When we first met the founder, he was shouldering the weight of his dreams. Each day began with hope and ended in frustration. His team, scattered across time zones, struggled to connect or be self-accountable, leaving him isolated and his clients drifting away. Referrals dried up and the absence of clear systems turned every small hiccup into a crisis. Overwhelmed and exhausted, the founder questioned whether the business he believed in so fiercely could ever thrive versus just survive. Was it even possible to scale operations without burning out?
Main Challenges
- A team of strangers, more than colleagues, spread across continents, struggling to connect, leaving the founder feeling alone at the helm.
- Hard-won clients slipping away, referrals vanishing, and dreams under constant threat.
- Chaos without documented processes, where every small problem escalated into a crisis, draining energy.
- Crippling stress due to unrelenting pressure on sales.
- Lacking accountability, which increased the worry about something going wrong or a ball dropped.
- Team lacking skills to serve multiple clients effectively – any new clients would land on the owner’s shoulders to service.
How we scaled the Operations to Support Growth
Facing the Truth
Change didn’t happen overnight. It started with an honest, sometimes uncomfortable assessment: What was working? What was not? Where was the business leaking energy, time, and missed opportunities? Instead of patching over problems, we looked them square in the eye and documented the changes needed.
Redefined the Clientele
We documented what an ideal client meant for the business, what they would pay, and what services they would receive. We coupled that with documented growth goals and how many new clients a year were needed to produce the gross revenue and net profits needed. The alignment of goals with client criteria allowed the founder to say no to potential clients that weren’t aligned with the vision. This important change created space for more valuable relationships and increased stability.
Revamping Systems and Accountability
We implemented a CRM, built basic processes, and moved everyone from memory, paper notes, and email to the CRM being the central hub of communication and accountability.
We nudged the owner to start weekly team meetings with a short agenda, let others co-moderate a section of the meeting, and stop wavering into tangential conversations that left everyone confused and bored.
Building the Right Team
We then moved onto hiring the right people through soft marketing of open positions, a documented process for vetting them, and tucked in an experienced client manager, skilled assistant, and a marketing admin. We accelerated the exit of a senior professional that wanted to retire 2 years earlier, standardized compensation, and documented job descriptions for the first time.
Elevating Marketing Efforts
With a stronger, more cohesive team, marketing efforts became more thoughtful and intentional. Instead of casting a wide net, the business built a private community that targeted their ideal clientele, filled it with free knowledge, webinars, podcasts, and a few freebie items, and started to tell their followers to join in. The social media community grew from 1 to over 500 members in under a year, the newsletter subscriber list nearly doubled, and they attracted more complimentary experts that brought their own followers to the community. BONUS: This thriving community’s questions fed the business with social media topic ideas that hit the mark and attracted leads.
Valuing Time and Expertise
We helped the business stop giving free advice by implementing a pay for a call offer. The random call for help funded marketing and further affirmed the value of their expertise, which helped lead to more fruitful sales calls and closing rates.
The Results:
- Client retention jumped from 80% to 95%.
- Positive reviews skyrocketed from 25 to 80 in a single year
- Revenue grew from $950k 2022, $1.1 million 2023, $1.3 million 2024, and $1.7 million 2025.
- The business not only weathered storms – it flourished, allowed the founder to hire family, pay off house debt ahead of schedule, and travel with the confidence that clients were well served and the pipeline was humming.
Takeaways
The true transformation extended far beyond impressive metrics. The founder didn’t just turn his business around – he reclaimed his purpose and joy. Meaningful connections with clients were restored, pride in his team flourished, and opportunities to re-engage with both community and personal life became part of his everyday life.
With renewed confidence, he now looks ahead with hope rather than hesitation. He now has the space and energy to envision growth, seek a future successor, and dedicate more time to the people and activities that matter most. Through this transformation, hope shifted from a distant wish to a real, steady foundation in business and life. This journey stands as a reminder: lasting change is possible when you combine clarity, courage, and the right support.
Ready for Your Success Story?
Our Fractional COOs help service-based Health, Wealth, and Advocacy business owners and operators optimize talent and systems to scale business operations to support growth. We boost the foundational aspects of your business operations:
- Growth and Profit Projections
- Organizational Design, Roles, Responsibilities and Career Pathing
- Lean Process Design
- Client and Operations Experience Design
- Productive Collaboration
- Time Management
- Business C-Suite Operations Training
Ready for your own success story? We would love to speak with you.
