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  • Leadership Readiness Kit

    Leadership Readiness Kit

    Leadership Readiness Kit

    $197

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Walk the bench. Score the person you want to promote. Plan the hard talk. Install 1-3-1 so the next problem comes back as a recommendation. Buy Now is the packaged bundle: four Notion tools plus the matching Claude skills, so you are not assembling the readiness read from blank pages.

    This is the flagship of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. Everything an owner needs to see whether their team can actually lead, and who to develop next. For growth-stage restoration owners who sense they are the ceiling on their own business.

    What’s in the kit

    Three cards for 1-3-1, 5 Ds, and bench building in a leadership toolkit
    Leadership readiness kit — checklists before titles.
    1. Leadership Readiness Checklist
    2. Middle Manager Evaluation Scorecard
    3. Accountability Conversation Planner
    4. 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet

    The matching skills from the Leadership AI plugin: leadership-readiness-checklist, middle-manager-scorecard, accountability-planner, delegation-1-3-1.

    Run them in this order. The checklist is the scan. The scorecard is the person. The planner is the talk. 1-3-1 is the habit that keeps the next problem from landing back on you.

    1. Leadership Readiness Checklist

    Can your team actually lead, or does everything still run through you? Work six sections. Check only what is truly true today. A box you wish were true is a box left unchecked. Rate each section red / yellow / green. Duplicate the page each quarter so you can watch the bench get stronger.

    1. Current leadership bench. Who leads field production, estimating, project files, sales, office / AR, marketing, finance, hiring. If a function has no owner besides you, that is a finding. Check: every core function has a named owner who is not you; each owner knows they own it; someone besides you can speak for the company to a customer or adjuster; you have at least one true second-in-command, not just a senior doer. Red = it is all me. Yellow = one or two real leaders. Green = a functioning leadership team.

    2. Decision-making. The test of a leader is whether they can make the call when you are not reachable. Clear dollar threshold. Someone can authorize a job, a crew move, or an equipment purchase if you are out a day. When a lead brings a problem, they bring options and a recommendation. You have not reversed a reasonable decision in front of their team in the last 30 days. Red = everything routes to you. Yellow = small stuff yes, real calls no. Green = they own their lane.

    3. Accountability habits. A leader who will not hold the line is a doer with a title. Do leads address underperformance, or do they route it to you? Written standards. Feedback that is not just a task list. Consequences when standards are missed. You are not the only person who delivers hard feedback. Red = you are the only enforcer. Yellow = leads avoid the hard ones. Green = leads own their team’s standards.

    4. Communication rhythm. Leadership runs on cadence, not heroics. Weekly or biweekly leadership / ops meeting that actually happens. Daily or start-of-job huddle. Recurring 1:1s. A known way job status is communicated (not you texting everyone). Meetings produce decisions and owners. Bad news reaches you early. Red = ad hoc / by text. Yellow = some of it, inconsistently. Green = reliable cadence.

    5. Single points of failure. You. The one estimator. The one person who holds carrier relationships. The one person who knows payroll. The one dispatcher. Passwords in one head. No SOP for the things “only so-and-so knows.” For each checked box, name the person, what breaks, and whether a backup exists. Red = several critical SPOFs. Yellow = one or two. Green = cross-covered.

    6. Next leader candidates. Name real people. Rate ready now / 1-2 areas to grow / raw potential. Write the one thing each most needs. Have you actually told your top candidate you see leadership in them?

    Tally last. Mostly green: deepen the bench and formalize succession. Mostly yellow: push decision authority and accountability down a level. Mostly red: you are still the company. The priority is not more hiring. It is building one true second-in-command and removing the biggest single point of failure (usually you). Write three lines: biggest SPOF right now; the one leader to develop next; the first move in the next 30 days.

    2. Middle Manager Evaluation Scorecard

    Restoration technicians training in a shop bay with equipment demo and whiteboard
    Middle manager scorecard — teach, then trust.

    Great doers do not automatically become great leaders. Score the person you named in section 6 before you promote them. One person, one row. Nine traits, 1-5 each. Total is /45.

    1. Ownership. Takes responsibility for outcomes, no blame-shifting.
    2. Communication. Clear, timely, two-way.
    3. Judgment. Makes sound decisions without being told every step.
    4. Emotional maturity. Stays steady under pressure.
    5. Coachability. Seeks and applies feedback, not defensive.
    6. Follow-through. Closes the loop, does what they said by when they said.
    7. Trains others. Can teach a task and bring others up to standard.
    8. Handles conflict. Addresses tension directly and fairly, does not avoid.
    9. Values alignment. Models company values when no one is watching.

    Anchor every score in a recent, specific example. Untested is itself a finding. Do not guess a high score on a trait you have never seen. Bands: Promote about 37-45. Develop first about 27-36. Not yet 26 or below. Override: a 1 or 2 on Ownership, Emotional maturity, or Values alignment caps the recommendation at Develop first, regardless of total. Those are the floors for putting someone over people.

    Name the lowest 2-3 traits. One concrete development action each. A re-eval date, typically 60-90 days. The owner decides. The score is an input, not a verdict.

    3. Accountability Conversation Planner

    Use this when someone keeps missing the mark and you have been avoiding the talk. Ten minutes of prep. Six prompts, then a five-beat script.

    1. What is the actual issue? The pattern, not a single bad day. Business impact.
    2. What specific behavior needs to change? Observable. “Calls in after the crew is already on site,” not “doesn’t care.”
    3. What have I already allowed or tolerated? Where you let it slide or finished their file yourself.
    4. What expectation needs to be clarified? State the standard the way you would want it repeated back.
    5. What consequence or support is needed? Both sides.
    6. What does success look like in 30 days? Concrete. “Zero late starts for four weeks.”

    Script beats: open and set the tone; name the issue and the behavior; own your part; state the expectation and the support; confirm the 30-day target and listen. Private, not on the job site, not by text. This is a planning doc, not a personnel record.

    4. 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet

    Three panels showing one problem, three options, one recommendation
    1-3-1 worksheet — force a recommendation.

    The old way: “The dehu on Maple St died. What do you want me to do?” You just took back the problem, the thinking, and the decision.

    The 1-3-1 way: one issue (the fork in the road, one or two sentences); three real options with pros, cons, and rough cost (“do nothing” can be one when it is honest); one recommendation and why in one line; a default if they do not hear back by a deadline. Explain it once. Pin it where decisions get made. When someone brings a raw problem, ask: “What are your three options, and which do you recommend?” Then wait. Run at least five real conversations. Approve the recommendation whenever it is reasonable. Phase done when at least one person brings 1-3-1s without being reminded.

    If the Readiness Checklist “options and a recommendation” box is empty, install 1-3-1 before you hire another lead.

    If you want the packaged kit

    You can run the four tools from the outline above. Buy Now is the bundle delivered by email after checkout: the four Notion pages (duplicate each so the master stays clean), plus the matching skills if you want the interviews walked. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Coaching and operational tools only. Not legal or HR advice. The planner is a planning doc, not a personnel record. The scorecard is decision support, not a hiring, firing, or promotion determination.

    Related on Tygart Media: leadership toolkit · manager scorecard · owner dependency audit.

  • Leadership Readiness Checklist

    Leadership Readiness Checklist

    Leadership Readiness Checklist

    $49

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Walk six sections. Check only what is truly true today. Rate each section red / yellow / green. Buy Now is the packaged Notion checklist you duplicate each quarter, so you are not rebuilding the bench read from a blank doc.

    Tool #5 of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. Can your team actually lead, or does everything still run through you? This is an honest, section-by-section read on your current leadership bench: who leads what, who can decide without you, whether your leads hold their people accountable, your communication rhythm, your single points of failure, and who your next leaders could be.

    Be honest, not optimistic. A box you wish were true is a box left unchecked. Where you see a rating, pick the one that is true today. Where you see a name line, write the actual person. Empty checkboxes are your to-do list. When you are done, the gaps and the single points of failure are your leadership development plan. Duplicate the page for each review. Quarterly is a good cadence.

    1. Current leadership bench. Who leads what today

    Restoration technicians training in a shop bay with equipment demo and whiteboard
    Current leadership bench — who leads what today.

    List the people who currently carry real leadership responsibility, and what they own. If a function has no clear owner besides you, that is a finding. Note it.

    For each function write four lines: who leads it today; whether you still do this; notes.

    • Field production / crews
    • Estimating / scope
    • Project management / job files
    • Sales / lead intake
    • Office / admin / AR
    • Marketing / referral relationships
    • Finance / numbers
    • Hiring / people

    Then check what is actually true:

    • Every core function above has a named owner who is not me
    • Each owner knows they own it (it is explicit, not assumed)
    • At least one person besides me can speak for the company to a customer or adjuster
    • I have at least one true second-in-command (not just a senior doer)

    Bench depth. Pick one: red = it is all me. Yellow = one or two real leaders. Green = a functioning leadership team.

    2. Decision-making capability. Who can decide without you

    Three panels showing one problem, three options, one recommendation
    Decision-making without you — the readiness test.

    The test of a leader is not effort. It is whether they can make the call when you are not reachable.

