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The Profit Leak Scorecard
The Profit Leak Scorecard

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You can copy this method and do it yourself. Score the 20 statements. Count the checks. Name your worst zone. Buy Now is the packaged Notion page you duplicate and fill in, so you are not rebuilding the scorecard from a blank doc.

Stop guessing. Start detecting. This is the entry diagnostic in the Profit Detective toolkit. Five revenue leak zones. Four statements each. Five minutes. You walk out with a Leak Index (0-100), your #1 zone, and a rough yearly dollar figure.

How to score

Five zones. Score honest. Fix the biggest leak first.

Check each statement that is true of your business today. Each check is a leak. Count them at the bottom. Total checks out of 20, then multiply by 5 to get your Leak Index.

Zone 1: Estimating & scope

Money left in the estimate. The leak here is invisible because you never see the dollars you did not ask for.
- We regularly find scope we forgot to bill after a job closes.
- Estimators don’t consistently capture every line item the carrier allows.
- We rarely review estimate-vs-final variance by estimator.
- We discount or eat change orders to keep the adjuster happy.
Zone 2: Job costing & margin

Zone 2: job costing & margin — where quiet leaks hide.

Jobs that cost more than you think. Most shops cannot name true margin on the job they finished last Tuesday.
- We don’t know true gross margin on a job until weeks after it closes.
- Labor hours routinely run over what we estimated.
- Equipment and materials aren’t tracked back to specific jobs.
- We’ve finished jobs that lost money and didn’t catch it early.
Zone 3: Cash flow & collections

Work done, cash not collected. You can be profitable on paper and still broke.
- Carrier or TPA payments routinely take longer than they should.
- We carry receivables we’ve quietly stopped chasing.
- We’ve floated payroll on a credit line to cover slow collections.
- We have no standard follow-up cadence for unpaid invoices.
Zone 4: Sales & conversion

Leads in, jobs lost. A conversion problem and a marketing problem have different fixes. You cannot tell them apart if you do not know the rate.
- We don’t know our lead-to-job conversion rate.
- Inbound calls sometimes hit voicemail during business hours.
- We don’t track which marketing actually produced our best jobs.
- We have no system to follow up on quotes that didn’t close.
Zone 5: Leadership & overhead

Zone 5: leadership & overhead — 1-3-1 stops owner bottlenecks.

The owner is the bottleneck. This zone caps the whole pyramid, and it is the one owners least want to investigate.
- The business can’t run a full week without the owner.
- We don’t review one shared KPI as a team every week.
- Overhead has crept up but we haven’t re-examined it in a year.
- Every important decision funnels through one person.
Your Leak Index

Total checks: ___ / 20. Multiply by 5. That is your Leak Index (0-100).
- 0-20 Tight ship. Minor seepage. Tighten the few gaps.
- 21-45 Active leak. You are losing real money in 1-2 zones.
- 46-70 Major leak. The profit is pouring out. Pick your worst zone now.
- 71-100 Hemorrhaging. This is the #1 threat to the business.
Estimate the dollars

The scorecard’s teaching math: shops at your score typically leak about (Leak Index ÷ 100) × 14% of revenue. Multiply by your annual revenue for a rough yearly figure. Illustrative. Not a guarantee.

Write down the zone where you checked the most boxes. That is where you start. One zone at a time. The owners who try to plug all five at once plug none.

What to do with the result
1. Write your Leak Index and your worst zone on a card. You will carry those two things into any later work.
2. Pull your trailing-12 P&L and write your actual gross margin % (gross profit ÷ revenue). If you cannot find it in under 10 minutes, that is a finding.
3. Write one sentence: the story you have been telling yourself about profitability that you are now going to test against evidence.
4. If Zone 2 won, run last 10 closed jobs through a job-costing table (revenue, labor, equipment, materials, subs). If Zone 3 won, age your AR and total 60+ and 90+. If Zone 5 won, run an owner-dependency pass: what breaks if you vanish for 30 days.
The playbook’s rule: every restoration shop leaks somewhere. The only variable is whether you are looking. Evidence over opinion. Follow the money. Assume a leak exists.

If you want the packaged scorecard

You can run the 20 statements on a napkin. Buy Now is the Notion page delivered by email after checkout. Duplicate it (··· → Duplicate), check the boxes, and the Leak Index and dollar estimate sit on the same page. Same Square button at the top of this page.
Related on Tygart Media: profit detective playbook · job-costing gap-finder · owner dependency audit.
August 13, 2026
The Profit Detective Playbook
The Profit Detective Playbook

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You can copy this method and do it yourself. Pull your own P&L. Score the five leak zones. Cost ten jobs. Age the AR. Run a 90-day reset on one leak. Buy Now is the packaged course: seven modules, the linked tools, and the exercises so you are not assembling the curriculum from scratch.

