Operational Design Solutions
The business outside
your head.
Most owners aren't drowning because they're bad at their work. They're drowning because the work lives in their head — and the structure underneath them hasn't caught up.
What ODS does
I help business owners take what's in their head and turn it into a system their business can actually run on.
The three things I hear most
No. 01
Get back your
bandwidth.
"Everyone still comes to me for everything."
See the choreography →
No. 02
Get back your
money.
"I know it's leaking — I just can't see where."
Test the moves →
No. 03
Get back your
time.
"My whole business lives in my head."
Meet the second brain →
Pillar 01
Get back your bandwidth.
"Everyone still comes to me for everything. I want to step back, but the moment I do, things stop."
Toggle the engagement
See what they walked in with — and what we built to replace it.
↓ Watch the whole page transform
One task has been delegated from the owner to the studio manager this week — freeing up roughly 47 minutes of approval queue time.
Before
Everyone wears every hat. Decisions pile on the owner's desk. The team wants to help — they just don't know what's theirs to own. Nothing falls cleanly. Everything falls eventually.
After
Same team. Same season. Same business. But now everyone knows what's theirs — and the owner has her hands back on the work she's actually good at.
1
Start with the people
The team isn't the problem.
Before redesigning any workflow, we look at who actually fills the roles — what energizes them, what drains them, where the friction lives.
The owner
The Studio Owner
The Owner / Everyone-Else
Founder · Lead designer · 9 years
Wears every hat · approves everything · 9 years
Energizes her
Creative direction, first consults with new couples, the moment a design clicks. The reason she started this.
Unclear. She used to know — somewhere between the deposit tracking, the team questions, and the 9pm vendor calls, she stopped noticing what she liked.
Drains her
Approval queues. Deposit tracking. Repeating the same answer to three different team members. None of this is the work she's good at.
Everything. Every decision. Every approval. Every question. She is the system.
Role fit: 74%
The Studio Manager
Sarah · helps wherever needed
Operations · Full-time · 4 years
Job title: "Studio Assistant" — does a bit of everything
Energizes her
Logistics, problem-solving, being the one who knows where everything is. Thrives when the team trusts her to hold the operational thread.
She's good at logistics — but she's also designing arrangements, replying to clients, and managing the calendar. Hard to say what's hers.
Drains her
Creative decisions that should be the owner's. She'll make them — but then carry the worry that she made the wrong call.
Carrying decisions she shouldn't have to make. Caring more than her job title suggests she should.
Role fit: 88%
The Lead Designer
Maya · creative person who also helps out
Creative · Full-time · 2 years
Hired as "designer" — role has crept
Energizes her
Proposal design, sourcing rare stems, the puzzle of fitting a vision into a budget. Wants more ownership of client creative conversations.
Design work, when she gets to do it. Lately that's been about a third of her time.
Drains her
Event-day chaos. Strong introvert. Six client touchpoints on install day exhausts her for a week.
Being thrown into install days because someone has to be there. She quietly dreads them.
Role fit: 82%
The Event Captain
Jess · freelancer, called in for big events
Freelance · Big events · 18 months
No clear role · paid hourly · trust unclear
Energizes her
High-stakes install days. Reads a room instantly. Makes calls the owner used to have to make. Born for this work.
The big installs. But she has to ask permission for every decision, which slows everything down and drives her crazy.
Drains her
Anything administrative. Don't ask her to track hours. Don't ask her to email vendors. She'll resent it within a week.
The constant check-ins. The owner second-guessing her on-site decisions. She's thinking about quitting.
Role fit: 94%
2
Set the rules
When the owner gets pulled in — and when she doesn't.
A simple escalation plan turns "everyone comes to me for everything" into clear, written-down rules. The team gets confidence. The owner gets her calendar back.
No rules in place
Everything routes to the owner.
No threshold for spend. No clarity on creative decisions. No autonomy on event days. Every question is an owner question by default.
What gets escalated?
Refund requests · stem substitutions · venue questions · vendor disputes · timing changes · client complaints · pricing tweaks · color swaps · event-day weather calls · invoice questions · scheduling conflicts · …
The Escalation Plan
Three lines. Three rules. One owner who stops being the bottleneck.
When a question comes in, the team checks against these rules before knocking on the owner's door.
1
If it's under $500
Studio Manager decides.
Vendor substitutions, last-minute add-ons, refund requests under threshold. She has full authority — owner reviews in the Friday recap, not in the moment.
2
If it's creative direction
Lead Designer decides.
Stem substitutions, palette adjustments, design pivots within the approved budget. The owner only gets pulled in if the client specifically requests her.
