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Every founder-led business is at a different point in the same journey. Some are still trying to name what's actually stuck. Some know exactly what's broken and just need it fixed. Ops By Design meets founders wherever they are — because the work that changes a business only lands when it matches where the business actually is.
the ceo CHAT
Thirty minutes with someone who's sat inside businesses like yours. You already know your business needs structural work. The CEO Chat is where we figure out which of our offers fits your specific situation — the audit, one of the sprint tracks, or something else entirely. You'll leave with a specific recommendation for your next move. This isn't for founders still deciding whether to make a change. It's for founders who've decided they're ready and want to know exactly where to start.
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You've decided your business needs structural work and you're ready to invest in the right one.
Your business has real revenue, real clients, and real momentum. You're not starting out — you're figuring out what comes next.
You're weighing the audit against one of the sprint tracks and want a direct recommendation, not a comparison sheet.
You want to move fast and skip the runway of explaining your business from scratch.
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A grounded conversation about where your business is now — team size, revenue stage, and where your business currently can't run without you.
A read on the pattern of founder dependence I'm hearing, based on what you share.
A specific recommendation for your next move — the audit, one of the sprint tracks, or another path if that fits better.
Clarity on how to move forward, including timing and what onboarding would look like.
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30 minutes. One call.
Scheduled through the booking link below. Typically within one to two weeks of your request.
the AUDIT
The Founder Dependence Audit is a full diagnostic of where your business currently can't run without you — plus the complete roadmap of what would need to be built to change it. You fill out an 8-area assessment covering every dimension of your business. Within three to five business days, you receive a customized 20+ page report — read personally, written personally, and specific to your business. Not a scored quiz. Not a generic assessment. A real diagnostic that names the pattern beneath your business and hands you the implementation roadmap.
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You know your business runs through you but you want it named specifically — where, why, and what would need to be built to change it.
You want a strategic asset your business partner or team can read, not just insight held in your head.
You're not ready to commit to a sprint yet and want the full picture before making that decision.
You want a roadmap you can act on — whether you build it yourself, hand it to your team, or hire someone to build it for you.
Your business has clients, revenue, and momentum, and you want an outside diagnostic before you make your next structural investment.
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A full diagnostic across eight areas: Sales & Pipeline, Client Service Delivery, Offer Creation & Growth, Team Ownership & Accountability, Executive Visibility & Leadership, Financial Operations, Business Systems & Documentation, and Content & Marketing.
Your position on the founder dependence spectrum — Employee #1, The Operator, The Owner, or The CEO.
The pattern beneath the scores — what's actually driving your dependence at a structural level, in your business specifically.
The highest-leverage shifts to make first, given the pattern I see in your responses.
A complete implementation roadmap organized across the eight areas — so you know exactly what would need to be built, and in what order, to move your business forward.
A personalized recommendation of which sprint track fits — or whether a sprint is even the right next move for your situation.
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Three to five business days after you complete the audit.
You'll receive a link to a 20+ page personalized PDF report, along with a follow-up email offering a CEO Chat to walk through the findings if you want to.
the SPRINT | BUILT WITHOUT ME
Built Without Me is a 30-day sprint. One specific area of your business, rebuilt to run without you. Bounded engagement, clean start, clean finish. We diagnose the area, design the future state, build the systems, activate your team, and hand it off — in five weeks total. By day 30, that part of your business runs on structure instead of running through you.
The three tracks:
Sales & Pipeline
Client Service Delivery
The Operating System
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You know which specific area of your business is the bottleneck, and you're ready to have it rebuilt.
You want the structural work done — not a course, not a coaching program, not a framework you have to implement on your own time.
Your team is capable of executing new systems once they're built, but they don't have the bandwidth or the operator lens to design and build the systems themselves.
You've reached the point where hiring another person, delegating more, or working harder isn't moving the business past where it's stuck.
Your business has clients, revenue, and momentum, and you're ready to make the structural investment your next stage requires.
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A 5-week engagement — one week of onboarding plus 30 days of building — that rebuilds one specific area of your business on structure.
Every system, workflow, SOP, and framework designed and built specifically for your business, not adapted from templates.
Rolling activation with your team throughout the build, so systems are pressure-tested in real use before documentation is finalized.
Team training and full handoff at the end of the 30 days.
14 days of async email support after day 30 as the new structure settles in.
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5 weeks total. 30 days of building.
Plus 14 days of async email support after day 30.
frequently asked questions
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If your business has real revenue, real clients, and a team of some kind — and you've reached the point where working harder isn't moving it forward — you're ready. Ops By Design isn't built for founders still figuring out product-market fit or building their first offer. It's built for founders whose businesses have outgrown the way they were built. If you can name a specific area of your business that currently runs through you, we can build the structure that changes that.
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If you know exactly which area of your business is broken and you're ready to have it rebuilt, go straight to a sprint. If you're not sure — or if you want the full structural picture before making that investment — start with the audit. The audit reveals the pattern and gives you the roadmap. The sprint executes on it.
If you take the audit and move forward with a sprint within 30 days, the $497 audit fee is credited toward the sprint. Which means the audit becomes a risk-free step if you're leaning toward a sprint but want the diagnostic first.
Many founders take the audit first and then decide from there. Some skip straight to a sprint because they already know. The CEO Chat is where we work it out if you're on the fence.
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The 5-week structure is built with a real off-ramp. Onboarding happens before the 30 days start, and the sprint charter — the written plan for what we're building — gets your approval before we begin building. If the charter reveals a fit issue during onboarding, you have a clean exit before the sprint begins. Once we're building, you're seeing artifacts every week and your team is using them in real time, so there's no mystery about whether it's working. The bounded engagement itself is the risk protection: 30 days, one area, specific deliverables, done.
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A fractional COO is a long-term retainer relationship — someone who becomes part of your team indefinitely. A general operations consultant typically advises on what to build, then leaves you to build it. Ops By Design is neither. Every engagement is bounded, structural, and hands-on. You're not hiring another person to manage; you're hiring someone whose only job is to build a specific piece of infrastructure and hand it off, so you can run without them. The work is designed to end. That's the point.
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The CEO Chat and audit is typically available within one to two weeks. If the sprint is the right fit, onboarding usually starts within 3-4 weeks of contract signing, depending on availability. I work with a small number of founders each quarter, so sprint slots are limited. If timing matters for your business, book the CEO Chat early to hold a spot.
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Every sprint ends with 14 days of async email support so the new structure settles in cleanly. After that, the engagement is done — and that's intentional. Some founders come back a quarter or two later for a second sprint in a different area of the business. Some don't need to. The point of the work is that it holds without me. If you want ongoing operational partnership beyond a sprint, we can talk through what that could look like on the CEO Chat — but it's not the default.
work with
unearth
Ops By Design meets founders wherever they are. The work that changes a business only lands when it matches where the business actually is.
Not sure which offer fits your business? Start with a CEO Chat.