This is the self-paced DIY version of the Profit Detective Diagnostic. Restoration owners doing $1M-$15M who suspect they are leaving money on the table and want a repeatable way to find it before hiring a consultant.

How it works

Seven modules. Each one teaches a leak zone, then hands you a tool to do the detective work on your own business. Work one module a week or binge it. Do the exercises. That is where the money is.
1. The Profit Detective Method (plus the Restoration Profitability Pyramid)
2. Estimating & Scope Leaks
3. Job Costing & Margin Leaks
4. Cash Flow & Collections Leaks
5. Sales & Conversion Leaks
6. Leadership & Overhead Leaks
7. The 90-Day Restoration Reset
Think like a detective, not an optimist

Think like a detective — score the five zones before you guess.

Most owners run on opinion. “We’re busy, so we must be profitable.” A detective wants evidence. The method’s three habits:
1. Evidence over opinion. Pull the number before you defend the story.
2. Follow the money. A dollar of revenue passes through five checkpoints before it becomes profit. Find which checkpoint it is escaping at.
3. Assume a leak exists. You are not asking if. You are asking where and how big.
The playbook’s teaching: in 150+ restoration companies, every one was leaking somewhere between 5% and 15% of revenue. Not because the owners were lazy. Because nobody was looking. A $4M shop leaking a conservative 8% is $320,000 a year. That is the method’s example math, not a promise about your shop.

The Restoration Profitability Pyramid

Profitability pyramid starts with unit economics, not slogans.

Four stacked layers. Revenue at the bottom. Gross margin above it. Net profit above that. At the top: owner freedom (cash, time, the ability to walk away from the truck).

Most owners spend 90% of their energy on the bottom layer. More leads, more trucks, more revenue. The rule: climb the pyramid from the middle, not the bottom. A 3-point improvement in gross margin on $4M is $120,000, and it costs nothing in new marketing. Growing revenue 3 points to get the same dollars means more jobs, more risk, more chaos. Ask: can I make this dollar worth more before I chase another one?

What “normal” looks like (starting case file)

Pull two documents: trailing-12 P&L, and a job-costing report for your last 20-30 completed jobs (revenue, labor, materials, subs, equipment). If your software cannot produce job-level margin, that is your first finding.
- Gross margin: healthy mitigation 45-55%; blended with reconstruction 35-45%. Below 35% blended is a margin leak.
- Net profit: a well-run shop nets 10-20%. Single digits means the leak is real and findable.
- Overhead: if fixed overhead is eating more than 25-30% of revenue, Zone 5 is calling.
- AR over 90 days: more than 15-20% of receivables past 90 is a Zone 3 bleed.
Circle anything outside those ranges. That is spotting where the evidence disagrees with the story.

The five zones, and how to work each one

1. Estimating & scope

Money left in the estimate. If it is not documented, you ate it. The line items that vanish most often: detach & reset, PPE, monitoring / daily site visits, containment, equipment days, after-hours / emergency service, content manipulation.

The discipline: review every job’s final cost against the original estimate, tagged by estimator and job type. Filter jobs where the biggest leak is Scope/Estimate. Find the repeating miss, not the outlier. Coach that one habit.

What good looks like: final cost within about ±5% of estimate on most jobs, because the scope was right the first time. A weekly variance review, by estimator.

2. Job costing & margin

Four cost buckets: labor, equipment, materials, subs. Labor is the #1 leak (hours over estimate, unbilled drive and idle time, milked T&M). Equipment sits on closed jobs, unbilled. Materials slip. Subs compress margin when the invoice exceeds what you billed the carrier.

Run a mid-job margin check at the halfway point of every significant job. Close-out cost every job within 3-5 days of the final visit, not at month-end. Log last 10 closed jobs with all four buckets. Sort by true gross margin. Name the money-losers. Flag every job where actual labor beat estimate by more than 10%. Write one sentence on the worst one: what leaked, and in which bucket.

3. Cash flow & collections

You are the customer’s bank. DSO = (Accounts Receivable ÷ Total Credit Revenue) × Number of Days. Age the buckets: 0-30 leave it; 31-60 watch; 61-90 a human on the phone this week; 90+ is a write-off countdown.

Collections cadence with a name and a day: Day 0 confirm receipt; Day 14 friendly status; Day 30 escalate by phone; Day 45 owner or controller in writing; Day 60 formal demand path. One person owns the list. Same standing time every week. Track submitted supplements to collection, not just to submission.

4. Sales & conversion

For the last 90 days, log qualified leads and jobs sold. Divide. That is your conversion rate. A rough number beats a shrug.

