Drowning in chaos · 12 weeksBuild Phase · ongoing Operate Phase
The team owns the day. You step out of every decision.Thirteen workflows close every leak between 'every decision routes to you' and 'the team owns the day' — built, handed back, run without you.
“I need a business that runs without every decision routing through me.”
By Week 4 your biggest operational drag stops landing on you. The team owns the workflow that fixed it, with the playbook they'll use to fix the next one. The first decisions stop routing through you, and your week starts to free up — not because you're working less, but because you're not in every call.
We take on 4 new partners per month. 1 slot open for June.
- Inc 5000#422
- 100+brands
- £152M+delivered
- 4-weekfirst-workflow guarantee or month 1 free
How does Build the Operating System actually work?
Operating System
01The Pain Fixed First
- We observe 3-5 live customer interactions to surface the biggest operational drag — operational observation, never a paid interview cycle.
- The pain pattern is named in the Diagnostic Output. The workflow spec is locked alongside the playbook template (built in #2).
- The workflow gets built and shipped live. Common patterns: onboarding speed, response time, quality consistency, scope-creep control.
- The team takes ownership. Founder hours on this drag drop to near-zero. The playbook stays — it's how the team runs the next fix without you in the seat.
Outcome: By Week 4 your biggest operational drag is fixed and the team owns it. The playbook template (built in #2) stays so the next fix ships without us in the seat.
Operating System
02Playbook Library
- Single-page playbook template authored at Week 2, alongside Workflow #1's spec — not a 50-page handbook.
- First worked example (Workflow #1's pain-fix) documented to the template as the team ships #1 in Weeks 3-4.
- Library lives in a single shared workspace (Notion / Confluence / Drive) — version-controlled, searchable, owned by the operator.
- Handover/extension test by Week 6: the team uses the template to start scoping the next pain without operator-in-seat involvement.
Outcome: By Week 6 the team has a reusable playbook template plus 1 worked example. They use it to scope the next operational fix without you in the seat.
Operating System
03Tools Stack Rationalisation
- Stack inventory: every paid tool, every login, every integration mapped.
- Usage audit: what's actually used vs what's billed for. Cancel-list signed off and executed.
- Keep-list locked with renewal calendar so subscriptions don't auto-renew silently again.
- Free-trial extensions or discount negotiations on retained tools. Typical recovered cash: £200-1,500/mo.
Outcome: By Week 4 your stack is rationalised. 30-50% of subscriptions cut. Cognitive load drops, monthly cash recovered, integrations mapped.
Operating System
04Days That Run Without You
- The weekly team meeting where decisions get made and stuck, not parked. You're a participant, not the chair.
- The daily checklist: 7-10 non-negotiables that hold the day together. Whoever runs the operation runs this — nothing waits on you to remember it.
- The stop-doing list: what comes off your plate this quarter. Concrete. Dated. Owned.
- The Way We Work doc: short, written, the operating playbook the team and your future hire run from. No 50-page handbook — the 5 things that matter, written down.
Outcome: By Week 8 the day runs on the rhythm and the checklist, not on you remembering. The team owns the operating discipline.
Operating System
05Founder Time Reclaimed
- Calendar audit: where the founder's hours actually go vs where they should. Typically reveals 30-40% of time on operator work.
- Delegation framework: decision rights mapped — what the team can decide, what comes to the founder, what comes by exception.
- Meeting hygiene audit: every recurring meeting tested against keep / cut / compress / async.
- Protected work blocks installed: 2-3 hour blocks for founder-only work, defended as non-negotiable. Diary reviewed weekly against actuals.
Outcome: Founder calendar opens up by 6-8 hours a week by Week 8. Delegation framework signed off. Meeting calendar trimmed. Protected work blocks running.
Operating System
06Team Training Rhythm
- Weekly 30-min training session locked in the calendar from Week 5 onwards.
- Knowledge-transfer cadence: each session takes one playbook entry from #2 and runs the team through application.
