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SOLVBL
How we work

The whole method, before you hire us.

Every engagement runs the same three stages and the same four principles, with named deliverables and a date attached before each stage starts. It is written out in full below so you can hold us to it — whether or not you hire us.

3 stages, every time4 principles, no exceptions1 price, agreed before work starts

Four principles, on every engagement

  • Principle 01

    Understanding first

    The same symptom rarely has one cause across locations — a channel losing money in one region can be the one paying back fastest in another. No fix is proposed until we can name where the problem actually lives.

  • Principle 02

    Data-informed decisions

    Every recommendation is checked against evidence you can see yourself — your contracts, exports and location-level numbers, not a summary we wrote. Where corporate and local reporting disagree, we reconcile first.

  • Principle 03

    Practical implementation

    A plan only counts if the people who have to run it can run it. It is built for whoever runs the location — the person whose week actually changes, and who was not in the room when it was designed.

  • Principle 04

    Sustainable results

    Judged by what is still running after we leave: whether the field adopted it, whether corporate can hold it without us, and whether it survives ten more locations. A pilot-scale fix is not a finished fix.

Three stages, every time

Every engagement — audit, sprint, fractional leadership or coaching — runs the same sequence, with the deliverables named and a date attached before each stage starts.

01Discovery1–2 weeks02Solution design2–3 weeks03ImplementationScoped to the work

One fixed price for the whole scope, quoted after a twenty-minute call. No hourly billing, no annual lock-in — and the number does not move once we start.

Inside each stage

What gets produced, and what we are actually looking at while we produce it.

01
1–2 weeks

Discovery

Problem definition, impact analysis, current-state assessment, stakeholder map.

Technology assessment
Which systems already in place — POS, CRM, the location management platform, call tracking, listings — give you a location-level view or block one, and what a manager can actually run without extra headcount.
Strategic analytics
Performance by location and channel rather than the blended average, how spend splits between national and local budgets, whether that split matches the return, and what has already been tried.
02
2–3 weeks

Solution design

Solution architecture, implementation roadmap, resourcing, risk and mitigation.

Vendor optimization
What each vendor is contracted to do against what the business actually needs, where two overlap or a gap has no owner, and whether a function should be built or bought at your scale.
Operational excellence
Processes sized for a small corporate team plus a distributed field, communication that actually reaches the people running locations, and reporting that rolls up without losing location-level detail.
03
Scoped to the work

Implementation

Deployment plan, adoption and training, performance monitoring, success measures.

Performance systems
A rollout sequence across locations rather than a single launch date, measurement that holds at both system and location level, and benchmarks that define success.
AI and technology integration
Automation where it removes work a small team cannot absorb, technology that supports the people running the plan rather than replacing them, and adoption that survives turnover in the field.
Pricing

How we price it

One fixed price for the whole scope, quoted after a twenty-minute call once we know what problem you are solving. No hourly billing, no annual lock-in. The number does not move once we start. If we do not think the work will pay for itself, we will say so on that call.

Verification

What you can actually check

A published method is only worth publishing if you can hold it to account. These are the six questions to ask us, answerable from your own numbers rather than from anything we hand you — while the work is running, and again after we have gone.

  1. 01

    Is the problem named in Discovery actually fixed?

    Not a general improvement in the average — the specific problem, in the specific locations Discovery named. And was it still fixed the next time you looked, rather than only at the handoff meeting.

  2. 02

    Can you name which locations are running the fix?

    Which operators have adopted it, and which have not, by name — rather than being told that it rolled out.

  3. 03

    Is the return stated in dollars against what was spent?

    Checked in your own reporting, in your own platform, not in a summary we wrote about it.

  4. 04

    Does the reporting show location by location?

    And does the picture corporate sees match what a location manager sees on the ground that same week.

  5. 05

    Would the fix hold if you added ten more locations tomorrow?

    Or does it only work at the scale it was built and tested on, which is a pilot rather than a finished fix.

  6. 06

    Did this stick where the last agency, tool or initiative did not?

    And can you say specifically why it stuck — the mechanism that made the difference, not the fact that it did.

What we will not do

  • We do not take a commission or rebate from any vendor we recommend.
  • We do not sell the media we audit.
  • We do not take on work we cannot staff with senior people.
  • We do not write a report and disappear.

The four ways this method gets used

Same three stages, same four principles, applied to four different starting points.

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