    • My leads make routine operational decisions without checking with me
    • There is a clear dollar threshold under which leads can spend / approve without my sign-off
    • Someone can authorize a job, a crew move, or an equipment purchase if I am unreachable for a day
    • My team knows which decisions are theirs vs which truly need me
    • When a lead brings me a problem, they bring options and a recommendation, not just the problem
    • I can be out of contact for a full workday and jobs still move forward correctly
    • I have not reversed a lead’s reasonable decision in front of their team in the last 30 days

    Write today’s decision threshold: leads can independently approve up to $______.

    Decision autonomy. Pick one: red = everything routes to me. Yellow = small stuff yes, real calls no. Green = they own their lane.

    The 1-3-1 rule is the habit behind the “options and a recommendation” box. If that box is empty, install 1-3-1 before you hire another lead.

    3. Accountability habits. Do leads hold their people accountable

    A leader who will not hold the line is a doer with a title. This section is about whether accountability lives below you.

    • My leads address underperformance directly. They do not route it to me to fix
    • We have clear, written expectations / standards people are measured against
    • Leads give real feedback (good and corrective), not just task assignments
    • There are understood consequences when standards are repeatedly missed
    • Accountability conversations stay about the behavior/standard, not personal
    • I am not the only person in the company who delivers hard feedback
    • Wins and good work get recognized, not just problems

    Accountability ownership. Pick one: red = I am the only enforcer. Yellow = leads avoid the hard ones. Green = leads own their team’s standards.

    If this section is red or yellow, use the Accountability Conversation Planner for the next hard talk: issue, behavior, what you have already allowed, the expectation, the consequence or support, what success looks like in 30 days.

    4. Communication rhythm. The cadence that keeps it running

    Leadership runs on rhythm, not heroics. Check what actually happens on a schedule, not what you mean to do.

    • We hold a regular leadership / ops meeting (weekly or biweekly) that actually happens
    • Crews get a consistent daily or start-of-job huddle
    • I have recurring 1:1s with my direct leaders
    • There is a known way job status is communicated (not me texting everyone individually)
    • The team knows the company’s priorities for the quarter / season
    • Meetings have a predictable format and produce decisions/owners, not just talk
    • Bad news reaches me early, because people are not afraid to raise it

    Cadence in place (check all that run reliably): daily crew huddle; weekly leadership/ops meeting; recurring 1:1s with leads; monthly numbers / KPI review; quarterly priorities reset.

    Communication rhythm. Pick one: red = ad hoc / by text. Yellow = some of it, inconsistently. Green = reliable cadence.

    Weeks 9-10 of the 90-day plan is this huddle: 15 minutes, fixed agenda, 3-5 numbers someone other than you owns.

    5. Risk areas. Single points of failure

    Where is the business one person, one password, or one bad week away from a problem? Check every box that is a real exposure right now.

    • I am a single point of failure. Key things only I can do or decide
    • Only one person can run estimating / Xactimate
    • Only one person holds key carrier / adjuster / referral relationships
    • Only one person knows the financials, banking, or payroll
    • Only one person can dispatch / schedule crews
    • Critical logins, accounts, or vendor passwords live in one person’s head
    • If my best lead quit tomorrow, a major part of the business would stall
    • There is no written SOP for the things that “only so-and-so knows”
    • No one is cross-trained on my second-in-command’s role

    For each box checked, name the person, what breaks if they are gone, and whether a backup exists.

    Concentration risk. Pick one: red = several critical single points of failure. Yellow = one or two. Green = cross-covered.

    This section pairs with the 5 Ds (Death, Divorce, Disease, Drugs/dependency, Departure/Disaster). A checked box here is usually a blank box on the 5 Ds.

    6. Next leader candidates. Names plus readiness

    Four-phase board covering a 12-week owner freedom transition
    Next leader candidates — names plus readiness.

    Who is next? Name real people, rate how ready they are, and write the one thing each most needs to grow into more leadership.

    For each candidate: name; the role they could grow into; readiness (green = ready now / soon; yellow = 1-2 areas to grow; red = raw potential, long runway); the one thing they most need.

    • I have at least one green ready-now candidate identified
    • Each candidate has a clear next step or development conversation scheduled
    • I have actually told my top candidate I see leadership in them
    • My second-in-command has a developing backup

    Then put those names on a bench list and go deep on one person. A single real manager beats five people you are keeping an eye on.

    Readiness summary

    Tally your six section ratings last.

    • Mostly green. You have a real leadership team. Focus on deepening the bench and formalizing succession.
    • Mostly yellow. Leaders exist but lean on you for the hard calls and the hard conversations. Push decision authority and accountability down a level.
    • Mostly red. You are still the company. The priority is not more hiring. It is building one true second-in-command and removing the biggest single point of failure (usually you).

    Write three lines: my biggest single point of failure right now; the one leader I most need to develop next; the first move I will make in the next 30 days.

    If you want the packaged checklist

    You can run the six sections on a legal pad. Buy Now is the Notion page delivered by email after checkout. Duplicate it (··· → Duplicate) so the original stays clean for next quarter. The function table, the six section ratings, and the summary are already laid out. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Pairs with the Restoration Leadership Bench Builder (develop the names you just wrote) and the 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan. Matching Claude skill: leadership-readiness-checklist. A leadership self-assessment, not legal or HR advice.

    Related: Restoration Leadership Toolkit — Claude Edition. Also Restoration Leadership Bench Builder.

  • Leadership Operating System (Notion + AI)

    Leadership Operating System (Notion + AI)

    Leadership Operating System (Notion + AI)

    $397

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Hang the nine Notion tools. Run the 12-week spine. Talk your own Claude through 1-3-1, the bench, and the 5 Ds. Buy Now is the packaged flagship: the Notion workspace you duplicate, plus the 10-skill plugin zip, so you are not wiring the worksheets and the AI from a blank page.

    This is the Notion + AI operating system for a restoration owner who is still the bottleneck. Notion is the fill-in system of record. The plugin is the coach you talk to. Outputs from each skill are formatted to paste into the matching Notion tool. One company-profile.md powers both this kit and the Operations Kit if you already ran setup there.

    What it is

    Three cards for 1-3-1, 5 Ds, and bench building in a leadership toolkit
    Leadership OS — Notion tools + AI skills.

    Two halves that are meant to run together.

    Notion half. Nine plug-and-play tools. Duplicate them into one workspace page named something like Leadership. One sidebar section, the whole doer-to-leader system.

    AI half. A 9-skill Claude plugin plus a shared setup skill. A setup interview writes company-profile.md. Every leadership skill reads it, so the coaching speaks your team, your roles, and your pain points.

    You need a free Notion account and any Claude that supports Skills / Plugins. If you can chat with Claude and run a /command, you are good.

    The 9 Notion tools

    1. 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet ($19). Teach the team to bring one issue, three options, one recommendation. Not just the problem.
    2. Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment ($29). 25 statements across five areas. Find where the company still depends on you.
    3. 5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist ($29). Death, Divorce, Disease, Drugs/dependency, Departure/Disaster. A what-if-tomorrow check, not a retirement plan.
    4. Accountability Conversation Planner ($39). Plan a hard conversation so it stays about the work, not the person.
    5. Leadership Readiness Checklist ($49). Six sections. Can your team actually lead, or does everything still run through you?
    6. Middle Manager Evaluation Scorecard ($59). Score someone on nine traits before you promote them. Promote / Develop first / Not yet.
    7. Owner Dependency Audit ($99). What breaks if you disappear for 30 days? Nine areas, Low / Med / High, plus a Decision-Rights Map.
    8. Restoration Leadership Bench Builder ($149). One row per key function. Candidates, gaps, one observable 90-day action.
    9. 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan ($199). Six two-week phases. The spine. The other eight feed it.

    The three smaller bundles sit inside this system. Conference Starter Pack is tools 1-3. Leadership Readiness Kit is tools 1, 4, 5, 6. Owner Freedom Kit is tools 1, 3, 7, 8, 9. This flagship is all nine, plus the AI half.

    How to hang the Notion half

    Restoration technicians training in a shop bay with equipment demo and whiteboard
    Hang the Notion half, then train the managers.

    Work the 90-day plan top to bottom. Do not skip ahead. Each phase sets up the next.

    Before Week 1, write three lines: your #1 reason to step back; the one person you are betting on as your first real manager; start date / target Week-12 date. Block 30-45 minutes every Friday.

