Where I can move the number.
I take on a small number of engagements with owners and operators who are carrying more than they can fix alone. Most begin the same way: the business is fine on paper and struggling on the floor, and the answer is in the people, the systems, or both.
Building High-Performance Teams
Hiring through retention — the system, not the pep talk. Sourcing, interviewing, onboarding, pay and benefit design, and the development ladder that makes people stay. At Fresh Coast this produced retention near three times service-industry norms and a Homebase national Best Places to Work award.
Turnarounds & Underperforming Units
Three Starbucks stores turned around with double-digit comparable sales growth, and a convenience store rebuilt into a national award-winning market and sold at record profitability. I diagnose fast, sequence the fixes, and stay long enough for them to hold.
Deli & Specialty Retail Growth
As a Boar's Head Market of Distinction owner-operator — and the operator of the highest deli-slicing volume of any in the country — I help retailers grow deli and specialty categories through premium product, merchandising and ticket average.
Leadership Development
I trained every new store manager and district manager in a Starbucks region, then built enterprise training at a Fortune 100 company. The goal is leaders rather than supervisors — teams that run correctly when the owner is not in the building, and an owner who can finally take time off.
Technology & Operating Efficiency
I ran IT training across 1,500 business applications for 5,000 employees at Devon Energy, then brought the same discipline to a business with no IT department. The app I launched in 2021 drove roughly 9% of annual sales and holds 4.8 stars across 392 App Store reviews.
Seasonal & Tourist-Market Operations
Seven years running a Traverse City market where summer weeks ran three times winter ones — carrying 35 to 40 team members through winter to protect a 70-person summer peak, and holding profitability through months that break most operators.
Three ways in.
A short on-site diagnostic and a written plan you own, whether or not we work together after.
A defined build — the hiring system, the opening, the app, the leadership ladder — start to finish.
Ongoing operating leadership a few days a month, for owners who need a COO before they can hire one.