- Check-work ritual: operator + founder review samples weekly, scoring against the playbook (the 'check their work' piece of Stage 3 graduation).
- Skills-gap log per team member with a targeted training plan that turns gaps into capability over the engagement.
Outcome: By Week 8 the training rhythm has run for 4+ weeks. Check-work ritual operational. Each team member has a skills-gap plan and at least one playbook entry they can demonstrate independently.
Get the Meeting
07No Lead Slips Through
- Lightweight CRM consolidation across whatever you've collected so far — single source of truth, no more leads buried in inboxes.
- 10-question fit qualifier auto-scores prospect fit before sales time gets burned on bad-fit conversations.
- Speed-to-first-reply audit on every inbound channel. Where leads are sitting overnight, we install the routing fix. Where reply is already sub-60-second, we leave it.
- Founder sales-pipeline dashboard: read pipeline + lead health in under a minute, weekly. Distinct from the Ops Health Dashboard (#8) which tracks team capacity and delivery health.
Outcome: No lead slips through the cracks. Bad-fit prospects screen themselves out before consuming sales time. Sales pipeline reads in under a minute, weekly.
Get Chosen
08Customer Onboarding That Lands
- Welcome flow built or refreshed: kickoff message + setup checklist + first-week comms cadence.
- First-value milestone tracker: what success looks like at Day 7, Day 30, Day 60 — measurable, not vibes.
- Onboarding playbook authored to the Playbook Library template (#2) so it extends the library, not parallel to it.
- Onboarding-specific dashboard rows feed into the Ops Health Dashboard (#8) so at-risk onboardings surface early.
Outcome: By Week 10 every new customer hits a structured welcome + first-value milestone. Stage 3 buyers consistently underweight the first 14 days; this workflow corrects that.
Get Chosen
09Delivery That Holds
- The customer promise, written down: what 'good' looks like for every project, every customer. One page, signed off, the team operates against it.
- Quality gate before delivery: a sign-off ritual that catches the slip before the customer sees it (operator + founder for the first month, operator-only after).
- Complaint loop closure: every complaint flows back into the Playbook Library from #2 so the same complaint never lands twice.
- Quality-gate metrics feed the Ops Health Dashboard (#8) so the founder reads delivery health in under a minute weekly.
Outcome: Delivery quality holds even as the team grows and you step back. Customers stop complaining. The complaint loop closes itself by feeding the next pain-fix and playbook entry.
Get Chosen
10Customer Comms Rhythm
- Planned check-ins at fixed intervals: 30-day, 90-day, quarterly. Not ad-hoc. Not when the operator remembers.
- Outreach triggers tied to customer signals: drop in engagement, change in primary contact, scope friction, missed responsiveness target.
- Feedback capture at the right moment with structured questions per check-in stage. Not exit-interview surprise.
- Early-warning satisfaction signals + at-risk alerts wired to the operator's calendar; alerts feed the Ops Health Dashboard (#8).
Outcome: Customers feel looked-after, not forgotten. At-risk customers surface in the dashboard before they've decided to leave. The retention conversation happens upstream of churn.
Operating System
11Ops Health Dashboard
- Team capacity rows: utilisation per FTE, capacity headroom, overload signals.
- Delivery quality rows: quality-gate pass rate, complaint volume trend, satisfaction trend (feeds from #11 + #12).
- Customer health rows: renewal pipeline, at-risk count, churn-warning alerts (feeds from #12 early-warning signals).
- Single pane of glass — operator owns it, founder reviews weekly in 5 minutes.
Outcome: Founder reads the operation's health in under 5 minutes weekly. At-risk team members, slipping delivery quality, churn-warning customers all surface before they become fires.
Operating System
12First Hire That Sticks
- The Job Description: written for the role we just defined in #1, #3, #5, #11 — operator who runs the BOS workflows, not a generic 'second-in-command' ad.