Four leaks: missed business-hours calls; no source attribution on paying jobs; quotes that get zero follow-up; slow speed-to-lead on emergency work. The playbook’s rule: every estimate gets a touch within 24 hours, then day 4, then day 8. Three touches before it is dead. Answer live, or call back within 10 minutes during business hours. Track quote status: Sent / Followed-Up / Won / Lost.

5. Leadership & overhead

If you disappeared for 30 days and the business grinds to a halt, you own a job, not an asset. Tag a typical week: $15/hour work vs $1,000/hour work. Audit subscriptions, idle trucks, and roles that were created for a person, not a need.

The highest-leverage move in this zone: build one middle manager who can own the daily run. Run an owner-dependency audit. Pick the top 3 bottlenecks. Hand each one through a 1-3-1 (one issue, three options, one recommendation). Drain overhead while you are in there.

The 90-Day Restoration Reset

90-day reset: fix the biggest leak, then the next.

You will find leaks in all five zones. You do not have five projects. Rank by dollars at stake. One zone per quarter.
1. Weeks 1-2: Measure & pick. Put a real dollar figure on the top leak. Write today’s baseline.
2. Weeks 3-4: Install the fix. The specific playbook from that zone. New estimate checklist, job-costing review, weekly AR block, or lead-follow-up rule with a name on it.
3. Weeks 5-8: Make it an SOP. One page. Hand it to the person who owns it. Watch it run for a month without you.
4. Weeks 9-12: Review & lock. Re-pull the same number. Fold the metric into the dashboard. Only then turn to the next zone.
Once a month, 30 minutes, same five numbers: gross margin %, net %, AR over 90, conversion %, overhead % of revenue. Same day each month. When a number drifts, you catch it in weeks.

The playbook’s compounding example: a 3-point margin gain on a $3M shop is $90,000, at zero new marketing. Recovered margin funds the next fix.

What you should be able to say out loud
- “My gross margin is ___ %.” An actual number.
- “My worst leak zone is ___.” Named from the Scorecard, not a hunch.
- “I’m fixing one zone at a time.”
- A written 90-day plan with a measured baseline and a lock-in date.
- A monthly diagnostic already on the calendar.
If you want the packaged course

You can run the method from the outline above. Buy Now is the playbook delivered by email after checkout: the seven modules, the linked tools (Scorecard, Gap-Finder, KPI Dashboard, Claims Command Center, Leadership tools), and the detective-work exercises. Same Square button at the top of this page.

This is an operational course. Not legal, insurance, or licensing advice. The dollar examples in the modules are teaching math, not a guarantee.
Related on Tygart Media: profit leak scorecard · job-costing gap-finder · owner freedom kit.
August 13, 2026
Restoration Leadership Bench Builder
Restoration Leadership Bench Builder

$149

Delivered by email after checkout.

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Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted
You can copy this method and do it yourself. One row per key function. Name who runs it today, who could grow into it, the skill gap, and one observable 90-day action. Buy Now is the packaged Notion table you duplicate, so you are not rebuilding the bench from a blank spreadsheet.

Tool #8 of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. Build the leadership bench before you need it. Identify, develop, and track future leaders inside the company. A single real manager beats five people you are “keeping an eye on.”

How to run it

Bench builder: one row per function — no fantasy names.
1. List the functions that actually move the company. One row each. If a function has no owner besides you, that is a finding.
2. Fill every field. A blank candidate is itself a finding. Do not invent a name to make the row look finished.
3. Go deep on ONE person this quarter. Have the conversation: “I want to grow you into running X. Here is what that looks like.”
4. Hand them one area end-to-end. Set a weekly 30-minute 1-on-1 and protect it. Let them make a real decision. Coach the outcome instead of grading it.
5. Review the table monthly. Move status Identified → Developing → Ready only when the evidence is observable.
The fields (one row per function)

Copy these columns onto a sheet, or use the packaged Notion table.
- Role / Candidate. The seat. Name the function, not a vibe. “Production lead,” “estimating,” “office / AR.”
- Current owner of the function. Who actually runs this today (often you). Name the human, not just the seat.
- Future-leader candidate. The person you would develop into this leadership seat. Leave blank if there is no candidate yet. A blank here is itself a finding.
- Backup depth. How deep is your bench for this function if the owner is out? None = single point of failure. Thin = one shaky backup. Solid = a trained, trusted backup.
- Key skill gaps. What stands between the candidate and leading this function. Concrete gaps (estimating accuracy, holding crews accountable, reading a P&L), not vibes.
- 90-day development action. ONE specific action to grow this person over the next 90 days. Make it observable and assignable: shadow X, own Y file end-to-end, run Monday huddle.
- Delegation plan. What you will hand off and by when so this function stops running through you. The path from owner-does-it to candidate-owns-it.
- Accountability rhythm. How often you and the candidate check in on the development plan. None / Weekly / Biweekly / Monthly. None means it will not happen. Pick Weekly until it is a habit.
- Status. Identified = named a candidate. Developing = actively closing gaps. Ready = can lead this function without you.
Starter rows