3
If it's the day of an event
Event Captain decides.
Every call on-site is hers. She reads the room and makes the call. Owner is unreachable unless someone is bleeding or the venue is on fire.
3
Then the choreography
How a wedding actually moves through the studio.
Once people and rules are in place, the workflow becomes simple. Without them, no amount of process can save you.
The way it was running
No clear handoffs. The owner does most of everything.
Every wedding ran a little differently. The owner caught what fell. Most days, that meant catching everything.
Owner
+ everyone-else
Sarah
Studio assistant
Maya
Designer
Jess
Freelancer
Step ?
Inquiry comes in
Reads first email
Replies to inquiry
Books the consult
Holds the call
Maybe takes notes?
—
—
Step ?
Proposal happens
Drafts pricing
Approves design
Sends contract
Chases deposit
Asks if signed
Helps with design
Asks owner re: budget
—
Step ?
Sourcing & design
Approves stems
Calls vendors
Approves substitutions
Tracks orders
Asks owner what's late
Designs
Asks owner re: stems
Reworks based on feedback
—
Step ?
Event & close
On-site
Decides on swaps
Manages strike
Sends invoice
Answers everything
Texts updates to owner
Helps install
Texts owner re: chaos
Texts owner constantly
Waits for decisions
Step ?
Inquiry comes in
Owner handles
Reads first email
Replies to inquiry
Books the consult
Holds the call
Sarah: Maybe takes notes?
Step ?
Proposal happens
Owner handles
Drafts pricing
Approves design
Sends contract
Chases deposit
Sarah: Asks if signed
Maya: Helps with design · asks owner re: budget
Step ?
Sourcing & design
Owner handles
Approves stems
Calls vendors
Approves substitutions
Sarah: Tracks orders · asks owner what's late
Maya: Designs · asks owner re: stems · reworks based on feedback
Step ?
Event & close
Owner handles
On-site
Decides on swaps
Manages strike
Sends invoice
Answers everything
Sarah: Texts updates to owner
Maya: Helps install · texts owner re: chaos
Jess: Texts owner constantly · waits for decisions
The Choreography
Four steps. Four roles. One clear path.
Every wedding now moves the same way through the studio. The handoffs are visible. Nothing falls between the cracks.
Owner
Creative
Manager
Operations
Designer
Lead designer
Captain
Event lead
Step 01
Inquiry & consult
Holds creative call
Books, preps notes
Step 02
Proposal & contract
Tracks deposit
Builds the proposal
Step 03
Sourcing & design
Final approval only
Orders, tracks
Designs, sources
Step 04
Event & close
Final invoice
Preps arrangements
Leads install & strike
Step 01
Inquiry & consult
Owner · owns this
Holds creative call
Manager
Books, preps notes
Step 02
Proposal & contract
Designer · owns this
Builds the proposal
Manager
Tracks the deposit
Step 03
Sourcing & design
Designer · owns this
Designs, sources stems
Owner
Final approval only
Manager
Orders, tracks delivery
Step 04
Event & close
Captain · owns this
Leads install & strike on-site
Designer
Preps arrangements
Manager
Sends final invoice
Owns this step
Supports this step
→ Handoff path
Pillar 02
Get back your money.
"I know something's off with the money — but I can't see it clearly enough to fix it."
A note flagged from your brain dump is waiting here.
Toggle the engagement
What they walked in with — and the four systems ODS built to replace it.
↓ Watch the whole page transform
1
What they walked in with
How time is tracked today
"It's somewhere on a sticky note."
Hours scribbled where they land. Quick replies, calls, last-minute texts — most of it never makes it onto an invoice.
Choi call
25 min?
25 min?
MOB texts Thurs
lots
lots
site walk
~2 hrs
~2 hrs
vendor call
15 m
15 m
peony hunt
forever
forever
Money earned · not yet yours
"I'll send it tomorrow."
Invoices drafted in the heat of finishing a job. Then the next job starts. Then a week passes. Then payroll panics.
Merrick wedding · final
Drafted Feb 26 · never sent
$3,400
11 days
Choi Q2 · scope addition
Drafted, never sent
$680
22 days
Vance birthday party · final
Drafted on phone, lost in notes
$1,150
8 days
What doesn't exist yet
No live cash visibility. No weekly rhythm. No way to see what's leaking.
Owner checks bank balance and hopes for the best
QuickBooks is months behind, no one trusts it
No way to test "what happens if I make X move this week"
Late fees in the contract — never applied, ever
Subscription billing runs late because owner forgets
Money decisions happen reactively, when something gets scary
No system in place
"How do we know if we can cover payroll?"