    1. Weeks 1-2. Bottlenecks. Run the Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment (0-25) and the Owner Dependency Audit (nine areas, Low = 1, Med = 2, High = 3, total 9-27). For one full week, log every interrupt for a decision. Sort into Delegate now / Delegate after training / Keep (truly owner-only). Circle the top 3. Tell the team: “I am working a 90-day plan to push decisions down. Expect me to hand more back to you.”
    2. Weeks 3-4. Install 1-3-1. One issue. Three real options with pros, cons, and rough cost. One recommendation. A default if they do not hear back by a deadline. When someone brings a raw problem, ask: “What are your three options, and which do you recommend?” Then wait. Run at least five real conversations. Phase done when at least one person brings 1-3-1s without being reminded.
    3. Weeks 5-6. Decision rights. List 10-15 recurring decisions (refunds, equipment, scheduling, scope changes, hiring, pricing exceptions). A dollar or scope threshold people can decide under without asking you, and who owns it when you are not in the room. Hand off one decision completely. Do not take it back.
    4. Weeks 7-8. One manager. Open the Bench Builder. One row per function. Use the Scorecard if you are torn on who. Have the conversation: “I want to grow you into running X.” Hand them one area end-to-end. Set a weekly 30-minute 1-on-1 and protect it.
    5. Weeks 9-10. Accountability rhythm. Weekly 15-minute huddle: numbers, jobs at risk, who needs what. 3-5 numbers someone other than you owns. Hold one real accountability conversation with the Planner (issue, behavior, what you have already allowed, the expectation, the consequence or support, what success looks like in 30 days).
    6. Weeks 11-12. Review and repeat. Re-score the bottleneck and the audit. Take a planned half-day fully off and note what broke. Raise one decision-rights threshold. Duplicate the 90-day page and start the next cycle.

    While you are in it, run the Readiness Checklist (six sections, red / yellow / green) and the 5 Ds. Check a 5 Ds box only if it is true and current today. Count the blanks. Pick the three that would hurt most if the D hit tomorrow.

    The 10 AI skills

    Three panels showing one problem, three options, one recommendation
    Ten AI skills on the leadership bench.
    1. restoration-setup. “Set up the kit.” Shared with the Ops kit. Writes company-profile.md.
    2. delegation-1-3-1. “Help me delegate this.” Convert an escalated question into one issue / three options / one recommendation.
    3. owner-bottleneck-assessment. “Where am I the bottleneck?” Scored self-assessment. Top places you are still the constraint.
    4. succession-5ds-checklist. “Am I exposed if something happens to me?” Exposure plus what to shore up.
    5. accountability-planner. “I have a hard conversation to plan.” Script plus a 30-day follow-up.
    6. leadership-readiness-checklist. “Is my team ready to lead?” Bench, single points of failure, next leaders.
    7. middle-manager-scorecard. “Should I promote this person?” Nine traits. Promote / Develop first / Not yet.
    8. owner-dependency-audit. “What breaks if I disappear for 30 days?” Functions plus a decision-rights map.
    9. leadership-bench-builder. “Build my leadership bench.” Candidates, gaps, a 90-day development plan per person.
    10. doer-to-leader-90-day. “Give me a 90-day plan to step back.” A personalized 12-week plan.

    Install the plugin yourself

    Option A (recommended). Save the leadership-kit folder. In Claude run:

    /plugin marketplace add /path/to/leadership-kit
/plugin install leadership-kit@profit-detective
/leadership-kit:restoration-setup

    Option B. Copy each folder inside skills/ into ~/.claude/skills/. On Windows that is C:\\Users\\<you>\\.claude\\skills\\. Then say “run restoration setup.”

    Keep company-profile.md in the folder you work in. Every skill reads it. If you already ran setup from another Profit Detective kit, it reuses the same profile.

    If you want the packaged system

    You can rebuild this from the outline above. Buy Now is the flagship delivered by email after checkout: Notion duplicate links for the nine tools, the plugin zip (ten skill folders and the README), and the setup sequence so you drop it in and run. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Coaching and operational system only. Not legal or HR advice.

    Related on Tygart Media: Notion Command Center · leadership toolkit · operations kit.

  • Job-Costing Gap-Finder

    Job-Costing Gap-Finder

    Job-Costing Gap-Finder

    $39

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Pull last 10 closed jobs. Enter estimate vs actual. Tag the leak bucket. Sort the losers. Buy Now is the packaged Notion table with the columns and formulas already built, so you are not making the spreadsheet from a blank grid.

    This is the $39 utility on the profit-leak spine. Compare estimate (or Xactimate) vs actual cost on a sample of recent jobs. Surface margin leak by line category. Natural next step when the Profit Leak Scorecard says Zone 2 (job costing & margin) is your worst zone.

    Why the lag kills you

    Four-step flow: estimate, actuals, gap, fix
    Catch the loser at 50% — not at month-end.

    By the time most owners know a job lost money, they have already done six more like it. Cash in the bank is timing. Gross margin per job is the only number that tells the truth, and most $1M-$15M shops cannot name it until the bookkeeper closes the month three or four weeks later.

    You do not lose money on one weird job. You lose it on a type of job you keep taking. The playbook’s example: a 30% water-mit job that needed 45%, run forty of them on $600K of revenue, and you gave away $90,000 of gross profit. A bad pattern, not a bad month. Fast costing exposes the pattern.

    The table to build

    One row per job. These columns:

    • Job (name or file number)
    • Loss Type: Water, Fire/Smoke, Mold, Storm, Contents, Reconstruction, Other
    • Invoiced $
    • Estimated Cost $
    • Actual Cost $
    • Labor Over/Under $
    • Equipment Over/Under $
    • Materials Over/Under $
    • Subs Over/Under $
    • Cost Variance $: estimated cost minus actual cost (formula)
    • Gross Margin %: (Invoiced – Actual Cost) ÷ Invoiced (formula)
    • Biggest Leak: Labor, Equipment, Materials, Subs, Scope/Estimate, or None
    • Notes: who estimated, which crew, anything that explains the gap

    Do not clean the numbers up. Enter what actually happened.

    The four cost buckets

    Six cards covering job margin, cycle time, AR days, utilization, CAC, close rate
    Four cost buckets — same unit-economics lens.

    Labor is the #1 leak, three ways. Hours running over estimate. Unbilled drive and idle time (truck leaves at 7, tarp goes down at 9:15). Crews stretching a “full day” on T&M. None of it shows unless you cost labor against the estimate, job by job.

    Equipment is the silent under-track. Units sitting on a job that closed days ago, still not picked up, never billed for the extra dry days. You own 40 air movers; on any given week some are “lost” on completed jobs, off-rent, earning nothing.

    Materials is smaller but real. Over-ordering, the partial pallet that walks off, the antimicrobial you used and forgot to line-item. A 5-8% materials slippage on a materials-heavy reconstruction job adds up across a year.

    Subs is margin compression you agreed to. Sub invoice higher than what you billed the carrier. Verbal scopes. Change orders not documented. A 10% markup when the job needed 20%.

    How to run ten jobs

    1. Pull invoices, labor hours, equipment logs, and sub invoices for your last 10 closed jobs.
    2. Enter one row each. Invoiced, estimated cost, actual cost, and the four over/under columns.
    3. Let Gross Margin % and Cost Variance $ calculate. Sort low margin to high. The jobs at the top are the money-losers. Name them.
    4. Cross-check labor. Flag every job where actual hours beat estimate by more than 10%. Look for the pattern: same job type, same crew, same estimator.
    5. Tag Biggest Leak on each row. Be honest. If the work was performed and never priced, that is Scope/Estimate, not Labor.
    6. Pick the one money-loser with the biggest gap. Write a single sentence: what leaked, and in which bucket. That sentence is your first plug.

    Catch the loser at 50%, not at month-end

    On every significant job, run a mid-job margin check at the halfway point. Pull actual labor hours and equipment days to date. Compare them against where they should be for percent complete. If a $40K job is 50% done and you have already spent 70% of the labor budget, you have a right-now problem: tighten the crew, escalate the scope with the adjuster, or stop the bleed.

    Close-out cost within 3-5 days of the final visit. Every job. No exceptions. While the crew remembers, while the equipment log is fresh, while you can still bill the carrier for that supplement. That turns job costing from a rear-view report into a steering wheel.

    If Scope/Estimate keeps winning

    Filter Biggest Leak = Scope/Estimate. Sort by Cost Variance. Group by Loss Type and by estimator (use Notes). You are hunting the repeating miss: detach & reset, PPE, monitoring labor, containment, equipment days, after-hours, content manipulation. Name the estimator-plus-job-type combination with the biggest consistent negative variance. That is this week’s coaching conversation.

    What good looks like

    Five zone panels: estimating, job costing, cash/AR, sales, leadership
    What good looks like: gaps found mid-job, not in autopsy.
    • Gross margin ≥ 45% on a blended basis, and you know it by number, not by feel.
    • Job margin known within days of close, not weeks.
    • No surprise losers. Every significant job gets a mid-job check.
    • Labor costed against estimate on every job. Equipment never sits off-rent on a closed file.

    Log this batch’s blended margin as your baseline. Update it monthly so margin is a trend line you watch.

    If you want the packaged table

    You can build the columns in any spreadsheet. Buy Now is the Notion database delivered by email after checkout: the fields, the Loss Type and Biggest Leak selects, and the Gross Margin % and Cost Variance formulas already in. Duplicate it and enter the ten jobs. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Related on Tygart Media: profit leak scorecard · profit detective · restoration cash flow.

  • Google Ads Analysis

    Google Ads Analysis

    Google Ads Analysis

    $250

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Split campaigns by service. Load negatives before you spend another week. Match every landing page to its ad group. Compute fully-loaded cost per acquired job, not just CPC. Buy Now is the packaged analysis delivered by email after checkout, so you are not assembling the read from a blank spreadsheet.