If you do not know where to start, use the same functions as the Leadership Readiness Checklist:
- Field production / crews
- Estimating / scope
- Project management / job files
- Sales / lead intake
- Office / admin / AR
- Marketing / referral relationships
- Finance / numbers
- Hiring / people
Add emergency response / after-hours dispatch if that still runs through you. Add vendor / sub relationships if the goodwill is in your name. You do not need twenty rows. You need the seats that break if you vanish for 30 days.

How to fill a row without lying to yourself

Fill a row without lying — readiness is binary enough.

Current owner. If you still approve the work, you still own it. A title on someone else does not move the row.

Candidate. Use the Middle Manager Evaluation Scorecard if you are torn between two people. Score ownership, communication, judgment, emotional maturity, coachability, follow-through, ability to train others, ability to handle conflict, alignment with company values. Great doers do not automatically become great leaders. Do not promote the wrong person to fill a blank.

Backup depth. None means if that person (or you) is out, the function stops. Thin means someone could limp through a week with you on call. Solid means they have actually done it (vacation test). Name is not depth. Done-it-once is depth.

Skill gaps. Write the gap in the work, not the personality. “Cannot hold a crew to a 7:00 start.” “Estimates miss moisture-map readings.” “Will not deliver a hard conversation without routing it to me.” Those you can train. “Doesn’t care” you cannot.

90-day action. One action. Observable. Assignable. “Shadow me on two commercial estimates, then own the next file end-to-end.” “Run the Monday huddle for four weeks while I sit in.” “Close AR over 45 days on the current list and report the number every Friday.” If you cannot see it happen, it is not an action.

Delegation plan. Write the handoff and the date. “By Week 8, scheduling is theirs. I do not take the board back.” Pair it with a Decision-Rights line: the dollar or scope threshold they can decide under without asking you.

Rhythm. Weekly 30-minute 1-on-1, protected like a paying job. Monthly is for a Ready row you are only watching. None is how benches stay empty.

Status. Identified is a name. Developing is a 90-day action in motion plus a standing 1-on-1. Ready is they led the function without you, on a real week, and the work held.

Go deep on one person (Weeks 7-8 of the 90-day plan)
1. Choose one person as your first real manager.
2. Have the 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 the weekly 30-minute 1-on-1 and protect it.
5. Name the 1-2 skills they most need and how you will help (ride-along, training, a stretch job).
6. Let them make a real decision this phase. Coach the outcome instead of grading it.
Phase done when one person owns one area end-to-end and has a standing 1-on-1 with you. Then have them run the weekly 15-minute huddle at least once while you sit in (Weeks 9-10).

If you have not named the bottlenecks yet, run the Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment and the Owner Dependency Audit first. Their top-3 list tells you which rows to open. The Leadership Readiness Checklist tells you whether accountability and decision rights already live below you, or whether you are still the only enforcer.

What “ready” looks like

What ready looks like: they decide without calling you.
- The function has a named owner who is not you, and they know they own it.
- Backup depth is Solid, or at least Thin with a dated plan to get to Solid.
- A written decision-rights line exists for that function.
- The candidate has run the work on a week you were actually out.
- Status is Ready, or Developing with a 90-day action you can observe this month.
Re-score the Owner Dependency Audit after a quarter of bench work. The goal is High → Med → Low on the functions you just staffed. A blank candidate at the end of the quarter is still a finding. Hire, cross-train, or admit that function is you for another 90 days. Do not leave the row pretty and empty.

If you want the packaged table

You can run this as a spreadsheet. Buy Now is the Notion database delivered by email after checkout. Duplicate it so the master stays clean. The columns, the select options (backup depth, rhythm, status), and the field prompts are already laid out. Same Square button at the top of this page.

Pairs with the Owner Dependency Audit (the backups you just named) and the 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan (Weeks 7-8). Matching Claude skill: leadership-bench-builder. Coaching and operational tool only. Not legal or HR advice.
Related: Restoration Leadership Toolkit — Claude Edition. Also Leadership Readiness Checklist.

Related on Tygart Media: Starlink on a water job · S500 in the van · local SEO for restoration.
August 13, 2026
Owner Freedom Kit
Owner Freedom Kit

$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. Audit where the business depends on you. Build a bench. Run a 12-week plan to step back. Buy Now is the packaged bundle: five Notion tools plus the matching Claude skills, so you are not assembling the doer-to-leader system from blank pages.

