A 5-day, mostly off-call review that shows where your business still depends on the founder — then identifies the first fixes to reduce that dependency.
The Diagnostic looks at both sides of founder dependency: the system gap, and the founder pattern keeping it alive.
Every founder pattern is tied back to an operating gap — a missing rule, handover, standard, escalation path or decision right. The output is practical, not therapeutic.
If decisions, approvals, handovers and quality checks still come back to you, this is built for that. It works best for service businesses with a team, contractors or delivery partners — typically £300k–£2M revenue, though revenue isn't the qualifier. Founder dependency is.
What decisions route back to you, what triggers escalation, and where decision rights are unclear.
Sales-to-delivery, onboarding, project-to-project handovers — where context is lost.
Where your team waits for sign-off because the "good enough" standard lives in your head.
Where revisions, exceptions and "quick favours" leak in without a rule for what's included.
The same questions your team keeps asking — and where the answer should live instead.
Where you step in to fix the team or delivery — and the system gap behind it.
Shows where the business depends on the founder, the system gap behind it, the founder pattern reinforcing it, and the first fix to reduce that dependency.
A focused priority plan showing what to build first, what to stop carrying, and what to ignore for now.
A short walkthrough or debrief to clarify priorities, ownership and sequencing.
A simplified sample. Generic rows shown for illustration only.
Simplified sample shown. Full diagnostic detail is provided after application and payment.
45–60 minute call or async briefing. You share materials, examples and the dependency points you're feeling most.
Document, workflow and decision-point review. Off-call. I work through the materials and map the dependencies.
The Founder Dependency Map is built and the Three StepAway Fixes are written.
30-minute call or written walkthrough. What to fix first, what to ignore, and what your team can pick up.
If I don't think the Diagnostic will give you a useful map of your founder dependency points, I will not take your payment.
If, after reviewing your materials, the real problem turns out to be outside the scope of StepAway Systems, I'll tell you plainly. This is not a sell-everyone offer.