Systems
Make the work repeatable without making it rigid.
Why this part exists
This part creates the operational backbone that makes delivery, onboarding, acquisition, and financial improvement more consistent.
Cost of skipping it
Quality depends on who is working that day, acquisition stays fragile, and the money model never compounds cleanly.
What success looks like
Work flows through clearer steps, better documentation, stronger lead engines, and visible commercial signals.
Included chapters
- Process Mapping: Map how work really moves today.
- The Seven Wastes: Spot repeated drag inside delivery and admin.
- Standard Operating Procedures: Document the repeatable parts people actually use.
- Metrics That Matter: Choose a scoreboard that helps people act.
- Continuous Improvement: Fix the system instead of normalising workarounds.
- Cash Flow and Working Capital: Make cash visible, collect faster, pay on terms you have earned, and hold a reserve that absorbs shock.
- Client Retention and Lifetime Value: See who is at risk before they leave, design the cadence that prevents drift, and grow accounts that are already paying you.
- Customer Experience as a System: Design the post-sale experience as repeatable machinery so client trust does not depend on one person remembering.
Chapter 1
Process Mapping
Onboarding takes a month and nobody can say why. Draw the actual path of work today before you try to fix it or document it.
Chapter 2
The Seven Wastes
Work feels heavy and you cannot say where the time goes. Find the seven hidden drags inside delivery and admin and pull them out.
Chapter 3
Standard Operating Procedures
Your SOPs sit in a folder nobody opens. Write the small set of procedures the team actually uses so onboarding stops eating the founder.
Chapter 4
Metrics That Matter
Your dashboard has 40 numbers and nobody changes behaviour. Pick the small set the team can actually move week to week.
Chapter 5
Continuous Improvement
The same problem keeps coming back and the team has stopped flagging it. Build the rhythm that fixes the system underneath.
Chapter 6
Cash Flow and Working Capital
The P&L looks fine but the bank balance never moves. Get cash flow under control, collect faster, and hold a real reserve.
Chapter 7
Client Retention and Lifetime Value
A long-term client left and you did not see it coming. Spot the accounts at risk in the next 90 days and grow the ones already paying you.
Chapter 8
Customer Experience as a System
Two clients describe their experience with you in completely different ways. Design what happens after the sale so quality stops drifting.
Chapter 9
Money Model Architecture
Your clients buy once and disappear. Replace single-transaction revenue with a sequence of offers that builds value across years.
Tailored review
Get the playbook tailored to your business.
Tell us what you run and what you want to fix. Alistair will read it personally and send you a tailored version of the playbook for your specific situation. Free, no commitment, 48-hour turnaround.
Finished this part?
Continue to AI.
Apply what you learned: Draft your first SOP · Run the Stress Test