Demosites

Hale & CoConsultantVoorbeeld, geen echte klant

Operations advice for companies that have outgrown the spreadsheet.

I work with owner-managed businesses between $5M and $50M in revenue, usually at the point where the thing that got them here has quietly stopped working. Engagements are fixed scope, fixed fee, and finish.

19Years in operations60+Engagements completed6–10Typical weeks per engagement

How I work

Three ways to start

Every engagement begins with the same two-hour session, and I will say so if the answer is that you do not need me.

Two weeks

Diagnostic

A short, unsentimental read of where the money is actually made and lost, delivered as a document you can act on without me.

  • Interviews with 6–10 people
  • Unit economics by line
  • Written findings and priorities
Six to ten weeks

Rebuild

Taking one broken process — pricing, planning, reporting — apart and putting it back together with the people who run it every day.

  • Weekly working sessions
  • Documented process and rules
  • Handover and training included
Ongoing, monthly

Standing counsel

Two days a month for owners who want a second opinion before the decision, not a post-mortem after it.

  • Monthly review session
  • On-call between sessions
  • Cancel with 30 days notice

Case studies

Three engagements, written up honestly

Names withheld at the clients' request. Numbers are as reported by their own finance teams twelve months on.

Manufacturing · 240 staff

A pricing model nobody could explain

The problem

Quotes were taking eleven days and coming out inconsistent enough that two customers found out they were paying different rates for the same order.

The approach

Six weeks: rebuilt the cost model from the ground up, sat with the four people who actually produce quotes, and wrote the rules down in language the sales team could use.

Outcome

Quote turnaround down to two days. Gross margin up 4.1 points within a quarter.

Professional services · 60 staff

Growth that had stopped paying for itself

The problem

Headcount had doubled in two years while profit stayed flat. Nobody could say which service lines were carrying the others.

The approach

Eight weeks of unit-economics work per service line, then a hard conversation about the two that were structurally unprofitable.

Outcome

Two lines closed, one repriced. Operating profit back to 18% inside three quarters.

Retail group · 12 sites

Twelve shops, twelve different answers

The problem

Every branch reported numbers a different way, so head office was managing on instinct and monthly guesswork.

The approach

Built one weekly reporting pack, agreed the definitions with all twelve managers first, then trained them on it in a single afternoon.

Outcome

One page, every Monday, used in every branch. Stock write-offs down 31% in a year.

About

Marion Hale

Nineteen years in operations, eleven of them running them rather than advising on them — two manufacturing sites and a distribution business that went from 40 to 300 people while I was responsible for it.

I work alone. That means I turn down work when the calendar is full, and it means the person in the first meeting is the person doing the work in week seven.

Start with two hours

No charge, no proposal deck afterwards. If there is a piece of work worth doing, you will get a one-page scope and a fixed fee within three days.

Request a session

marion@haleandco.example
+1 (555) 062-7719

Hale & Co
24 Whitcomb Street
Portland, ME 04101