    Restoration PPC is an engineering problem, not a set-it-and-forget-it expense. Emergency water-damage keywords have been reported as high as $250 per click in competitive metros. Average emergency restoration keywords more commonly land in the $40-$150 range depending on geography. At those CPCs, structure and landing pages decide whether the phone pays you or you subsidize the auction.

    How to run the analysis

    1. Open the account. List every campaign, ad group, and the landing URL each ad actually hits.
    2. Mark the single-campaign trap if you see it: one campaign, one ad group, water / mold / fire / flood keywords fighting each other, every ad pointing at the homepage.
    3. Pull Search Terms for the last 30-60 days. Tag wasted queries (jobs, DIY, training, equipment rental).
    4. Check bidding against conversion volume. Under 30 conversions a month in a campaign is a different tool than 30+.
    5. Open each landing page on a phone. Does the H1 match the ad? Is click-to-call above the fold?
    6. Write fully-loaded cost per acquired job by channel: spend ÷ booked jobs from that channel, then layer close rate. CPC from the dashboard is not that number.

    1. Kill the single-campaign trap

    Red checklist of five reasons restoration Google Ads waste budget
    Kill the single-campaign trap first.

    The most common setup: one campaign, one ad group, a mix of water damage, mold removal, fire restoration, and flood cleanup keywords all fighting each other. Every click gets the same generic ad. Every ad points to the homepage.

    Quality Score is built on expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. When you stuff water damage and fire restoration into the same ad group, ad relevance tanks for both. A Quality Score of 9 can outrank a competitor bidding twice as much at a 5. Poor structure can inflate CPC by 30% or more while delivering fewer qualified leads.

    Split by service. Each ad group 10-20 tightly related keywords. Every keyword in the group has to fit the same ad and the same landing page. If they do not, split them.

    • Campaign 1. Emergency water damage. Ad groups for emergency water extraction, burst pipe, basement flooding, sewage backup. Separate ad copy. Landing page that opens with emergency water damage, not the homepage.
    • Campaign 2. Fire and smoke restoration. Fire damage, smoke damage, soot removal. Different call to action. Fire jobs are longer projects, a different sales conversation.
    • Campaign 3. Mold remediation. Mold testing, black mold removal, mold inspection. Often a separate buyer with a different timeline.

    Give Performance Max its own campaign and its own budget if you run it. PMax black-box reporting will otherwise hide whether Search is working.

    2. Negative keywords: the bill you are not seeing

    Three ranked panels: intent near need, catch overflow, compound trust
    Negatives are the bill you are not seeing.

    Most restoration PPC campaigns have a weak or nonexistent negative list. Every day without one, you pay for job seekers (“water damage restoration jobs near me”), DIY researchers (“how to do water damage restoration yourself”), students looking for training, and equipment renters who are not calling you for service.

    Campaigns that actively manage negatives see a reported 10-20% lower wasted spend and a 5-15% conversion-rate lift. On a $10,000/month budget, that is $1,000-$2,000 a month currently going to irrelevant clicks.

    Build a seed negative list before the campaign launches. Pull Search Terms weekly for the first 60 days. Add exact-match negatives first. Only go broader if the data supports it. Over-blocking with broad-match negatives will starve volume you actually want.

    3. Bidding: stop fighting the machine

    A large share of Google Ads spend now runs through Smart Bidding (Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions). Advertisers using AI bidding have been reported at roughly 22% lower cost per conversion versus manual CPC on average. For restoration, the right tool depends on data:

    • Under 30 conversions per month in a campaign. Maximize Clicks with a CPC cap while you accumulate signal. Smart Bidding starved of conversions produces garbage.
    • 30+ conversions per month. Move to Target CPA. Set the target from actual job margins, not aspirational ones. If a water job averages $12,000 and you close 25% of qualified leads, a $300 CPL target can still profit. If you close under 15%, fix sales before you fix bidding.
    • Large campaigns with consistent job data. Target ROAS becomes viable only if revenue tracking is actually wired into Google Ads. Most restoration accounts do not have that configured.

    The problem is rarely the channel. It is losing track of where the leads went after the phone call.

    4. The landing page has to match the ad

    Three cards for LSA, search ads, and SEO/AI authority channels
    Landing page must match the ad — or you paid for confusion.

    If the ad says “Emergency Basement Flooding, 24/7 Response” and the landing page is the homepage with a hero of a happy family and a form below the fold, you are burning the click you just paid for.

    A restoration PPC landing page needs: the emergency service name in the H1 above the fold; a click-to-call number prominent on mobile; a response-time claim only if you can back it up; one short form (name, phone, zip, issue); proof (reviews, IICRC, insurance logos).

    Do not send PPC traffic to the homepage. Do not build one landing page for all services. Match the ad to the page, the page to the ad group, the ad group to the keyword cluster. That chain is where Quality Score lives.

    5. Channel mix and the number that actually matters

    Three channels do the heavy lifting. LSA (pay per qualified call; reported restoration CPL roughly $80-$200 depending on the write-up) is the highest-ROI paid lever for most residential operators, with a catch: Google ended credits for “job type not serviced” and “geo not serviced” in 2025, so junk leads come out of your pocket. Search Ads (reported CPL $150-$400+ structured, $400-$700+ not) buy control LSA does not have: commercial work, specific service lines, overflow when LSA hits a daily cap, brand defense. If you are spending more than $5,000 a month on Search and you do not have LSAs set up, that is the first fix. SEO is the compounding asset. Restoration SEO in competitive metros typically takes 12-18 months. Treat reported ranges as ranges, not promises.

    Cost-per-lead is the number every vendor reports. The number that matters is fully-loaded cost per acquired job: CPL divided by channel-specific close rate, plus CSR labor on the call, plus processing, minus franchise or TPA fee if it applies. Most shops have CPL from the platform and revenue from the job software, and the two systems have never talked. Fix that before you change a single bid.

    Budget ballparks (Search only, reported)

    • Mid-size market (pop. 200K-500K): $3,000-$6,000/month to generate 15-30 leads
    • Major metro (pop. 1M+): $8,000-$15,000/month to maintain consistent visibility
    • Specific suburb or tight service area: $1,500-$3,000/month if geo is tight and Quality Score is managed

    These are Search figures. They are ballparks from the published method, not a quote for your market.

    Done when

    You can show separate service campaigns, a negative list with at least 50 entries, a dedicated landing page for each major service, and a fully-loaded acquired-job cost by channel. If your current agency cannot show those four, the account is not being run as an engineering problem.

    If you want the packaged analysis

    You can run the six steps from the outline above on your own login. Buy Now is the analysis delivered by email after checkout. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Marketing and operational read only. Not a media-buy, legal, or insurance engagement. Reported CPC and CPL ranges move by metro and by month. Use your own numbers.

    Related on Tygart Media: restoration Google Ads · marketing stack.

  • Conference Starter Pack

    Conference Starter Pack

    Conference Starter Pack

    $97

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Score where you are still the bottleneck. Install 1-3-1 so the next problem comes back as a recommendation. Walk the 5 Ds as a what-if-tomorrow check. Buy Now is the packaged bundle: three Notion tools plus the matching Claude skills, so you are not assembling the starter pack from blank pages.

    The grab-and-go pack from the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. Three of the most-used tools, bundled. For restoration owners who just heard the doer-to-leader message and want something they can run this week, not a 12-week program on day one.

    What’s in the pack

    Four-phase board covering a 12-week owner freedom transition
    Conference pack: start with the bottleneck assessment.
    1. 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet
    2. Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment
    3. 5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist

    The matching skills from the Leadership AI plugin: delegation-1-3-1, owner-bottleneck-assessment, succession-5ds-checklist.

    Run them in this order. The bottleneck names the constraint. 1-3-1 is the first habit. The 5 Ds is the exposure you do not want to discover the hard way.

    1. Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment

    Find out where your company still depends on you. An owner bottleneck exists when growth, decision speed, and consistency are limited by your personal involvement in day-to-day decisions. You become both the most important and the most constraining person in the business.

    Check the box for each statement that is true today. Count the checks in each section, then total them. Range is 0-25. Be honest. The value is in the truth.

    1. Decisions only you make. Estimate / pricing approvals over a set dollar amount. Hiring and firing. Vendor choices. Which jobs you take. Refunds, credits, concessions.
    2. Interruptions by department. Production calls daily. Office pulls you into billing or scheduling. Sales checks pricing before quoting. Techs call from job sites. Customer complaints land on you.
    3. Recurring questions. The same operational questions every week. People wait for you. “Ask the owner” is the default. You re-explain the same processes. Things stall when you are unavailable.
    4. Tasks that should be delegated. Estimates you could hand off. Scheduling / dispatch. Collections / AR. Ordering equipment. Work others could produce.
    5. Areas with no backup. No one else can run production. Only you hold key carrier relationships. Only you see the full financial picture. No written SOPs for the things you do. If you are gone a week, something breaks.