This is the premium tier of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. For owners serious about getting out of the truck, and eventually building something they can sell. The full system: audit, bench, 90-day plan, succession stress test, and the 1-3-1 handoff.

What’s in the kit

A 12-week arc from naming why to review and repeat.
1. Owner Dependency Audit
2. Restoration Leadership Bench Builder
3. 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan
4. 5 Ds Succession Risk Checklist
5. 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet
The matching skills from the Leadership Claude Edition: owner-dependency-audit, leadership-bench-builder, doer-to-leader-90-day, succession-5ds-checklist, delegation-1-3-1.

Run them in this order. The 90-day plan is the spine. The other four feed it.

Week 0: name why you are stepping back

Before Week 1, write three lines:
- 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
Block 30-45 minutes every Friday. Do not skip ahead. Each phase sets up the next.

Weeks 1-2: identify the bottlenecks

Run the Owner Dependency Audit. Rate Low / Med / High across nine areas: sales, production, finance, customer-issue resolution, hiring, vendor relationships, estimating / project management, emergency response, decision rights. Scoring: Low = 1 (runs without you; a real backup has done it), Med = 2 (limps; backup needs you on call), High = 3 (stops cold). Total is 9-27.

For each area write: what happens if you are gone 30 days, who the backup is today, and what would have to be true for this to be Low.

Then fill a Decision-Rights Map. Starter rows: approve a job estimate over $25k; authorize overtime / call-in crew; issue a refund or credit; hire or fire; approve a vendor / sub payment; take an out-of-area or unusual job; sign a contract or insurance scope; pull a crew off one job for another; spend on new equipment; set or discount a price. Who decides today vs who should.

End of the phase: a written top-3 bottleneck list, and the team knows the shift is coming. Tell them: “I’m working a 90-day plan to push decisions down. Expect me to hand more back to you.”

For one full week, tally every interrupt for a decision. Sort into Delegate now / Delegate after training / Keep (truly owner-only).

Weeks 3-4: install 1-3-1

1-3-1: one problem, three options, one recommendation.

Stop being the answer key. 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:
- 1 issue. The fork in the road, one or two sentences. Not the whole story.
- 3 real options. Each with pros, cons, and rough cost or effort. “Do nothing” can be one when it is honest.
- 1 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.
When someone brings a raw problem, ask: “What are your three options, and which do you recommend?” Then wait. Run at least five real 1-3-1 conversations this phase. Approve the recommendation whenever it is reasonable. Note who takes to it. That is a signal for your manager pick.

Phase done when at least one person is bringing 1-3-1s without being reminded.

Weeks 5-6: write decision rights

List the 10-15 recurring decisions (refunds, equipment, scheduling, scope changes, hiring, pricing exceptions). For each: a dollar or scope threshold people can decide under without asking you, and who owns it when you are not in the room. Walk the team through it: “Under this line, you don’t need me. Decide and tell me after.”

Hand off one decision completely this phase. Do not take it back.

Weeks 7-8: develop one manager

Weeks 7–8: develop one manager — teach, don’t just assign.

Open the Bench Builder. One row per key function. Fields: Role, current owner, future-leader candidate, backup depth (None / Thin / Solid), key skill gaps, 90-day development action (observable: shadow X, own Y file end-to-end, run Monday huddle), delegation plan, accountability rhythm (Weekly / Biweekly / Monthly), status (Identified / Developing / Ready). A blank candidate is itself a finding.

Go deep on ONE person. A single real manager beats five people you are “keeping an eye on.” 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. Let them make a real decision. Coach the outcome instead of grading it.

Weeks 9-10: accountability rhythm

Stand up a weekly 15-minute huddle with a fixed agenda: numbers, jobs at risk, who needs what. Pick 3-5 numbers the team reviews every week (jobs in WIP, days-to-dry, AR, callbacks, leads). Someone other than you owns each number. Have your developing manager run the huddle at least once while you sit in.

Hold one real accountability conversation this phase. Issue, behavior that needs to change, what has already been allowed, the expectation, the consequence or support, what success looks like in 30 days. About the work, not the person.

Weeks 11-12: review and repeat

Re-run the Dependency Audit and compare to Week 1. Take a planned half-day fully off and note what broke. That is the next bottleneck. List what got delegated vs what bounced back, and why. Give the developing manager direct feedback. Raise one decision-rights threshold. Duplicate the 90-day page and start the next cycle.

Success at 90 days: a full day off without the phone melting; the team brings 1-3-1s; a written decision-rights list; one person owns one area end-to-end; a huddle someone else can run; a lower dependency score; next quarter’s target already named.

