The short version
I've owned and operated more than fifteen companies across real estate sales, real estate development, e-commerce and consulting, with more than two hundred million in revenue through those companies. I collected a few scars along the way, and some of them turned into rules.
Now I consult with founder-led businesses that are not growing: typically owner-operated companies under twenty million in revenue, most of them under five million. That size matters. Above it, professional management, boards and institutional capital start to force structure whether the founder likes it or not. Below it, the founder is still the operating system. When that operating system is overloaded, outdated, or protecting the wrong work, the company stops.
What I see
Most of the businesses I sit with are not failing. They are stuck. They have customers. They have a product or a service people will pay for. They have a founder who was once clearly the reason the thing existed. Then the curve flattened.
The causes are almost always the same three, mixed together:
- Design. The company still needs you in every deal.
- Margin. You're busy, but not keeping enough profit.
- Inputs. You know what to do and you're not doing enough of it.
How I work
People hear "consultant" and picture decks. That is not the work I care about.
I start with your actual week next to the company's actual constraint. Then we name the two or three jobs only you should keep, take you out of the work that flatters you, and set a cadence that doesn't depend on hustle.
I'm not interested in turning owner-led companies into soulless machines. I'm interested in making them durable enough that the owner's best work can matter again.
Where the writing comes from
I like to write things in a notebook to organise my thoughts before I turn to a computer. Most of the essays on this site started as a line on one of those pages.