    Bands: 0-6 Mild (tighten the remaining gaps). 7-13 Moderate (you are the bottleneck in one or two areas; fix the worst one first). 14-19 Heavy (the business runs through you; start delegating now, deliberately). 20-25 Severe (you ARE the business; this is the #1 risk to growth and to an exit).

    Write your top 3 to delegate first. For one full week after you score, log every interrupt for a decision. Sort into Delegate now / Delegate after training / Keep (truly owner-only). The department with the most checks is this quarter’s target. Install 1-3-1 there first.

    2. 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet

    Three panels showing one problem, three options, one recommendation
    1-3-1 worksheet — force recommendations on the floor.

    The old way (escalation): “Hey boss, the dehu on the Maple St job died. What do you want me to do?” You just took back the problem, the thinking, and the decision. That is three jobs.

    The 1-3-1 way (delegation): “The dehu on Maple St died. Here are three options I looked at, here is the cost of each, and here is what I would do. Just need your yes.” You own one job: the decision.

    • 1. One issue. The decision that is actually needed, in one or two sentences. Not the whole story. The fork in the road.
    • 3. Three real options. Each with pros, cons, and a rough cost or effort. “Do nothing” can be one when it is honest. Stuck at two? Push for a third. Even “do nothing and revisit Friday” or “escalate to the carrier.”
    • 1. One recommendation. The option they would pick if it were their call, and why in one line.
    • A default. What they will do if they do not hear back by a deadline, so the job does not stall waiting on you.

    Explain the rule once, out loud. Pin the format where decisions get made (truck, office, group chat). When someone brings a raw problem, ask: “What are your three options, and which do you recommend?” Then wait. Run at least five real conversations. Approve the recommendation whenever it is reasonable. Resist solving it yourself, even when you are faster. Note who takes to it quickly. That is a signal for a future-manager pick.

    The first few 1-3-1s will be lopsided. Three fake options, or a recommendation with no reasoning. Coach it. Do not grade it. Phase done when at least one person is bringing 1-3-1s without being reminded.

    Worksheet fields if you are copying it: prepared by, date, job / account, urgency (Today / This week / No rush); the issue; three options (what it is, two pros, two cons, rough cost); the recommendation and what they need from you; the default deadline; owner sign-off (Approved as recommended / Approved with changes / Chose a different option / Let’s talk).

    Owner gut-check before you sign: could this person have made this call without me? If yes, tell them so, and next time push it all the way down.

    3. 5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist

    Five colored panels labeled Do, Delegate, Defer, Delete, Decide
    5 Ds succession risk — decide what leaves with you.

    Succession is not a retirement problem. It is a what-if-tomorrow problem. Check a box only if it is true and current today. Not “mostly.” Not “we talked about it once.” A box you want to be true is still a blank box. Half-true protections fail exactly when the D hits.

    1. Death. Current signed will that names the business. Funded buy-sell if there are partners. Key-person life payable to the company. A second check-signer on file at the bank. Someone who can legally bind the company. Passwords in a recoverable place. A named person who can run production 30+ days. Spouse / heirs know who to call.
    2. Divorce. Separate vs marital property actually confirmed, not guessed. Prenup, postnup, or buy-sell provision. Books not commingled. A valuation method in writing. Operating cash structured so a personal dispute cannot freeze payroll.
    3. Disease. Someone has actually run production on a vacation test. Backup estimator. Payroll / AP / AR without your hands. Carrier relationships that will not collapse if you are unreachable. Disability and business-overhead coverage. A one-page interim chain-of-command with dollar thresholds.
    4. Drugs / dependency. Dual approval over a dollar threshold. A second set of eyes on the books. No single point of failure, including you. A trusted advisor allowed to tell you the truth. Key roles documented and cross-covered.
    5. Departure / disaster. Tribal knowledge written down. Relationships not owned by one person. Off-site backups you have test-restored. A continuity plan for your own shop. Backup vendor / equipment list.

    Count the blanks. Published bands on the scored sheet: 0-6 resilient; 7-15 moderate; 16-27 high; 28+ you are the company. Pick the three blank boxes that would hurt most if the D hit tomorrow. Name an owner and a date. Re-run it every year, and after any life or business change. This is an awareness tool, not legal, financial, or insurance advice. Use it to walk into the attorney, agent, and CPA prepared.

    What to do after the three

    Take the top-3 bottleneck list into a 90-day doer-to-leader plan (Weeks 1-2 are this assessment). After 1-3-1 sticks, write decision rights so people stop defaulting to you out of habit. The 5 Ds blanks that are also “no backup” boxes on the bottleneck assessment are the same exposure. Name them once.

    If you want the next layer after this pack: Leadership Readiness Kit (checklist, scorecard, planner, 1-3-1) or Owner Freedom Kit (audit, bench, 90-day, 5 Ds, 1-3-1).

    If you want the packaged pack

    You can run the three tools from the outline above. Buy Now is the bundle delivered by email after checkout: the three Notion pages (duplicate each so the master stays clean), plus the matching skills if you want the interviews walked. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Coaching and operational tools only. Not legal, financial, insurance, or HR advice.

    Related on Tygart Media: leadership OS · owner freedom kit.

  • Complete Restoration Operating System (Notion + AI)

    Complete Restoration Operating System (Notion + AI)

    Complete Restoration Operating System (Notion + AI)

    $597

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Build the six Notion databases. Write the 17 SOPs. Hang the 12 KPIs. Talk your own Claude through intake, equipment, claims, and Friday numbers. Buy Now is the packaged flagship: the Notion workspace you duplicate, plus the 8-skill plugin zip, so you are not wiring the system of record and the AI from a blank page.

    This is the Notion + AI operating system for a restoration shop. Notion is the system of record. The plugin is the expert you talk to. Outputs from each skill are formatted to paste into the matching Notion tool.

    What it is

    Three cards for field SOPs, owner prompts, and KPI rhythm in an operations kit
    Complete restoration OS — Notion tools + AI skills on one bench.

    Two halves that are meant to run together.

    Notion half. Six plug-and-play tools plus an IICRC protocol lookup. Job tracking, equipment, claims, SOPs, KPIs, crew onboarding. Duplicate them into one workspace page named something like Operations. One sidebar section, whole business.

    AI half. An 8-skill Claude plugin. A setup skill runs a five-minute interview, writes a company-profile.md, and every other skill reads it. SOPs, KPI targets, claims drafts, and onboarding plans come out in your voice.

    You need a free Notion account and any Claude that supports Skills / Plugins. If you can chat with Claude and run a /command, you are good.

    The six Notion tools

    1. Restoration Job Tracker Pro. Every job from first notice of loss to final invoice, with live margin. This is the hub. Everything else hangs off jobs.
    2. Equipment Inventory & Deployment Tracker. Where every air mover and dehu is, and what each one is earning. Asset IDs, daily rates, current deployments.
    3. Insurance Claims Command Center. Claims, adjusters, documentation, supplements, and aging balances in one place.
    4. Restoration Company SOP Library (17 SOPs). The core procedures, written down. Status starts as Template. Flip to Adopted when you approve each one.
    5. Restoration Business KPI Dashboard. The 12 numbers that move profit. Friday 15 to update. One summary row on the first business day of the month.
    6. Crew Onboarding & Training Tracker. Roster, certifications with expiration dates, equipment sign-offs. Next hire, duplicate the checklist set.

    Plus IICRC Protocol Lookup. Ask “what does S500 say about Category 3 water?” and get a plain-English pointer plus PPE. It is a lookup assistant, not a substitute for the published standard. Defer to current IICRC text, local codes, and your certified judgment.

    The 17 SOPs to write (or adopt)

    If you are building this yourself, start a table with SOP #, title, category, owner role, linked standard, and status (Draft / In Review / Active / Needs Update). The kit’s 17 are:

    1. SOP-01 Water Damage: Initial Inspection & Scoping
    2. SOP-02 Water Extraction & Category Determination
    3. SOP-03 Structural Drying & Daily Monitoring / Psychrometry
    4. SOP-04 Antimicrobial Application
    5. SOP-05 Mold Remediation: Containment Setup
    6. SOP-06 Mold Remediation: Removal & Clearance
    7. SOP-07 Fire & Smoke: Soot Assessment & Cleaning
    8. SOP-08 Contents Pack-Out & Inventory
    9. SOP-09 Equipment Setup, Tracking & Retrieval
    10. SOP-10 PPE & Job-Site Safety
    11. SOP-11 Customer Communication & Daily Updates
    12. SOP-12 Photo Documentation & Moisture Logging
    13. SOP-13 Estimate Writing & Xactimate Scoping
    14. SOP-14 Insurance Adjuster Coordination & Supplements
    15. SOP-15 Job Completion, Walkthrough & Certificate of Satisfaction
    16. SOP-16 Invoicing & Collections
    17. SOP-17 New Job Intake / FNOL Handling

    Do not customize all 17 today. Adopt the water set first. The rest within the month. Swap in your company name, your equipment, your local disposal rules.

