
  • 90-day action plan, written and delivered
Scopedafter discovery
03
Selective Partnership
By Invitation · Post-Sprint

For a small number of clients each year, the sprint becomes a longer partnership — fractional COO support, board-level advising, or deeper operational involvement. We only take this work when the fit is right and the owner wants a partner, not a vendor.

  • Monthly operational reviews
  • KPI dashboard build-out
  • Managerial accounting integration
  • Hiring & capacity planning
  • Owner-level decision support
Customstructure varies

"We don't consult from the outside. We've built and operated inside complex businesses — and we know what it feels like when the spreadsheet stops telling the truth."

Who We Serve

Built for owner-operators.

Our clients are founders and operators running real businesses — $2M to $10M in revenue, 10 to 75 employees, decision authority in one or two people. Skilled at the work. Underserved by the financial and operational visibility tools that should make the next stage of growth possible.

Specialty Manufacturing & Fabrication

Countertop and stone shops, custom millwork, machining job shops, and specialty fabricators. You know the trade. The job costing, labor tracking, and margin visibility have not caught up to the complexity of the business you've built.

Licensed Trades & Service Businesses

HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and other multi-truck service operations. Revenue is healthy. Margins are not what they should be, and you don't yet have the system to tell you exactly why.

Multi-Location Practice Groups

Dental, veterinary, and medical practice groups expanding past their first or second location. The systems that worked at one location are breaking at three. You need visibility across the group before the next acquisition.

Aerospace, Defense & Advanced Manufacturing

Subcontractors and suppliers between $2M and $10M. AS9100 burden, contract fulfillment pressure, and job costing complexity that off-the-shelf tools weren't built for. Our background gives us native fluency in this world.

Our Edge

What makes us different.

Most operational consultants come from MBA programs or strategy firms. We come from engineering and the inside of a real business — and we anchor every recommendation in your numbers, not in a playbook from someone else's company.

Engineering Discipline
Systems thinking from complex programs

Our background includes mechanical and systems engineering at a major aerospace and defense prime contractor. We apply the same rigor — requirements, root-cause analysis, structured problem-solving — to your operation.

Financial Clarity
Managerial accounting fluency

Most operational advice ignores your actual numbers. We don't. Every recommendation is anchored in contribution margins, variance analysis, and job costing rebuilt from your real cost data. You see exactly where the dollars are.

Diagnostic, Not Dependency
We hand you the plan

We do not sell open-ended retainers or build dependency. The sprint delivers a plan you own — implement it yourself, hand it to your team, or invite us into a deeper partnership. The choice stays yours.

Systems engineering rigor. Managerial accounting clarity. The discipline of a complex engineering organization, applied to the business you actually run.

The Process

What working together looks like.

01
Discovery Call
Free · 60 minutes

We ask about your margins, your labor costs, your customer mix, and where your time disappears. By the end, both of us know whether a sprint is the right next step — and we will tell you honestly if it isn't.

02
Diagnostic Sprint
Fixed fee · 60 days

We go deep — operational walkthrough, margin reconstruction, labor and pricing analysis — and deliver a written diagnostic with a prioritized action plan. Every recommendation has a dollar figure attached.

03
Your Choice
Implement · Hand off · Partner

Most clients take the plan and run it themselves or hand it to their team. A small number invite us into a longer partnership. We do not push the retainer — the work either earns it or it doesn't.

Results

What our work looks like.

Every engagement is documented. We build pattern recognition across industries — and let the diagnostics speak for themselves.

Margin ReconstructionSpecialty Fabrication

Surfacing absent job costing in a ~$2M specialty fabrication business

Owner sensed margins were compressing but lacked the cost system to identify why. Diagnostic reconstructed true labor cost per job, benchmarked pricing against industry norms, and surfaced unverified assumptions driving underpricing on the highest-volume product line.

Quantified
Margin leakage by service line
3–5
High-leverage actions identified
Operational DiagnosticMethodology

How a diagnostic sprint actually works

Six weeks. Margin reconstruction by service line, true labor cost analysis, pricing benchmark review, and customer concentration assessment. Every finding quantified in dollars. Every recommendation prioritized by impact. A written diagnostic and a 90-day action plan you can act on with us or without us — drawing on accountability frameworks like EOS (Wickman, Traction) and managerial accounting discipline.

60 days
Sprint duration
Written
Diagnostic & action plan
Next case study in progress
Current client sprint · 2026
Your business here
Book a discovery call to start
Let's Talk

Book a Discovery Call

60 minutes. No pitch. We listen for operational pain and tell you honestly whether we can help.

Who this is for

An owner-operator running a $2M to $10M business — specialty manufacturing, licensed trades, multi-location practice groups, or technical subcontractors. You're profitable but the visibility isn't there. You can feel that something is off but you don't yet have the system to tell you exactly what.

Based in
Salt Lake City, Utah · Serving owner-operators across the Intermountain West
Confidentiality
All conversations and engagements held in strict confidence
What to expect

A 60-minute call. We'll ask about your margins, your labor, your customer mix, and where growth is stalling. You'll leave with at least one clear insight — whether we work together or not.

Schedule Your Discovery Call →

Free · 60 minutes · Phone or video · No obligation