Run the 5 Ds while you are in it

Succession is a what-if-tomorrow problem, not a retirement problem. Check a box only if it is true and current today. The five:
1. Death. Will, funded buy-sell, key-person life, second check-signer, someone who can legally bind the company, a recoverable password place, a named person who can run production 30+ days.
2. Divorce. Separate vs marital property actually confirmed, commingling cleaned up, 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. Disability and business-overhead coverage. A one-page interim chain-of-command.
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.
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.
45 boxes. Count the blanks. 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. This is an awareness tool, not legal, financial, or insurance advice. Use it to walk into the attorney, agent, and CPA prepared.

If you want the packaged kit

You can run this from the outline above. Buy Now is the bundle delivered by email after checkout: the five Notion pages (duplicate each so the master stays clean), plus the matching Claude 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.
Related on Tygart Media: owner dependency audit · leadership OS · operations kit AI edition.
August 13, 2026
Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment
Owner Bottleneck Self-Assessment

$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. Score yourself across five areas. Total the checks. Write your top 3 things to delegate first. Buy Now is the packaged Notion page you duplicate, so you are not rebuilding the 25-statement score from a blank doc.

Tool #2 of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. 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 of your business today. Count the checks in each section, then total them at the bottom. Be honest. The value is in the truth.

How to run it
1. Work the five sections. Check only what is true today, not what used to be true or what you plan to fix.
2. Total the checks (range is 0-25). Read your band.
3. Write your top 3 to delegate first. Those become Weeks 1-2 of a 90-day doer-to-leader plan.
4. For one full week after you score, log every interrupt for a decision. Sort into Delegate now / Delegate after training / Keep (truly owner-only).
5. Re-run it at the end of 90 days and compare to Week 1. The number matters less than the trend.
1. Decisions only you make

Decisions only you make — that’s the bottleneck map.
- Estimate / pricing approvals over a set dollar amount run through me
- Hiring and firing decisions are all mine
- Vendor and supplier choices need my sign-off
- Which jobs we take is my call alone
- Refunds, credits, and customer concessions require me
If this section is heavy, your next move is a Decision-Rights list: 10-15 recurring decisions, a dollar or scope threshold people can decide under without asking you, and who owns it when you are not in the room. Walk the team through it: “Under this line, you do not need me. Decide and tell me after.” Hand off one decision completely this month and do not take it back.

Starter rows if you need them: approve a job estimate over $25k; authorize overtime / call-in crew; issue a refund or credit; hire or fire; approve a vendor / sub payment; take an out-of-area or unusual job; sign a contract or insurance scope; pull a crew off one job for another; spend on new equipment; set or discount a price.

2. Interruptions by department
- Production calls me daily with questions
- Office / admin pulls me into billing or scheduling
- Sales / estimating checks pricing with me before quoting
- Technicians call me from job sites
- I get pulled into customer complaints personally
Tally the interrupts for one week. The department with the most checks is this quarter’s target. Install 1-3-1 there first: one issue, three options with pros/cons/cost, one recommendation, and 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.

3. Recurring questions that come back to you
- The same operational questions reach me every week
- People wait for me to decide instead of deciding themselves
- “Ask the owner” is the default answer here
- I re-explain the same processes over and over
- Things stall when I am unavailable
Recurring questions are undocumented decisions. Write the answer once. Put it where the question gets asked (truck, office, group chat). If you re-explain the same process, that process needs an SOP or a named owner, not another explanation from you.

4. Tasks that should be delegated

Tasks that should be delegated — write them down.
- I still write estimates I could hand off
- I handle scheduling / dispatch
- I chase collections / AR myself
- I order equipment and supplies
- I personally produce things others could
These are doer tasks wearing an owner badge. Pick one. Hand the outcome, not the task. “You own scheduling this month. I will sit in the first week. After that, bring me 1-3-1s, not the board.” Name the 1-2 skills they most need and how you will help (ride-along, training, a stretch job). Set a weekly 30-minute 1-on-1 and protect it.

5. Areas with no backup

Areas with no backup — hire or train before you vanish.
- No one else can run production if I am out
- Only I hold the key carrier / adjuster relationships
- Only I can see the full financial picture
- There are no written SOPs for the things I do
- If I am gone a week, something breaks
A checked box here is a single point of failure. Name the backup, or name the blank. A blank candidate is itself a finding. Put each exposed function on a bench list: current owner, future-leader candidate, backup depth (None / Thin / Solid), the skill gap, one observable 90-day action, a weekly or biweekly check-in.

This section is the short version of the Owner Dependency Audit (nine areas, Low/Med/High, what breaks if you vanish 30 days) and the 5 Ds Disease / Departure boxes (vacation test, backup estimator, relationships not owned by one person).

