Small business transformation is often messy, especially when culture resists change. This team had the potential to thrive, but nonstop friction, zero structure, and absent leadership made growth impossible.
Main Challenges
- Too many low-revenue clients: The volume made quality service impossible and burned out the team.
- No roles, no processes: Everyone reported to the CEO. No clarity. No ownership.
- Daily friction: Constant confusion and conflict among team members.
- No tech: No active use of CRM for tasks, no scheduler, no automations. Everything was manual.
- Profit margins in the single digits: The business model couldn’t support growth.
- Leadership burnout: CEO and COO were working 24/7 just to keep the lights on.
- Cluttered systems: Old data and tasks buried priorities and slowed execution.
What We Implemented
- Clear roles and authority lines: Everyone knew who they reported to and what they were responsible for.
- Time-saving tech stack: CRM, scheduling tools, and automations reduced manual work and freed up hours.
- Productive meeting formats: Weekly team meetings with structure, purpose, and follow-through.
- Client strategy reset: Shifted focus to right-fit clients who valued the service and paid for it.
- Training and support: We didn’t just hand over tools—we trained the team to use them well.
The (Unfortunate) Results
- COO left for a better-run company with work-life balance.
- Younger client professional quit after six months.
- High-caliber university intern walked away.
- Client Service Manager refused to adopt any changes.
- CEO didn’t hold the team accountable—let resistance win.
This forced the company to onboard 10 new team members – despite no growth in revenue or leadership bandwidth – just to sustain an already broken and unsustainable business model.
Key Takeaways
- Culture eats strategy for breakfast: Even the best systems fail without buy-in.
- Leadership must lead: Without accountability, transformation stalls.
- Right-fit clients matter: Serving everyone means serving no one well.
- Tech is not optional: Manual operations are a fast track to burnout.
- Sustainability requires structure: Clear roles, processes, and goals are non-negotiable.
We didn’t lose to complexity – we lost to resistance. The systems were built, the path was clear, but the team chose to stick with what wasn’t working. When leadership won’t enforce change and the team refuses to evolve, progress stops cold.
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