No live cash dashboard. No way to see the week ahead. The owner finds out on Wednesday morning.
No recurring rhythm
"Friday should mean something — but it doesn't."
No weekly money ritual. No checklist. Invoices, billing, and reconciliation happen whenever they happen.
Built by ODS
System 01 · Cash Position Dashboard
Cash position
Week of Mar 16
$8,420
Friday close
−$2,180 below comfortable runway · payroll Wed
Moves you could make
Each one changes Friday's cash position. Tap to test.
Send Merrick wedding invoice
+$3,400
Event 11 days ago. Drafted, never sent.
Chase Okafor deposit
+$2,200
Contract signed, deposit not landed.
Run subscription billing
+$1,850
14 subscribers. Owner has to hit go.
Pay event captain
−$680
She invoiced Monday. Don't make her ask twice.
Wholesale order for Okafor
−$2,400
Saturday event. Must order by Wed.
Built by ODS
System 02 · Time-to-Project Capture
Every minute knows where it belongs.
The system watches the work and attributes it to the right project — automatically. No more guessing whether a Tuesday call should be billed.
How it works: When activity is detected against a project's keywords (client name, venue, vendor), the system attributes the time and surfaces it for owner approval. The owner reviews in batch — under 5 minutes a week.
Merrick Wedding
+$282 captured
Mon 9:14a
✉
3-email thread w/ MOB on napkin color"Quick" question that turned into three replies
22 min
Captured
Mon 2:08p
☎
Inbound call from planner re: cake-table swap
18 min
Captured
Thu 6:50p
💬
12 texts w/ MOB on pickup logisticsSpread across the evening — easy to miss
35 min
Captured
Choi Corporate · Quarterly Lobby
+$282 captured
Tue 10:22a
✉
Reply to assistant about Q3 schedule shift
8 min
Captured
Wed 3:15p
☎
Sourcing call · white anthuriumsNot auto-logged · owner estimated at week-end
~45 min
Est.
Thu 9:08a
✉
Two revision rounds · 2nd revision is billable per contract
90 min
Captured
Okafor Wedding
+$250 to add to scope
Fri 8:45a
📅
Venue site walkNot in original proposal — flag for scope addition
120 min
Add scope
Built by ODS
System 03 · Invisible Work Report
This week's recovery
$644 of work that would've gone uncaptured — caught, attributed, and ready to bill.
428
Minutes recovered
$644
Now billable
14
Micro-moments caught
Before: most of this was lost — quick replies, weekend texts, calls that didn't make it onto a timesheet. Now it lives on the right project, on the right invoice, every week.
Built by ODS
System 04 · Weekly Money Ritual
Every Friday
A rhythm that protects the business from drift.
Five steps, same order, every week. The system that turns "we'll deal with it" into "it's already handled."
1
Send last week's invoices
Review captured time, finalize amounts, send before close of business. No more 11-day delays.
~8 min
2
Reconcile the week's time captures
Approve auto-captured entries, confirm estimates, flag anything that should be added to scope.
~5 min
3
Check next week's cash position
Open the dashboard, review the moves panel, decide which actions you'll take Monday morning.
~5 min
4
Apply late fees per contract
For invoices past 30 days. The contract allows it. The system surfaces them. You decide each one.
~4 min
5
Trigger subscription billing
Confirm subscriber list, run the batch. Auto-bills on Tuesday morning if approved.
~3 min
Pillar 03
Get back your time.
"My whole business lives in my head. Every decision, every detail, every weird thing I'm afraid I'll forget."
Toggle the engagement
Same inboxes, same calendar, same notes — before and after the second brain.
↓ Watch the whole page transform
Tuesday · 2:18 PM · After today's second refresh
Good afternoon. A few things came in since this morning.
Synced 14 min ago
Next refresh at 5:00 PM
Email
Calendar
Context File
Brain Dumps
Tuesday · 2:18 PM · No refresh — there's no system
"What was I supposed to do today?"
Today's inbox · the raw stream
"It's in here somewhere."
The real signal — Merrick's invoice, the Whitaker referral, Choi's late payment — is buried in 247 unread. The brain has to read it all just to find the three things that matter.
247 unread
☆
Floral Trends Weekly
New issue: 7 spring trends you NEED — this week we're loving...
2:14p
★
!!
Merrick MOB
Re: Re: Re: thank you so much — quick question on the invoice, are you...
1:48p
☆
Hannah Whitaker
Following up — daughter's October wedding — Hi! I emailed last week, just...
11:02a
☆
LinkedIn
5 new connection requests — grow your network with...
9:34a
★
!!
Choi Office
Q3 quarterly + payment for Q2 — Michelle here, wanted to check in about...