- The 10-question scoring rubric: how to grade every candidate against the actual operator competencies the role needs.
- The interview script: 4-5 structured calls — the questions that surface real signal vs polished interview answers.
- The 30-60-90 plan: what the new hire owns by month 1, month 2, month 3 — anchored to the BOS workflows they inherit.
- The hire usually lands 60-90 days from when you post — often in early Operate Phase. We ship the system; you make the call.
Outcome: By Week 12 you have the hiring system ready to run. The hire usually lands 60-90 days from posting — often in early Operate Phase. Templates are yours to keep.
Universal
13Referrals That Run Themselves
- 7 referral-ask emails templated to the relationship type (existing client, past client, peer founder, supplier, friend, former colleague, mentor).
- Tracking sheet so you can see which asks landed and which need a nudge.
- Ritual fires day-after the first paying outcome lands, not at engagement-end. Repeats at every Build Phase Gate.
- Template is yours to keep. After the engagement, you can run the ritual every quarter forever.
Outcome: The referral engine becomes a repeating ritual you own, not a one-time ask. Every paying outcome triggers 7 conversations with people most likely to send you the next one.
What outcomes have past clients achieved?
£400K+
Professional Services · 200–500 employees
The firm was capped. Not by demand, by capacity. The team was so buried in admin, reporting, and internal overhead they couldn't take on new clients. Month-end took 14 days. Project managers spent 10+ hours a week on meeting notes, status updates, and chasing actions. Client deliverables were routinely late, not because the work wasn't done, but because the overhead of documenting and communicating it consumed more time than the delivery itself. Revenue was capped by operational drag, not by market opportunity. We started with Close the Deal, the internal processes capping revenue. Month-end close went from 14 days to 2 days. PM admin went from 10+ hours a week to under 2. Meeting summaries automated, action tracking automated, status updates compiled automatically. The headline outcome from caseStudies.ts: £400K+ in revenue capacity recovered, redeployed to growth, without hiring. The pipeline wasn't the problem. The ability to deliver was.
“We thought we weren’t technical enough for this. Turns out we didn’t need to be. Our people just needed someone to show them what was possible with the problems they already faced.”
Chief Operating Officer, Professional services firm
2x
Logistics & Distribution · 2,000+ employees
Revenue had plateaued. The leadership team was operating like a group of individuals who happened to share an office, not an organisation with a growth engine. There was no structured sales process. No accountability system. No operational cadence connecting effort to outcomes. Directors made decisions in silos. Nobody owned pipeline. Nobody owned margins. The business had grown on reputation and inbound alone and now growth had stalled, with nothing to restart it. We built the operating system from scratch. OKRs and accountability frameworks. Meeting cadence, review process, operating rhythm that turned a group of capable individuals into a professional organisation. AI sales tools, transcript analysis, AI hiring. SEO strategy, content engine, newsletter system. The headline outcome from caseStudies.ts: revenue doubled and profit doubled (+40% EBITDA) within 18 months. Sales process built from scratch. Operations went from silos to a full OKR system, a professional org.
“He didn’t just advise us on how to grow. He sat in the seat, built the machine, and drove the revenue. The business is unrecognisable.”
Owner, National logistics company
3x
Construction · Small business
The business was growing but profitability wasn't keeping up. Quotes were taking hours, every single one built from scratch, manually costed, manually formatted. The owner was spending more time on admin than on the work that made money. There was no lead system. No structured offer. Clients came through word of mouth and hope. We started with Get Chosen, rebuilt the offer so it was clear, priced properly, structured so clients could say yes without a 3-week back-and-forth. Then Close the Deal: an AI quoting tool that turned hours of manual work into minutes. Then Get the Meeting: a lead system that actually worked. The headline outcome from caseStudies.ts: 3x profitability within 1 month. Quoting went from hours to minutes. Pipeline went from word of mouth only to a lead system active. Three workflows, one month, three times the profit.
