OONSET
When did it start?
Pinpoint the moment things drifted — the hire, the growth spurt, the tool that never got adopted. Every operational ache has a first day.
REF 01 / ONSET✚ OPERATIONS DIAGNOSTICS — EST. WATKINSVILLE, GEORGIA
Your business has symptoms. We diagnose them.
Consulting with a clinician's rigor — for small businesses that need systems, not heroics. No prescriptions before diagnosis.
01 — THE METHOD
Eight questions physicians ask about a symptom.
Eight questions physicians ask about a symptom.
We ask them of your business.
OLDCARTS is a clinical mnemonic used to characterize pain before treating it. It is also our name, our origin, and the instrument we bring to every engagement. — HOVER / TAP TO EXAMINE
LLOCATION
Where does it hurt?
Isolate the function where the pain actually lives — sales handoffs, fulfillment, invoicing, cash flow — not where it's loudest.
REF 02 / LOCATIONDDURATION
How long has it lasted?
Chronic or acute? A six-year workaround is a different disease than a six-week fire — and it gets a different treatment.
REF 03 / DURATIONCCHARACTER
What does it feel like?
Dropped balls, duplicate work, every decision bottlenecked at the owner's desk. Naming the texture of the problem is half the diagnosis.
REF 04 / CHARACTERAAGGRAVATING
What makes it worse?
Volume spikes. Key people on vacation. Quarter-end crunch. The triggers that inflame a process tell you exactly where it's weak.
REF 05 / AGGRAVATINGRRELIEVING
What makes it better?
The workarounds your team invented to ease the pain are clues to the cure. We study them before we replace them.
REF 06 / RELIEVINGTTIMING
When does it flare?
Seasonal, weekly, whenever a certain client calls — patterns are diagnostic gold. We chart them before prescribing anything.
REF 07 / TIMINGSSEVERITY
How bad is it, one to ten?
Quantify the cost in hours, dollars, and sleep. Severity sets priority — treatment goes where the bleeding is worst.
REF 08 / SEVERITY✚ SELF-EXAMINATION AVAILABLE — RUN THE OLDCARTS EXAM · 90 SECONDS, NO NEEDLE
02 — COURSE OF CARE
From intake to recovery.
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01 · WEEK 0
Intake
A conversation, not a pitch. We take the full history of the business before forming a single opinion.
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02 · WEEKS 1–2
Examination
We observe the work where it happens — the processes, the tools, the numbers, the people carrying it all.
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03 · WEEK 3
Diagnosis
A written findings report: what is broken, why it broke, and what it costs you every month it stays broken.
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04 · WEEKS 4–8
Treatment
Right-sized interventions — documented processes, scorecards, systems your team actually adopts.
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05 · DAY 30 +
Recovery
Your team runs it without us. We check vitals at thirty days — then we get out of the way.
03 — TREATMENT PROTOCOLS
Four interventions.
Four interventions.
Prescribed only after diagnosis.
Process Documentation & Mapping
Every business has processes. Most of them live in someone's head.
We surface the critical workflows trapped in institutional memory and structure them in platforms your team already uses — or help you choose one worth adopting.
- Documented core business processes
- Step-by-step workflow maps
- Assignable ownership at each step
- A platform your team can actually use
- Team training on the platform
- 30-day follow-up support
Business Scorecard Design & Setup
You can't manage what you can't measure — but most small businesses are drowning in data they can't act on.
Custom scorecards tracking five to fifteen key metrics — the vital signs of your business — with a weekly rhythm to actually read them.
- Custom KPI identification workshop
- Scorecard template — Excel & digital
- Weekly review structure & facilitation guide
- Owner and team setup walkthrough
- 30-day check-in to refine
Strategic Planning & Priorities
Vision is cheap. Ninety-day priorities with names attached are not.
We translate where you want to go into three to seven focused goals per quarter — each with an owner, a deadline, and a review rhythm that keeps them alive.
- Annual goal-setting session
- 90-day company priorities — 3–7 focused goals
- Individual accountability assignments
- Meeting rhythm & agenda template
- Quarterly check-in and reset
Tools & Systems Implementation
Software you bought but never adopted isn't a system. It's a subscription.
Setup, integration, and adoption support that extracts real value from operations software — matched to your size, budget, and team.
- Platform audit and recommendation
- Setup and configuration
- Integration between key tools
- Team training & adoption plan
- 30-day support period
ENGAGEMENT DOSAGE
Diagnostic Consult
from $500
SINGLE FOCUSED ENGAGEMENT
Full Course
$1,500–$5,000
4–8 WEEKS, DIAGNOSIS → RECOVERY
Ongoing Care
from $500/mo
RETAINER — VITALS MONITORED
“Context before prescription.
Systems over heroics.”
04 — THE PRACTITIONER
Laura Smith
FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT
Laura spent over a decade inside operations — retail, e-commerce, AEC, professional services — watching good businesses hurt in the same predictable places. While working in e-commerce she acquired OLDCARTS Watches as a personal learning lab: a real business to run experiments on, so nobody else's had to be the guinea pig.
The surprise was the framework. The clinical mnemonic that named the company proved more valuable for diagnosing operations than for selling watches — and OLDCARTS Consulting was formalized around it.
The practice is built on three principles: diagnosis first — context before prescription; systems over heroics — documented, repeatable processes that don't depend on any one person, including us; and right-sized solutions — built for real budgets and lean teams, not enterprise theater.
- 15 YEARS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- PMI MEMBER SINCE 2019
- BASc — KSU COLES COLLEGE
- GEORGIA REGISTERED LLC
05 — INTAKE IS OPEN
Begin the
STATUS: ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS — RESPONSE WITHIN 24H
Begin the
consultation.
A first conversation costs nothing and treats one symptom immediately: not knowing where to start.
SERVING THE SOUTHEAST FROM WATKINSVILLE, GEORGIA — ON-SITE & REMOTE