    The 12 KPIs

    Build a dashboard with KPI, category, definition, frequency, owner, target, this month, last month, trend. The kit tracks these twelve:

    • Revenue (Financial, monthly)
    • Gross Margin % (Financial, monthly, target ≥ 45%)
    • Net Profit % (Financial, monthly, target ≥ 12%)
    • Days Sales Outstanding / AR Aging (Financial, monthly, target ≤ 45 days)
    • Average Job Size (Financial, monthly)
    • Lead-to-Job Conversion % (Sales, weekly, target ≥ 35%)
    • Jobs Sold (Sales, weekly)
    • Average Days to Dry (Production, weekly, target ≤ 3.5 days)
    • Labor Efficiency % (Operations, weekly, target ≥ 70%)
    • Equipment Utilization % (Operations, weekly, target ≥ 60%)
    • Rework / Callback % (Customer, monthly, target ≤ 3%)
    • Customer Satisfaction / NPS (Customer, monthly, target ≥ 70)

    Those targets are the kit’s starting case file, not gospel. Mix of mitigation vs reconstruction will shift them. The habit is the product: fifteen minutes every Friday updating statuses.

    How to hang it yourself

    Set them up in this order. Each one feeds the next.

    1. Job Tracker (30-45 min). Add 2-3 active jobs. Real jobs, not test data. Log today’s moisture readings.
    2. Equipment Tracker (30-45 min). Every dehu, air mover, scrubber, and meter, with asset IDs. Set actual daily rates. Log where everything is deployed right now.
    3. Claims Command Center (20-30 min). Add adjusters first. Then a claim record for every active claim. Log outstanding supplements and unpaid balances.
    4. SOP Library (20 min now, ongoing after). Read, customize, flip Status to Adopted as you approve.
    5. Crew Tracker (20 min). Roster, certs, equipment sign-offs.
    6. KPI Dashboard (15 min, then 15 min every Friday). Enter this month’s jobs and leads, including the ones you lost.
    7. IICRC skill (5 min). Install, then ask something real: “Cat 2 toilet overflow into a carpeted hallway. What’s the protocol?”

    If a template ships with rows marked (Sample), keep them while you learn. Delete them once your real data is flowing.

    How the system runs day to day

    Four-step flow: open skill, paste job facts, review draft, send or file
    Day to day: open the tool, paste facts, review, file.
    • Morning: Job Tracker board. What’s active, what needs a monitoring visit.
    • On every truck roll: equipment deployments updated; moisture readings logged to the job.
    • When the adjuster calls: Claims Command Center open. Every supplement, authorization, and dollar in front of you.
    • New hire starts: Crew Tracker checklist; SOP reading list; sign-offs gate the equipment.
    • Friday: the Friday 15 in the KPI ledger.
    • Month end: one KPI summary row. Review utilization before buying equipment.

    This does not replace JobNimbus, Encircle, or Xactimate. Those are job management, documenting, and estimating. This is the ops layer most shops never finish.

    The 8 AI skills

    Eight numbered skill cards from dispatch through review
    Eight AI skills hang next to the SOPs and KPIs.
    1. restoration-setup. “Set up the kit.” Guided interview. First run. The concierge.
    2. job-intake-assistant. “We just got a water call.” New-loss intake, water Cat/Class, scope plus safety, a paste-ready job summary.
    3. equipment-advisor. “How many air movers for this room?” Sizing, placement, monitoring plan.
    4. sop-generator. “Write an SOP for mold containment.” Any of the 17, or a new one, in your voice.
    5. claims-assistant. “Draft a follow-up to the adjuster.” Emails, supplement justifications, aging-claims chase.
    6. kpi-coach. “Here are my numbers this month.” The 12 KPIs computed and trended. Biggest leak named, with fixes.
    7. crew-onboarding-builder. “Onboard a new tech.” Week-1 / 30 / 60 / 90 plus an IICRC certification roadmap.
    8. iicrc-protocol-lookup. “What does S500 say about Cat 3 water?” Plain-English pointer plus PPE.

    Install the plugin yourself

    Option A (recommended). Save the restoration-kit folder. In Claude run:

    /plugin marketplace add /path/to/restoration-kit
/plugin install restoration-kit@profit-detective
/restoration-kit:restoration-setup

    Option B. Copy each folder inside skills/ into ~/.claude/skills/. On Windows that is C:Users.claudeskills. Then say “run restoration setup.”

    Keep company-profile.md in the folder you work in. Every skill reads it.

    If you want the packaged system

    You can rebuild this from the outline above. Buy Now is the flagship delivered by email after checkout: Notion duplicate links for the six tools plus IICRC lookup, the plugin zip (eight skills and the README), and the setup sequence so you drop it in and run. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    This is an operational system only. Not legal, insurance, or licensing advice.

    Related restoration products

    The AI half of this system is the Restoration Operations Kit — Claude Edition. For the leadership side, see the Restoration Leadership Toolkit — Claude Edition. Software comparisons that pair with the Claims and Job Tracker tools: Albi vs DASH and Xactimate integrations. Lead-gen context lives in Google Ads for Restoration.

    Related on Tygart Media: Starlink on a water job · S500 in the van · local SEO for restoration.

  • Accountability Conversation Planner

    Accountability Conversation Planner

    Accountability Conversation Planner

    $39

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Plan a hard conversation before you have it, so it stays about the work, not the person. Buy Now is the packaged Notion planner you duplicate for each talk, so you are not rebuilding the six prompts from a blank doc.

    Tool #4 of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. Use this when an employee, manager, or family member in the business keeps missing the mark and you have been avoiding the talk. Ten minutes of prep keeps the conversation calm, specific, and fixable.

    Most restoration owners handle performance problems the same way. They tolerate underperformance for too long. They address it once, informally, in a conversation that does not result in change. They tolerate it some more. Then they either fire the person abruptly, often in response to a specific incident rather than the pattern, or they keep tolerating it because replacing people is painful. Neither outcome serves the business. The people who are performing well watch this and conclude that performance does not matter here.

    How to use it

    Restoration technicians training in a shop bay with equipment demo and whiteboard
    Accountability conversations — six prompts, one script.
    1. Duplicate a page so the blank stays clean for next time.
    2. Work through prompts 1 through 6 in order. Be specific. Vague prep makes for an emotional conversation.
    3. Draft your opening line and close from the script outline, then set a follow-up date.
    4. Keep your notes factual. This is a planning doc, not a personnel record. Log formal actions where your policies require.

    Fill the situation first: who this conversation is with; their role / relationship to the business; the date you plan to have it; where (private, not on the job site, not by text).

    You cannot hold someone accountable for expectations you have not communicated clearly. If the standard was never spelled out, that is on you to own in the room, and to fix going forward. Accountability without support is just pressure.

    The six prompts

    Three panels showing one problem, three options, one recommendation
    Six prompts that keep the talk specific.

    1. What is the actual issue?

    One or two sentences. The pattern, not a single bad day. Name the business impact: missed deadline, blown margin, safety, crew morale, a client complaint. Strip out the frustration and the personality read.

    Accountability is forward-looking: what went wrong, what is the standard, how do we close the gap? Blame is backward-looking and personal. Stay on the first one.

    2. What specific behavior needs to change?

    An observable action someone could see on a camera. “Calls in after the crew is already on site,” not “doesn’t care.” If you cannot point to the behavior, you are not ready to have the talk yet.

    “Do good work” is not an expectation. “Complete moisture documentation within 2 hours of equipment placement, using the standard form, with readings at all points on the moisture map” is an expectation. The more specific the expectation, the more possible accountability becomes.

    3. What have I already allowed or tolerated?

    Be honest. Where did I let this slide, stay quiet, or fix it myself instead of addressing it? Naming your part keeps the conversation fair and stops it from sounding like an ambush.

    The most powerful signal in any shop is what the leader does, not what the leader says. If you have been the one quietly finishing their job file, they learned the standard was optional.

    4. What expectation needs to be clarified?

    State the standard plainly, the way you would want it repeated back. “On site by 7:00, truck stocked the night before.” If this was never spelled out, own that in the room.

    For each role you eventually need written performance standards: output (what they produce), behavior (how they show up), and development (what they are working to improve). Share them at hire and review them at every performance discussion. The planner is the prep for one talk. The standards are what make the next talk shorter.

    5. What consequence or support is needed?

    Both sides. What changes if the behavior continues (the consequence) AND what you will provide to help them succeed (training, a checklist, a ride-along, clearer priorities).

    If doing good work and doing poor work produce the same outcome, the same pay, the same treatment, the same opportunities, there is no accountability mechanism. Consequences must exist and must be applied consistently. That cuts both ways: recognition for excellent work, and a real next step when the standard is missed.

    6. What does success look like in 30 days?

    Concrete and measurable, so you both know if it worked. “Zero late starts for four weeks.” “Job files closed within 48 hours.” This becomes the check-in agenda on the follow-up date.

    The longer the gap between a performance miss and the feedback, the weaker the feedback becomes. Address it in the moment or as soon as you can. Then put the 30-day target on a calendar so the talk is not a one-off.

    Conversation script outline

    Five beats. Keep it calm and short. Say your piece, then listen. Fill the blanks from your answers above.

