IF YOUR BUSINESS STOPS WORKING WHEN YOU DO, YOU’LL NEVER CATCH A BREAK. It’s time to stop being the bottleneck for your own growth.
When you’re starting out, running a small business often requires putting your head down to get sh*t done. But you didn’t sign up to be hustling forever.
Getting systems set up that actually give you your time back are the secret to profit without burnout and actually being able to relax on the weekend.
Sound familiar?You've built a business that's making money. You have clients, you have revenue, and you've figured out enough to keep things moving. But your business runs you more than you run it.
Need a file? You’re the one who knows where it is. Contracts? You review them. Videos? You film them (when you have time). Planning? Yep, that’s you. If you stepped away for two weeks, something would get dropped (and that’s if you were able to step away).
You can’t count the number of “one day” items on your list - fix your onboarding process, try that new tool everybody’s talking about, finally use that project management system you half-set-up last year. You want to be organized but don’t have the time or brain power to sit down and actually do it.
You’ve tried to fix it, but things didn’t work the way you hoped…
You tried to DIY a solution.
Your saved folder is full of YouTube tutorials and Reels explaining how another business owner used XYZ tool to automate this system or save 20 hours a week. But setting up each individual system felt like it required learning 2 coding languages and integrating 3 softwares and you still had a business to run!
You bought a tool.
You watched the demo, it sounded like exactly what you needed. Months later, you never click the bookmark and your notes app still holds things together.
You hired help.
You have too much to do, so bringing on help is the answer, right? But then once you onboarded the VA, they needed constant direction and their work was never quite right. It started to feel like more work than doing it yourself. Because it was.
You hired a coach.
If you can just figure out the tools and automations, you won’t need to manage a big team. You thought a coach would help you build the strategy. Or maybe it’s your mindset holding you back? The first couple calls felt amazing but pretty soon it felt like you were just adding more and more homework to your to do list to make it all happen.
Here’s the secret - each of these approaches have their own merits. They just only address part of your problem.
A successful system needs strategy (designing it), implementation (building it) and accountability (using and updating it). Without all three and you end up wasting time.
You’re excellent at what you do, that’s what got you here.
That doesn’t mean you also have to become a systems and organization savant.
Which is why we created…
Bottleneck Breakthrough
A 3-month transformation that helps you design, build and maintain the systems you need to run your business effectively, without being the bottleneck that holds everything together.
Here’s how it works…
01.
As soon as you enter the program, we’ll work through an audit of all your existing systems. Finance, content creation, client onboarding, file-management, you name it. We’ll identify the most important systems or the ones causing the most pain.
Within the first week of the program, we’ll have a plan for your systems. By the end of the first month, at least one of your systems will be upgraded (and yes, we will actually be in there with you setting it up).
02.
Systems don’t exist in isolation. Updating your checkout system might affect your email marketing which changes your social strategy. As we work through changes, we’ll be hands-on-keyboards making sure we can update all three priority systems, without messing up the rest of your business.
By the end of month two, another priority system will have gotten a full makeover. But don’t worry, we’re not done yet…
03.
In our final month, we’ll be finishing up a third priority system and making sure we’re handling loose ends that might be draining your mental load. We’re also beginning to have you run systems autonomously so we can figure out where you (or your team) need more training to take it over fully.
Some clients feel fully ready to fly the coop by the end of three months. Other keep us on monthly as their ops + systems guru for anything that comes up. Whatever feels right for you!
Why three months?
The reason most systems don't stick isn't that they were built wrong, it’s that they weren’t able to be customized to the way you actually work. And that takes time.
We’re not just inviting you to a workspace, emailing you a Loom video and saying “good luck.” We want to be with you to work out all the kinks so that each new system actually becomes a part of your routine.
There’s a natural part of this process where it gets “messier before it gets cleaner,” and we want to help you get over that hill.
But why can’t you just build it all for me?
Because we don’t want to waste your money. If we walk away and come back with a fully designed system, it’ll be built for how our brains work, not yours.
Unless we’re going to managing the process going forward (like for our Fractional COO clients), you have to be involved in the process for it to last.
And by being involved each step of the way, you’ll get comfortable with new systems as you go, which also means you’re more likely to keep using them after we finish.
What’s included…
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Given we have limited time together, we guarantee we’ll revamp the three biggest pain points during the program. If we have time to tackle more, we will!
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Each week, we’ll hop on the phone weekly to discuss strategy, update plans, work live on a system or review new updates.
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In between calls, we’ll be working through building the system, while you run your business (and try out the new systems as they evolve).
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Every two weeks, we run an office hours session for any Bottleneck Breakthrough client to ask questions, work through issues and learn from how other business owners are running their business. Some weeks it’s more Q&A, others more tutorials, based on what the group needs right then.
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Some systems don’t need a full customized revamp. We’re constantly accumulating Claude skills, Notion dashboards and preferred tools to handle a whole host of operational needs that you can take what you want from. Some of these are wroth a couple hundred dollars each for how much time we’ll save you from building from scratch!
ABOUT
Exhale Operations was founded by Samantha Pillsbury, inspired by her experience of running a small business for four years. She scaled it to six figures in 18 months, all while figuring out systems that allowed her to scale the business while still traveling and enjoying her life.
By her third year in business she realized she enjoyed the operations work more than anything else, but that the nerdy automations, dashboards and templates she loved building were her small business peers least favorite part.
And thus… Exhale was born. We support small business owners who want to build nimble, profitable businesses and still enjoy their life outside of work, by helping them build and run systems to get them back time and mental load.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The most common reason systems don't stick isn't the build. It's what happens after. Most projects end at handoff: you get documentation, and then you're on your own. Bottleneck Breakthrough continues for four months after the systems are live, specifically to support you through the part where new habits replace old ones and where things break in real conditions.
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That feeling is usually a sign this is the right time, not the wrong one. The goal of this program isn't to add to your workload. It's to reduce it. The build is structured to fit around a full client load, and what we're building is designed to take things off your plate. The time you put in upfront is the cost of getting time back downstream.
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That's a design requirement, not a concern. Every system is built around what you can actually use and maintain, which means tool selection is based on your comfort level, not on what has the most features. If something feels too complicated, it gets simplified or swapped. If it requires a tech person to maintain after handoff, it's not done yet.
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A VA executes tasks inside whatever process already exists. An OBM manages operations, but that works best when there are already systems worth managing. Bottleneck Breakthrough builds the infrastructure that both of them would need to be effective. It's what comes before the hire, not in place of it.
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Due to the amount of hands-on support we put into these projects, we want to make sure that we are going to be able to deliver value and guarantee our results. The survey (and call afterward) makes sure that we can say with our full chest that you’ll get the results you want (or direct you to something else if it’s a better fit), before you pay a dime.
Ready to take a night off?
We want to help you spend your time on the work you legitimately enjoy, while still setting your business up for sustainable growth and profit. Giving you the time back to focus on client service, developing new offers or just to have a glass of wine with girlfriends might just be the most important investment you can make in your future.