Your business has a bottleneck.
Let’s find it and fix it.
A Bottleneck Audit gives you a clear, independent picture of where your business is losing time and money — with a prioritised plan for what to fix first. Virtual. Practical. No jargon.
Most businesses are losing more than they realise.
The problems are usually obvious once you know where to look. The same complaints coming back month after month. Jobs that take longer than they should. A process that breaks in the same place every time.
What is less obvious is exactly why — and which of the many things that could be fixed would make the biggest difference if you tackled it first. That is where most improvement efforts go wrong. They fix what is visible rather than what is significant. They treat the symptom rather than the cause. And six months later the same problems are back.
An independent perspective, from someone who has spent 34 years finding exactly this kind of problem inside some of the world’s largest organisations, changes that.
of recurring business problems trace back to a process issue — not a people issue
years finding and fixing bottlenecks inside major global organisations
The Bottleneck Audit
A structured half-day working session that gives you a clear, independent picture of where your business is losing time and money — and a prioritised plan for what to fix first.
- A 30-minute pre-session briefing call to understand the context and agree the focus area
- A structured two-hour virtual working session — process observation, waste identification, and root cause discussion
- A prioritised list of your top five bottlenecks and improvement opportunities
- A written report delivered within 48 hours covering findings, root causes, and recommended actions in plain language
- A 30-minute follow-up call to walk through the report and answer questions
- Lifetime access to the Bottleneck Buster Method course — so you have the tools to implement the recommendations yourself
How it works
Before we start
A short briefing call before the session. You tell me about the business, the area you want to focus on, and what has already been tried. I come prepared rather than starting from scratch.
The session
A focused two-hour virtual working session. We look at how your process actually works — not how it is supposed to work. I ask questions, observe, and map what I find. The session works best when it is honest and unpolished.
The findings
Within 48 hours you receive a written report covering what I found, why each issue is happening, and a prioritised list of recommendations — ordered by impact and effort so you know exactly where to start.
The follow-up
A 30-minute call to walk through the report together and answer questions. You leave the call with a specific action plan, not just a document.
Is a Bottleneck Audit right for you?
This is for you if —
- You run a small or medium-sized business and something is not working as well as it should — but you cannot pinpoint exactly what
- You have tried fixing a recurring problem and it keeps coming back
- You are about to scale or take on more work and want to make sure your processes can handle it
- You are spending too much time firefighting and not enough time running the business
- You want an independent view from someone who has solved this before — without paying consultant day rates for a six-month engagement
This is not for you if —
- You are looking for someone to run your improvement project for you over several months
- You need a full operational restructure or a strategic business review — that is a different engagement entirely
- You are not willing to be honest about how things actually work in your business
34 years finding bottlenecks inside some of the world’s most complex operations.
I spent 34 years inside major global organisations — GE, British Airways, The Nielsen Company, and others — as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. My job was finding bottlenecks, eliminating waste, and fixing the processes that kept breaking. I have done it at every scale — from individual team workflows to operations employing thousands of people across multiple countries.
What I learned in those 34 years is that the problems small businesses face are not fundamentally different from the problems big ones face. The scale is different. The budget is different. But the nature of the problem — and the tools that fix it — are the same.
Better Flow Systems exists to give small and medium-sized businesses access to that same quality of thinking, without the complexity, the jargon, or the price tag that usually comes with it.
Need more than an Audit?
For businesses that need deeper engagement beyond the initial Audit, two further options are available. Both are scoped following an Audit — they are not standalone starting points.
The Bottleneck Buster Sprint
A five-day intensive engagement for businesses that want to move from diagnosis to designed solution in a single week.
Day one: observation and mapping. Days two and three: root cause analysis and solution design. Day four: implementation planning. Day five: SOP development and handover.
Deliverable: mapped current state, designed future state, prioritised action plan, and draft SOPs for your two most critical processes.
Available following a Bottleneck Audit.
Ongoing Improvement Partner
For businesses that want ongoing support as they implement improvements rather than a one-off engagement.
Two virtual sessions per month. Email support between sessions. Regular progress review using the Better Flow Systems Progress Scorecard.
The option for business owners who want a thinking partner alongside them as the improvement work unfolds — not just a report to work from alone.
Available following a Bottleneck Audit or Sprint.
Frequently asked questions
Ready to find your bottleneck?
Pick a time that suits you below. It is a free 30-minute call — no sales pitch, no obligation. Just a straightforward conversation about whether a Bottleneck Audit makes sense for your business right now.