Persis ChristodoulouAdvisor to Business OwnersThe two doors

FOR BUSINESS OWNERS WHO DEPEND ON TWO KEY PEOPLE

Two key people, two problems. They can leave. And they can only do so much.I fix both. Guaranteed.

“He’s on holiday. You’ll have to wait until next week.”

“She’s already working flat out. I can’t put anything else on her.”

“If either one walks out, I have a problem. A real one.”

Three sentences. Two problems. One cause: too much of the business lives in their heads.
What changes
  • If one leaves, their jobs stay with the business
  • Holidays and sick days no longer stop the work
  • You don’t end up back in the job
  • New hires learn from what’s on paper, not months of shadowing
  • Your key people get hours back every week
  • The business takes on more work without hiring
  • A business a buyer pays for: a system, not two salaries
  • Something your children can take over
Why me

I’ve been the key person. I’ve depended on key people.

  • 25 years running businesses and divisions, from 10 people to hundreds. Banking, retail, real estate, FMCG, trading.
  • Built a 69-person sales function from nothing. Left. It kept running. That’s the test.
  • Every business I’ve run had two people it couldn’t afford to lose. I’ve fixed that problem from the inside, more than once.
The proof

International trading company

€10 million. Two key people. Both problems fixed.

What was happening

The business ran on two key people. Nothing was on paper. When either was unavailable, deals stopped.

What it was costing

€10 million in revenue depended on two people whose capacity was already maxed out. Opportunities were being missed, and the owner’s €20 million exit target was at risk. Hiring more people would not help because new hires would still depend on the same two people.

What changed

The deal-making and matching jobs were broken down. How they decide, what they check and what they do when something goes wrong, all on paper. Handed to the support team to run.

Capacity result

Each key person got 3 hours a day back. 30 hours a week between them. That time now goes on more profit per client and new clients.

Continuity result

Support team members ran deal matching from start to finish without going back to either key person.

Sound familiar?
  • Important work waits whenever one of your key people is busy, away or unavailable.
  • The team handles the back office work. Decisions, exceptions and difficult clients still go back to the same two people.
  • You hire more people, but capacity barely moves because every new hire still depends on them.
  • If either one leaves, the work leaves with them. What remains comes back to you.
  • Your parents built the business. You’re taking over. It still lives in their heads and in the head of one employee who has been there for 20 years.
The Handover Method

Four steps.

01

FIND

30-minute call. We identify the two people, then the jobs that depend on them. Their hours on those jobs are the baseline.

02

PAPER

Your key people show me how the jobs really work. I write down what they decide, what they check, the rules, exceptions and what happens when something goes wrong.

03

HAND OVER

Other team members run the jobs from what is on paper. Anything that goes back to the key people gets fixed until it no longer does.

04

PROVE

We measure the hours your key people get back and test that someone else can run each job from beginning to end without them.

What this is not
  • A template. Your jobs, written from how your people actually do them.
  • A software project. Nothing gets bought or installed.
  • A plan to replace your key people. It takes the routine off them so they can do the work only they can do. Most key people become the biggest supporters of this once they see it.
The guarantee

Two tests. Both passed.

  • Hours measured against the baseline from the first call. Someone else runs each job end to end. We miss either, we keep working at no extra cost until we hit it. Still short, you get your money back.
  • Fixed price before anything starts.
  • No obligation on the first call.
  • Everything on paper is yours.
Book 30 minutes. Tell me who your business depends on. →

Two key people. Two problems. Both fixed, or you don’t pay.