Your score

Total checks: ___ / 25
- 0-6 Mild. You have delegated well. Tighten the few 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 your growth and your exit.
Write your top 3 to delegate first. Take the worst section into a 90-day doer-to-leader plan. Run the Owner Dependency Audit for the full picture (nine areas, Decision-Rights Map, 30-day disappear test).

Tell the team the shift is coming: “I am working a 90-day plan to push decisions down. Expect me to hand more back to you.” Then do it. Re-score at Week 12. Take a planned half-day fully off and note what broke. That is the next bottleneck.

If you want the packaged assessment

You can run the 25 statements 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 five sections, the score table, and the top-3 lines are already laid out. Same Square button at the top of this page.

Pairs with the Owner Dependency Audit (deeper diagnostic) and the 90-Day Doer-to-Leader Transition Plan (Weeks 1-2). Matching Claude skill: owner-bottleneck-assessment. Coaching and operational tool only. Not legal or HR advice.
Related: Restoration Leadership Toolkit — Claude Edition. Also 1-3-1 Delegation Worksheet.
August 13, 2026
Operations Kit — AI Edition
Operations Kit — AI Edition

$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. Talk to your own Claude. Interview your own shop. Write your own SOPs and claims drafts. Buy Now is the packaged zip: eight skills, the plugin files, and the install so you do not have to wire it from scratch.

This is the AI companion to the Complete Restoration Operations Kit. A restoration owner attaches it to their own Claude. It interviews them, writes a company profile, and then the other skills speak that business.

What it is

AI edition ops kit — same bench, same four moves.

An 8-skill Claude plugin. Install it into Claude Code, the Claude Desktop app, or Cowork. 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, not a generic restoration voice.

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

The 8 skills

Eight skills on the bench — pick the one that matches the job.
1. restoration-setup. Say “Set up the kit.” Guided interview that customizes the whole kit. First run. The concierge.
2. job-intake-assistant. Say “We just got a water call.” New-loss intake, water Cat/Class classification, scope plus safety, a paste-ready job summary.
3. equipment-advisor. Say “How many air movers for this room?” Air-mover and dehu sizing, placement, and a monitoring plan.
4. sop-generator. Say “Write an SOP for mold containment.” A tailored SOP in your company’s voice. Any of the 17 core SOPs, or a new one.
5. claims-assistant. Say “Draft a follow-up to the adjuster.” Adjuster emails, supplement justifications, an aging-claims chase plan.
6. kpi-coach. Say “Here are my numbers this month.” Your 12 KPIs computed and trended. The biggest profit leak named, with fixes.
7. crew-onboarding-builder. Say “Onboard a new tech.” Role-based Week-1 / 30 / 60 / 90 plan plus an IICRC certification roadmap.
8. iicrc-protocol-lookup. Say “What does S500 say about Cat 3 water?” Plain-English pointer to S500 / S520 / S700 / S540 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.
How to install it yourself

Option A: plugin (recommended)
1. Save the restoration-kit folder anywhere on your computer.
2. In Claude, run:
  /plugin marketplace add /path/to/restoration-kit /plugin install restoration-kit@profit-detective
  Replace the path with wherever you saved the folder. On Desktop and Cowork, type the same /plugin commands in the chat.
3. Start setup:
  /restoration-kit:restoration-setup
Option B: personal skills (simplest, no plugin)

Copy each folder inside skills/ into your personal skills folder at ~/.claude/skills/. On Windows that is C:\Users\<you>\.claude\skills\. Then tell Claude: “run restoration setup.”

First run

Run restoration-setup first. It asks about your company for about five minutes. It saves a company-profile.md. Then it offers to customize each skill: generate your first SOPs, set KPI targets, draft a sample adjuster email.

Keep that company-profile.md in the folder you work in. Every skill reads it so the answers sound like your shop.

Using it day to day

Same four moves day to day. Less reinventing at 11pm.

You do not need to memorize skill names. Just talk.
- “We just got a fire call on Oak St” → intake
- “Size the equipment for a 15×20 Class 3” → equipment
- “Write our FNOL intake SOP” → SOP
- “My gross margin slipped to 41%. What’s going on?” → KPI coach
- “Draft a supplement justification for the Alvarez claim” → claims
- “Build an onboarding plan for a new crew chief” → onboarding
- “What PPE for Condition 3 mold?” → IICRC lookup
Optional: put it on a routine. Ask Claude, “Schedule a weekly KPI review every Monday at 8am.” It walks you through a recurring run of the KPI coach.