“The guidance and time they invested went far beyond what we paid. Just as invested in our success as we were. 3x profitability within a month.”
Business Owner, Construction company
“It genuinely felt like they were just as invested in our success as we were.”
Les Dennis, Bright River Ltd
What guarantees come with the engagement?
4-week guarantee
Workflow #1 live by Week 4 or month 1 retainer removed automatically. No negotiation. Same on every package.
Quarterly minimum, no lock-in
12-week packages = 3-month commit. 6-month packages = 6-month commit. Either party can call it at Build Phase Gates (Week 2, 4, 8, 12).
15% referrer fee
Standard clause: 15% of MRR for first 6 months on any new client you introduce that signs.
IP transfers
Every workflow templated and handed to your team during the final month. You keep what we built, even if we wrap.
Common questions about Build the Operating System.
What does Build the Operating System actually fix?
Thirteen workflows that stop the wheels coming off. The biggest operational drag fixed live by Week 4. The playbook library the team extends for every future fix. The rhythm that runs the day without you in every decision. The stack rationalised, the founder calendar reclaimed, the team training rhythm installed, the customer onboarding system, the leads that stop slipping through, the delivery quality that holds, the customer comms rhythm, the ops health dashboard, the first operator hire set up to stick, the referral ritual that fires on every delivery-quality win. Founder hours collapse and the business runs on the system, not on you.
How is this different from hiring a Head of Operations?
A Head of Ops at £60-80k a year carries a 6-month ramp plus the opportunity cost of you still doing operator work while they get up to speed. We ship the operating system itself in 12 weeks. The workflows, the rhythm, the playbook templates, the dashboard. Plus the JD and the 30-60-90 plan that defines exactly who you're hiring. Same outcome, faster, and you keep the IP whether the role is later filled or not.
What if I have leaks in my pipeline and chaos in my operation?
Buy Fill the Pipeline first. BOS assumes leads are arriving but falling out the bottom. If your pipeline is patchy or empty, FTP closes that gap first and BOS comes second once the pipeline is fed. The two stack cleanly. Most operators graduate from FTP into BOS over 6 to 9 months, not in parallel.
What if we already have processes that work?
Then we audit, not rebuild. Each workflow ships in one of three modes. Full build, where we build from scratch. Hybrid, where we build some elements and audit-and-targeted-fix others. Scaffolding, where we ship the system and you execute on your timeline. If your CRM is fit-for-purpose, we audit and fill the obvious gaps. If delivery is already consistent, the Quality Gate is a one-week tightening, not a four-week rebuild. You don't pay to rebuild what works.
Does the First Hire That Sticks workflow mean the hire actually starts during the engagement?
Usually no, and we're explicit about that. JD-to-start-date is typically 60 to 90 days from when you post. We ship the JD, the scoring rubric, the interview script, and the 30-60-90 plan during Weeks 9-12. You post by Week 10 if you want the hire on by Week 14-16. The hire often lands in early Operate Phase, not by end of engagement. We ship the system. You make the call.
What happens after the twelve weeks?
Operate Phase. Your team owns the thirteen workflows and we run lower-touch oversight. The weekly rhythm, the daily checklist, the quality gate, the dashboards, the playbook library, the training rhythm, the comms cadence, all transferred during Weeks 9-12 so engagement-end is handover-ready. Operate Phase rate is around 70 to 80% of Build Phase. Most partners stay on Operate Phase indefinitely. The engine runs without us in the seat.
How much does Build the Operating System cost?
Pricing is matched to your scope on the call with Josh, not published on the page. Most engagements at this stage land in a band that pays back inside the first quarter against the cost of an underperforming operation. Find what fits and we'll render a 1-page proposal preview inline with the exact number for your business.
Same playbook took TNT Growth from £200,000/month to £500,000/month in 11 months.
Yours could be next.
We take on 4 new partners per month. 1 slot open for June.
If your business is in a different stage of growth, we'll route you to the right scope on the call.