    • Open (set the tone): “I want to talk through [issue] because I think you can do this well and I have not been clear. This is not about [personality].”
    • Name the issue + behavior (1 and 2): “What I am seeing is [behavior]. The impact on the business is [impact].”
    • Own my part (3): “I have let this go without saying anything, and that is on me. Clarifying now.”
    • State the expectation + support (4 and 5): “Going forward the standard is [standard]. To help, I will [support]. If it keeps happening, [consequence].”
    • Confirm the 30-day target + listen (6): “In 30 days, success looks like [target]. What is your take. What would help, and is any of this off?”

    Write their response under the script. Do not argue it in the room. Listen, then come back to the standard and the 30-day target.

    Follow-up

    Restoration SOP clipboard with checklist, moisture meter, and gloves on a jobsite table
    Follow-up is the accountability — write the next check-in.
    • Follow-up check-in date
    • What I will look at on that date (from Prompt 6)
    • Outcome: On track / Needs another conversation / Resolved

    This planner is Weeks 9-10 of the 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan: hold one real accountability conversation this phase, and have your developing manager run the huddle at least once while you sit in. A weekly 15-minute huddle with a fixed agenda (numbers, jobs at risk, who needs what) is the rhythm that makes the hard talk less of a surprise.

    A prompt you can give your own Claude if you want it walked: walk me through these six prompts for this specific situation and hand back a finished script and 30-day follow-up, in our company’s voice.

    If you want the packaged planner

    You can run the six prompts on a legal pad. Buy Now is the Notion page delivered by email after checkout. Duplicate it (··· → Duplicate) for each conversation so the master stays clean. The situation block, the six prompts, the script outline, and the follow-up are already laid out. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Pairs with the Leadership Readiness Checklist (does accountability live below you, or are you the only enforcer) and the 90-Day plan. Matching Claude skill: accountability-planner. Coaching and operational tool only. Not legal or HR advice. This is a planning doc, not a personnel record.

    Related: Restoration Leadership Toolkit — Claude Edition. Also 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet.

  • 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan

    90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan

    90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan

    $199

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Run six two-week phases. By Week 12 the business runs a notch less on you and a notch more on your people. Buy Now is the packaged Notion plan you duplicate and date, so you are not assembling the 12-week spine from blank pages.

    The capstone of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. This turns the doer-to-leader message into a plan you actually run. Work it top to bottom. Do not skip ahead. Each phase sets up the next. You cannot clarify decision rights (Weeks 5-6) until you know your bottlenecks (Weeks 1-2).

    How to use this plan

    Four-phase board covering a 12-week owner freedom transition
    90-day arc: bottlenecks first, then rhythm.
    • Duplicate a page and rename it “90-Day Plan – {start date}.”
    • Block 30-45 minutes every Friday to work the current phase and check boxes.
    • Start by running the Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment and the Owner Dependency Audit. Their results feed Weeks 1-2 directly.
    • Fill the three setup lines before Week 1.

    Write these three lines now:

    • My #1 reason to step back (what I would do with the time)
    • The one person I am betting on as my first real manager
    • Start date / target Week-12 date

    Weeks 1-2. Identify your bottlenecks

    Goal: get brutally honest about where the company still runs through you. You cannot delegate what you have not named.

    1. Run the Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment and write down your top 3 bottleneck areas.
    2. Run the Owner Dependency Audit. List every decision or task that only you can do today.
    3. For one full week, log every time someone interrupts you for a decision. A tally on your phone is fine.
    4. Sort that list into three buckets: Delegate now / Delegate after training / Keep (truly owner-only).
    5. Circle the top 3 bottlenecks that cost you the most time or money. These are your 90-day targets.
    6. Tell your team what you are doing and why: “I am working a 90-day plan to push decisions down. Expect me to hand more back to you.”

    Phase 1 done when you have a written top-3 bottleneck list and your team knows the shift is coming. The audit rates Low / Med / High across nine areas (sales, production, finance, customer-issue resolution, hiring, vendor relationships, estimating / project management, emergency response, decision rights). Low = 1, Med = 2, High = 3. Total is 9-27.

    Weeks 3-4. Install 1-3-1 conversations

    Three panels showing one problem, three options, one recommendation
    Weeks 3–4: install 1-3-1 conversations.

    Goal: stop being the answer key. Train the team to bring one issue, three options, and one recommendation, so you coach instead of solve.

    1. Explain the 1-3-1 rule to the team: bring 1 issue, 3 options, 1 recommendation. Not just the problem.
    2. Print or pin the 1-3-1 format where decisions get made (truck, office, group chat).
    3. When someone brings you a raw problem, ask: “What are your three options, and which do you recommend?” Then wait.
    4. Run at least 5 real 1-3-1 conversations this phase and approve their recommendation whenever it is reasonable.
    5. Resist solving it yourself, even when you are faster. Let them carry it. This is the hard part.
    6. Note who takes to it quickly. That is a signal for your future-manager pick in Weeks 7-8.

    Phase 2 done when at least one person is bringing you 1-3-1s without being reminded. One issue, three real options (pros, cons, rough cost), one recommendation, and a default if they do not hear back by a deadline.

    Weeks 5-6. Clarify decision rights

    Goal: write down who decides what, and up to what dollar amount, so people stop defaulting to you out of habit.

    1. List the 10-15 recurring decisions your team faces (refunds, equipment, scheduling, scope changes, hiring, pricing exceptions).
    2. For each, write a dollar or scope threshold people can decide under without asking you.
    3. For each, name who owns it when you are not in the room.
    4. Capture it in one simple Decision Rights list (a shared doc or a section on the plan page).
    5. Walk the team through it and tell them: “Under this line, you do not need me. Decide and tell me after.”
    6. Pick one decision you currently own and hand it off completely this phase. Do not take it back.

    Phase 3 done when there is a written decision-rights list and at least one decision has fully left your plate. Starter rows live on the Owner Dependency Audit if you need them.

    Weeks 7-8. Develop one manager

    Restoration technicians training in a shop bay with equipment demo and whiteboard
    Weeks 7–8: develop one manager on real work.

    Goal: go deep on ONE person. A single real manager beats five people you are “keeping an eye on.”

    1. Choose one person to invest in as your first real manager. Use the Middle Manager Evaluation Scorecard if you are torn.
    2. Have a direct conversation: “I want to grow you into running X. Here is what that looks like.”
    3. Hand them one area to own end-to-end (a crew, a job type, scheduling, QC). Outcome, not task.
    4. Set a weekly 30-minute 1-on-1 with them and protect it like a paying job.
    5. Name the 1-2 skills they most need to build and how you will help (ride-along, training, a stretch job).
    6. Let them make a real decision this phase and coach the outcome instead of grading it.

    Open a bench list while you do this. One row per key function: role, current owner, candidate, backup depth, skill gaps, one observable 90-day action, delegation plan, check-in rhythm, status. A blank candidate is itself a finding. Phase 4 done when one person owns one area end-to-end and has a standing 1-on-1 with you.

    Weeks 9-10. Create an accountability rhythm

    Goal: replace you-chasing-everyone with a repeatable cadence that surfaces problems early, without you in the middle of every thread.

    1. Stand up a weekly 15-minute team huddle with a fixed agenda: numbers, jobs at risk, who needs what.
    2. Pick the 3-5 numbers the team reviews every week (jobs in WIP, days-to-dry, AR, callbacks, leads).
    3. Decide who owns each number and reports it. Not you.
    4. Use the Accountability Conversation Planner to prep any hard conversation so it stays about the work, not the person.
    5. Hold one real accountability conversation this phase using that structure.
    6. Have your Week 7-8 manager run the huddle at least once while you sit in and observe.

    Phase 5 done when the weekly huddle runs on schedule and someone other than you can run it. About the work, not the person.

    Weeks 11-12. Review, adjust, and repeat

    Goal: measure what changed, lock in the wins, and set the next 90 days. This is not the end. It is the first turn of the flywheel.

    1. Re-run the Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment and compare to your Week 1 score.
    2. Take a planned half-day fully off and note what broke or escalated to you. That is your next bottleneck.
    3. List what got delegated successfully vs what bounced back to you, and why it bounced.
    4. Give your developing manager direct feedback on the quarter and agree on next-quarter goals.
    5. Update your Decision Rights list and raise one threshold now that the team has proven itself.
    6. Pick next quarter’s top bottleneck and start a fresh 90-day cycle (duplicate the page again).

    Phase 6 done when you have re-scored, taken real time off, and named the next quarter’s target.

    Success looks like

    By the end of 90 days, a healthy transition looks like:

    • You can take a full day off without the business stalling or your phone melting.
    • Your team brings you 1-3-1 recommendations, not raw problems to solve.
    • There is a written decision-rights list, and people decide under the line without asking.
    • One person owns one area end-to-end and has a standing 1-on-1 with you.
    • A weekly huddle runs on cadence, and someone other than you can run it.
    • Your re-scored bottleneck number is lower than it was in Week 1.
    • You have already named next quarter’s target, because doer-to-leader is a flywheel, not a finish line.

