Move recurring workshop operations from founder-dependent to manager-controlled.
A 10-business-day control build around one operating loop—booking, capacity, staffing, prep, inventory, day-of exceptions and weekly review—so recurring issues have owners and escalation rules instead of defaulting upward.
Booking → capacity / staffing rule
Each workshop gets a visible capacity, staffing requirement, accountable owner, cutoff points, and exception threshold. The goal is to stop “who is covering this?” from becoming a founder question.
Prep → inventory readiness
Tie required workshop inputs to upcoming sessions so shortages, late prep, or missing materials surface early enough for the assigned owner to act.
Day-of exception queue
Late staff, capacity conflicts, customer issues, missing materials and other recurring exceptions route through defined owners and escalation thresholds instead of scattered texts or founder interrupts.
Close → operating metrics
Capture the small set of numbers that help managers control the loop: utilization, revenue/session where available, labor load, cancellations/no-shows, inventory exceptions and customer-service exceptions.
Weekly founder review by exception
The founder sees unresolved decisions and repeated exceptions—not every task. Recurring answers become SOPs, rules or manager-owned decisions.
What the 10-day sprint returns
- Current-state operating map
- Ownership / handoff / escalation matrix
- Workshop exception structure
- Lightweight weekly KPI scorecard
- 3 implementation-ready SOPs/checklists
- One contained automation or reporting improvement where practical
- 30/60/90-day backlog for the Fractional COO to inherit
What it does not claim
- No claim to replace the Fractional COO search
- No invented profitability or staffing improvements
- No legal / HR / regulatory determinations
- No assumption that existing tools need replacement
- No company-wide transformation inside 10 days
Start with the two or three operating problems that still reach the founder most often.
Send the tools currently in use, the recurring workflow, and where ownership or escalation breaks down. Ops Control HQ will confirm whether the fixed $1,250 scope holds before anything starts.
Send the operating mess →