8:51a
☆
Riverside Wholesale
Your weekly availability list — Mar 18 — what's fresh this week...
7:12a
☆
Square
Your weekly business summary — see how your week compared...
6:00a
☆
Pinterest
Pins picked for you: spring wedding palettes — inspired by your activity...
5:42a
What today wants from you — nowhere
All the inputs are alive. None of them are connected.
Calendar shows times, but never stakes or context
Notes app has 80+ entries, most untitled, some named "asdf"
Important client context lives only in the owner's head
Brain-dump thoughts go to a notebook and die there
Tomorrow she'll re-find the same answer she found today
No view of the day that says "this is what matters"
What today wants from you
Figure it out. Again.
"I have all the information. None of it is talking to each other. So I just start with whichever fire is loudest."
⚡ One Thing
Send the Merrick wedding final invoice before payroll runs Wednesday morning.
Event was 11 days ago · drafted but never sent. Most clients pay within 5 days. If nothing else happens today, this is the move that keeps payroll covered without scrambling.
Synthesized from · 1 Gmail draft · 3 calendar events · payroll schedule · last month's payment cadence
Vibe of the day
Quiet morning, busy afternoon. Protect 9–11 for the things that need your head clear.
Three meetings stack between 1pm and 5pm. Calendar is otherwise yours. Two of today's tasks are 5-min replies you can clear before coffee.
Synthesized from · today's calendar · your inbox · the 3 quick-win threads from yesterday's brain dump
Today's Calendar
3 meetings · 1 hold
9:00 AMfocus block
Merrick invoice + Choi revision decision High
1:00 PM45 min
Riverside Wholesale · stem confirm call Med
2:30 PM30 min
Choi Corporate · quarterly check-in
4:00 PM1 hr
Whitaker consult · new wedding inquiry New
Who's in the Room
Context on the people you'll be talking to today.
Michelle (Choi Corporate)
2:30 PM
Office Manager · books quarterly arrangements · 3 years client
She pays everyone late but she's the one who got you in the door at the law firm next door. Last call she mentioned her sister might be planning a wedding. Worth bringing up gently — but lead with the revision-scope decision, not the late invoice.
Hannah Whitaker
4:00 PM
Mother-of-bride · daughter's October wedding · new prospect
Referred by Jenna · who has now sent you two clients this quarter. Hannah emailed three days ago — she's been waiting longer than she should have. Open with warmth, not apology. Daughter's name is Emma, fiancé is Theo.
Riverside Wholesale
1:00 PM
Vendor · primary stem supplier · 6 years
Ask for Tomás, not the front desk. He'll work the peony substitution himself if you go through him. They close at 4 — get the order locked before 3:30 or it pushes a day.
Pulled from · context file · last 6 months of email history · today's calendar invites
☀ Weather + Outfit
54°F
Mostly cloudy · 2% rain · H 71° L 53°
Today's fit
Studio in the morning, Whitaker consult at 4. Lean into the navy linen blazer with the cream tee — pulled-together but not stiff. Closed-toe shoes for the venue walk you might do after.
Question · Needs your call
Should Choi's late-fee finally go on the invoice this quarter?
She's now 38 days past on the last one. Contract allows it. You've waived it 6 quarters in a row — that's $2,550 in fees eaten and a precedent forming. The Q3 invoice goes out Friday.
Surfaced because · contract clause · 6 quarters of waived fees · this morning's Choi email · upcoming Friday invoice
Want me to handle this?
I can draft the Whitaker consult prep doc for 4pm — pulling Jenna's referral notes, October date availability, and three relevant past weddings.
Estimated time saved: 25 minutes. You'll review before the meeting. I'll have it in your inbox in under 2 minutes.
Quick Wins
5 showing · 5 more queued
Under 5 minutes each. Check one off and the next thing rises from the queue.
Pulled from · inbox replies-needed · yesterday's brain dump · 2 calendar follow-ups
Brain dump
Anything on your mind — half-thoughts, follow-ups, things you don't want to forget. The system asks back where it belongs.
The system will respond.
Same method · different client
The same brain works at every scale.
From a construction company's daily ops, to a floral studio's wedding choreography, to a single person's Tuesday morning — the methodology doesn't change. The skin does. The inputs do. The client does. But the question is always the same: what does today actually want from you?
Corporate operations → small business → the one person trying to live their life on purpose.
A second brain · client of one
A daily brief designed for joy, not just productivity. The Tamagotchi shifts mood with the week. The cards flag what needs attention. Same engine as the business tabs — different skin.
"Same methodology. Same process. Just applied to the most important client I have."
— Laura, ODS