    Not every box will be checked, and that is fine. Progress on the top-3 bottlenecks matters more than a perfect scorecard. Run it, adjust, repeat.

    While you are in it, run the 5 Ds as a what-if-tomorrow check. Pick the three blank boxes that would hurt most if the D hit tomorrow.

    If you want the packaged plan

    You can run the six phases from the outline above. Buy Now is the Notion page delivered by email after checkout. Duplicate it (··· → Duplicate) and rename it with the start date so the master stays clean. The setup lines, the phase checkboxes, and the success list are already laid out. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    The other four tools in the Owner Freedom Kit feed this spine: Owner Dependency Audit, Restoration Leadership Bench Builder, 5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist, 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet. Matching Claude skill: doer-to-leader-90-day. Coaching and operational tool only. Not legal or HR advice.

    Related: Restoration Leadership Toolkit — Claude Edition. Also Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment.

  • 5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist

    5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist

    5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist

    $29

    Delivered by email after checkout.

    Buy Now →

    Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted

    You can copy this method and do it yourself. Stress-test the company against Death, Divorce, Disease, Drugs/dependency, and Departure/Disaster. Check a box only if it is true and current today. Buy Now is the packaged Notion checklist with the scored sheet and mitigation notes, so you are not rebuilding the 5 Ds from a blank doc.

    Succession is not a retirement problem. It is a what-if-tomorrow problem. The blank boxes are your exposure. Honesty rule: a box you want to be true is still a blank box. Half-true protections fail exactly when the D hits.

    How to run it

    Five colored panels labeled Do, Delegate, Defer, Delete, Decide
    Run the 5 Ds as a risk checklist — not a slogan.
    1. Walk each of the 5 Ds. Check a box only if it is true and current today. Not “mostly.” Not “we talked about it once.”
    2. Read the mitigation note under each D. That is the concrete fix for the boxes you left blank.
    3. Count the blanks. Find your band. Pick your top 3 shore-ups. Name an owner and a date.
    4. Re-run it every year, and immediately after any life or business change: a new partner, a marriage or divorce, a major new account, an acquisition, or a health scare.

    1. Death. If you died tomorrow

    If you were gone permanently, could the business survive the week, pay people, and not get sold for scraps?

    • There is a current, signed will and the business is named in it.
    • There is a buy-sell agreement (if there are partners) defining who buys your share, at what price, and how it is funded.
    • Key-person life insurance exists on you, payable to the company, sized to cover payroll plus obligations while it stabilizes.
    • At least one other person can sign checks (signatory on file at the bank, not just “knows the login”).
    • Someone other than you can legally bind the company (contracts, AOBs, subcontracts). Documented authority, not assumed.
    • Your spouse / heirs know who to call and where the documents live.
    • Passwords, accounts, and licenses are in a recoverable place a trusted person can reach.
    • A named person can run production and keep jobs moving for 30+ days without you.

    Mitigation. Get a buy-sell drafted by an attorney and fund it with life insurance. An unfunded buy-sell is a wish, not a plan. Add a second check-signer and a documented officer who can bind the company. Put credentials in a password manager with an emergency-access contact. Write a one-page “if I am gone” sheet. Tell your spouse where it is.

    2. Divorce. If your marriage ended

    A divorce can put your ownership stake, your cash, and your focus in play. A contested split can starve a cash-hungry shop.

    • You know whether the business is separate vs marital/community property in your state. Confirmed, not guessed.
    • There is a prenup, postnup, or buy-sell provision that addresses ownership in a divorce.
    • The business is not commingled with personal finances (clean books, separate accounts, documented owner pay).
    • A current, defensible valuation (or a method to set one) exists.
    • Your spouse’s role and any claim (employee, owner-on-paper, guarantor) is documented.
    • Operating cash and credit lines are structured so a personal dispute cannot freeze payroll.

    Mitigation. Talk to a business attorney about a postnuptial or a buy-sell clause that fixes ownership treatment now, while things are calm. Clean up commingling. Establish a valuation method in writing. Calm is the only time you can do it.

    3. Disease. If you were medically out for 30-90 days

    Not death. A heart attack, a serious diagnosis, a bad accident. You are alive but out. Does the company idle or run?

    • Someone can run daily production and dispatch without you for 30, 60, 90 days. Named, and they have actually done it (vacation test).
    • Estimates still get written and approved if you are the estimator. A backup exists.
    • Payroll, AP, and AR keep running without your hands on them.
    • Carrier / TPA relationships will not collapse if you are unreachable. Someone else has the relationships and portal access.
    • You carry disability income insurance so household income does not depend on you working.
    • Business overhead expense (BOE) insurance or a cash reserve can cover fixed costs while you recover.
    • A simple interim chain-of-command is written down, with dollar/decision thresholds.

    Mitigation. Run a real “two weeks off” test this quarter and watch what breaks. Cross-train a backup estimator. Look at disability and Business Overhead Expense coverage. Write a one-page interim chain-of-command with decision thresholds.

    4. Drugs / dependency. If you (or a key person) became unreliable

    The uncomfortable one. Substance issues, gambling, burnout, a mental-health crisis. Yours or a key person’s. The risk is a slow decline, not a clean exit.

    • No single person (including you) is a single point of failure whose impairment would quietly sink the company.
    • Financial controls exist (dual approval over a threshold, reconciliations, a second set of eyes on the books).
    • A trusted advisor or peer would tell you the truth if your performance was slipping, and has standing to.
    • Key roles have documented duties and cross-coverage.
    • There is an employee assistance path / clear policy for getting a valued person help without an instant, messy termination.
    • If a key person had to be removed fast, you could. Access and knowledge are not locked solely in their head.

    Mitigation. Dual approval over a dollar threshold, monthly reconciliations, a second set of eyes on the books. Document and cross-train so no one person can sink a function. Put a real advisor in your corner who is allowed to tell you the truth. Have a humane path to help and the access to act fast if you must.

    5. Departure / disaster. If a key person walked, or the building burned

    Two faces of the same risk: a critical person quits, or a fire/flood/storm/cyber event takes out your office, fleet, data, or a major account overnight.

    • Production runs if your best PM or lead tech quits Friday. Their knowledge is documented, not tribal.
    • Key customer and carrier relationships are not owned by one person who could walk and take the book with them.
    • A non-solicit / non-compete / confidentiality agreement is in place where appropriate and enforceable in your state.
    • Critical SOPs, pricing, and account knowledge are written down. Losing one person does not erase how the work gets done.
    • Data is backed up off-site (estimating files, photos, accounting, contacts) and you have actually tested a restore.
    • You have a business continuity / disaster plan for your own office or fleet. You restore others. Are you covered?
    • Business-interruption insurance would replace income if you could not operate for weeks.
    • A backup vendor/equipment plan exists so one lost truck, warehouse, or sub does not stall live jobs.

    Mitigation. Document tribal knowledge. Spread customer and carrier relationships across more than one person. Put reasonable non-solicit/confidentiality agreements in place (attorney confirms enforceability in your state). For disaster: off-site backups you have test-restored, a written continuity plan for your own shop, business-interruption coverage, and a backup equipment/vendor list.

    Overall exposure rating

    Four-phase board covering a 12-week owner freedom transition
    Overall exposure rating after all five Ds.

    Count your blank boxes across all 5 Ds. The packaged checklist scores 45 boxes. Find your band:

    • 0-6 Low / Resilient. The business could survive a major shock to you. Maintain it. Review annually and after any big change.
    • 7-15 Moderate. You would survive a short absence but a permanent loss would hurt. Close the highest-stakes gaps (Death + Disease) first.
    • 16-27 High. A 30-day absence would seriously disrupt the company. A permanent loss could end it. Treat this as a current-quarter priority.
    • 28+ Critical / You are the company. If something happened to you tomorrow, the business likely does not survive intact. Start the top-3 shore-ups this week.

    Write three lines: blank-box total, exposure band, and which D scored worst.

    Top 3 shore-ups

    Restoration SOP clipboard with checklist, moisture meter, and gloves on a jobsite table
    Top 3 shore-ups — write the next actions.

    Pick the three blank boxes that would hurt most if the D hit tomorrow. Be specific. Name an owner. Set a date.

    Most shore-ups need one of these professionals: a business / estate attorney (buy-sell, will, non-competes, postnup); an insurance agent (key-person life, disability, BOE, business-interruption); a CPA / financial advisor (valuation, financial controls, continuity reserve).

    This is an awareness and planning tool, not legal, financial, or insurance advice. Use it to find your gaps and to walk into the attorney, agent, and CPA prepared.

    If you want the packaged checklist

    You can run the five lists on a legal pad. Buy Now is the Notion page delivered by email after checkout. Duplicate it (··· → Duplicate) so the master stays clean. The boxes, the mitigation notes, the score table, and the top-3 shore-ups are already laid out. Same Square button at the top of this page.

    Pairs with the Owner Dependency Audit (what breaks if you vanish 30 days) and the Restoration Leadership Bench Builder (who can run production when a D hits). Matching Claude skill: succession-5ds-checklist.

    Related: Restoration Leadership Toolkit — Claude Edition. Also 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan.