Outsourced operations team
Operations is everything between the sale and the payment: scheduling, purchasing, admin, customer service, reporting and the processes that hold it together. When it lives in the owner's head, growth hurts. Our outsourced operations team gives you operations specialists from Ali's team who document, fix and run the back office alongside your staff, with Ali leading the engagement and the scorecard.
What you leave with
A back office that runs on written processes and a weekly report, not on your memory.
Who it is for
- Owners who are the dispatcher, the purchaser and the complaints desk
- Companies with staff who each do things their own way
- Investors who need the back office of an acquired business stabilised quickly
What we deliver
- Process maps and written procedures for every core workflow
- Scheduling, job costing and purchasing systems configured and in use
- Customer service standards: response times, scripts and escalation
- A weekly operations report: on time delivery, rework, utilisation, backlog
- Admin automation for invoicing, reminders, collections and reporting
- Training and a handover so your office lead owns the system
How it runs
01Observe
We spend time in your office and in the field, following work from order to invoice and noting every handoff.
02Fix
The five workflows causing the most rework get written, simplified and tooled first.
03Run
Our specialist runs the weekly operations meeting and the report with your office lead for a quarter.
04Hand over
Your team runs it. We stay for monthly reviews or step away with full documentation.
Engagement and fees
90 Day Sprint ($80K to $250K) to install the operating system in one quarter, then Advisory Retainer ($8K to $25K per month) for ongoing support. Fractional Executive band when the engagement includes a COO seat. Outcome based, never hourly. Every engagement is scoped after a call and confirmed in writing. See consultations and fees.
What good operations look like in a small company
A customer calls, and the person who answers can see the schedule, the history and the price. A job is booked, materials are ordered, the crew knows where to be and the invoice goes out the day the work is done. A problem gets logged, fixed and reviewed on Friday so it does not happen again. None of this needs expensive software. It needs written processes, a few connected tools and a weekly meeting that looks at the numbers.
That is what the team installs, in your tools where possible.
Where the money leaks
Rework from unclear handoffs. Trips back for parts that should have been on the truck. Invoices sent a week late and collected a month late. Overtime because scheduling was done by memory. Each of these is small and each repeats daily. The operations report makes them visible, and visibility is most of the fix.
We prioritise by dollars recovered, which is why invoicing and collections often come before anything more interesting. The report also gives your office lead a reason to run the weekly meeting without you.
What to prepare and common mistakes
Your current schedule in whatever shape it takes, last month's invoices with their payment dates, and the names of the people who know how things really work. Those people are the team's best partners, and we ask for their time early.
The common mistake is buying operations software before writing the process. Software hardens whatever process you have, so a bad process gets expensive. Write first, tool second. The other mistake is documenting only what the owner does, when the office lead's knowledge is what keeps the week running.
Industries where we run this most
Questions about this service
Do you replace our office staff?
No. We make their work clearer and automate the parts that should be automated. Most office teams are relieved to have written processes and a report that shows what they handle.
How is this different from a fractional COO?
A fractional COO is a leadership seat focused on cadence, managers and strategy. The operations team is hands on in the back office, writing processes and configuring tools. Many clients start with the team and add the COO seat, or the reverse.
Can you work with field service businesses?
Yes. Trades, home services and installers are a large part of Ali's agencies' client base, and scheduling, dispatch and job costing are where we spend most of our operations time.
How long does it take?
The first processes are live within weeks. A full operating rhythm takes about a quarter, which is why the 90 Day Sprint exists. Ongoing support afterward is monthly and lighter.
Tell us which seat is empty.
A 30-minute call with Ali about the business and the people running it. You leave knowing which role to fill first and whether fractional, outsourced or a hire is the right answer, whether or not we work together.