THE OPERATIONS REVIEW — FOR OWNER-OPERATED COMPANIES
I’ll show you where your hours actually go — and what AI is genuinely worth in your operation.
Three weeks inside your business. At the end you own a written document that says where the hours go (including the workarounds nobody documented), what AI can actually address ranked by hours returned per dollar — with the arithmetic shown — and, named specifically, what you are being oversold and should refuse. $5,000, fixed. The document is yours outright whether or not we ever work together again.
Fixed fee · No software sold · No referral fee taken from any vendor assessed
Who this is for
Owner-operated companies in the Portland metro doing roughly $5–50M a year — contractors, trades, distributors, multi-location service businesses — where the owner still makes the technology decisions and keeps getting pitched AI by people who have never run anything. If that is you, the problem is not finding AI ideas. It is knowing which three of the forty are real for your operation, and having someone accountable say no to the rest.
What you get, exactly
- Where the hours go — mapped from your actual operation, including the undocumented workarounds your best people quietly maintain.
- What AI can genuinely address — ranked by hours returned per dollar, with the arithmetic shown, not asserted.
- What to refuse — named specifically, including whatever you are being pitched right now.
- A costed roadmap and the recommended first move.
- Written, plus two hours of discussion. You own the document outright either way.
Why trust the measurement
Before offering this, I ran two original studies in two unrelated industries — recording, word for word, what ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity actually tell buyers. One covered dog breeders across twelve states (180 recorded answers); one covered Oregon senior living. Two industries, same method, published on this site. The point is not the industries — it is that I measure what these systems do before holding an opinion about them, and I show the working. That is the same discipline the Review applies to your operation.
What this is not
- Not a software pitch. I sell no software and take no referral fee from any vendor I assess — which is the whole point of asking me instead of a vendor.
- Not a promise of outcomes. Nobody can guarantee what a given tool will do in your shop before looking; anyone who does is selling you something.
- Not for committees. This works when one owner can act on it. (Nonprofits, with committee decisions and grant cycles, are honestly not the fit.)
Price and terms, plainly
$5,000, fixed. Three weeks. Invoiced after we have talked and agreed the scope — there is no buy button here because I will not take $5,000 from someone I have not spoken to. If, afterwards, you want ongoing help putting the roadmap to work, a standing engagement exists at $8,000/month, month-to-month with 30 days’ notice and no minimum term — and $2,500 of your Review fee is credited against the first two months if you start within 30 days. Said out loud so you can weigh it: that credit means I have an interest in recommending ongoing work. The document is built to stand on its own precisely so you can take it and walk away.
Operations Review FAQ
Who does the work?
Mark Griffin, personally. I have run four organisations over nine years — budgets to about a million, payroll, boards, vendors — and I own and operate an eighteen-acre boarding kennel in Boring, Oregon today. I know what a week inside an owner-run operation looks like.
Can you show me a client result?
No — you would be among the first, and I will not invent one. What I can show you is the published research and exactly how the measurement is done. If you need a stack of case studies, I am the wrong choice and I would rather say so here.
What do you need from us during the three weeks?
Access to how work actually happens: a walkthrough of your systems, time with the people who run the day, and honesty about the workarounds. The disruption is deliberately small; most of the analysis happens on my side.
What if the honest answer is that AI isn’t worth much in our operation yet?
Then the document says that, with the arithmetic, and it tells you what to refuse in the meantime. That answer is worth $5,000 too — it is usually the one nobody selling software will give you.