What the 12 KPIs are

When you feed the KPI coach real numbers, these are the twelve the kit is built around:
- Revenue, Gross Margin %, Net Profit %, Days Sales Outstanding, Average Job Size
- Lead-to-Job Conversion %, Jobs Sold
- Average Days to Dry
- Labor Efficiency %, Equipment Utilization %
- Rework / Callback %, Customer Satisfaction (NPS)
Starting targets in the kit: gross margin ≥ 45%, net ≥ 12%, DSO ≤ 45 days, conversion ≥ 35%, days to dry ≤ 3.5, labor efficiency ≥ 70%, equipment utilization ≥ 60%, callbacks ≤ 3%, NPS ≥ 70. Use them as a case file, then set yours.

What the zip actually contains
- .claude-plugin/plugin.json and marketplace.json
- skills/ (the 8 skills)
- README.md with the full install
Outputs from each skill are formatted to paste into the matching Notion template in the Complete Restoration Operations Kit. The Notion side is the system of record (jobs, equipment, claims, KPIs). These skills help you fill and act on them.

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

If you want the packaged install

You can rebuild this from the outline above. Buy Now is the zip delivered by email after checkout: plugin files, the eight skills, and the README so you drop it in and run setup. Same Square button at the top of this page.
Related on Tygart Media: leadership toolkit AI · leadership OS · owner freedom kit.
August 13, 2026
Leadership Toolkit — AI Edition
Leadership Toolkit — AI Edition

$297

Delivered by email after checkout.

Buy Now →

Secure checkout via Square — all major cards accepted
You can copy this method and do it yourself. Talk to your own Claude. Interview your own shop. Score your own bench. Write your own 90-day plan to get out of the truck. Buy Now is the packaged zip: ten skill folders, the plugin files, and the install so you do not have to wire the coaching loop from a blank chat.

This is the AI Edition of the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. A restoration owner attaches it to their own Claude. Setup interviews them. Then nine leadership skills coach from doer to leader, using their team, their roles, and their pain points. The Notion worksheets are the fill-in half. These skills run them conversationally.

What it is

Leadership AI edition — move from doer to leader.

A 9-skill Claude plugin plus a shared setup skill. Install into Claude Code, the Claude Desktop app, or Cowork. Setup writes a company-profile.md. Every leadership skill reads it. If you already ran setup from the Operations Kit, it reuses the same profile. One profile powers both.

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

The 10 skills
1. restoration-setup. Say “Set up the kit.” Guided interview. First run. The concierge. Shared with the Ops kit.
2. delegation-1-3-1. Say “Help me delegate this.” Convert an escalated question into one issue, three options, one recommendation. That is the handoff.
3. owner-bottleneck-assessment. Say “Where am I the bottleneck?” A scored self-assessment. Names the top places the company still depends on you.
4. succession-5ds-checklist. Say “Am I exposed if something happens to me?” Death, Divorce, Disease, Drugs, Departure. Your exposure, plus what to shore up.
5. accountability-planner. Say “I have a hard conversation to plan.” The issue, the change, the expectation, the consequence. Outputs a script plus a 30-day follow-up.
6. leadership-readiness-checklist. Say “Is my team ready to lead?” Assess the current bench. Flag single points of failure.
7. middle-manager-scorecard. Say “Should I promote this person?” Score a person on 9 traits. Recommendation: promote, develop first, or not yet.
8. owner-dependency-audit. Say “What breaks if I disappear for 30 days?” Dependency across functions plus a decision-rights map.
9. leadership-bench-builder. Say “Build my leadership bench.” Candidates, skill gaps, a 90-day development plan per person.
10. doer-to-leader-90-day. Say “Give me a 90-day plan to step back.” A personalized 12-week transition plan, week by week.
How to install it yourself

Option A: plugin (recommended)
1. Save the leadership-kit folder anywhere on your computer.
2. In Claude, run:
  /plugin marketplace add /path/to/leadership-kit /plugin install leadership-kit@profit-detective
  Replace the path with wherever you saved the folder. On Desktop and Cowork, type the same /plugin commands in the chat.
3. Start setup:
  /leadership-kit:restoration-setup
Option B: personal skills (simplest, no plugin)

Copy each folder inside skills/ into your personal skills folder at ~/.claude/skills/. On Windows that is C:\\Users\\<you>\\.claude\\skills\\. Then tell Claude: “run restoration setup.”

First run

Run restoration-setup first. About five minutes on your company and team. Company name, markets, services (water, fire, mold, contents, reconstruction), size, key roles, who answers the phone, carriers, how you run a job, and the biggest pain points. It saves company-profile.md. Then every tool is tailored to your people and how you run jobs.

Keep that file in the folder you work in. You can re-run setup anytime to update it. Nothing leaves your computer.

Using it day to day

You do not need to memorize skill names. Just talk.
- “My ops manager keeps escalating everything to me. Help me delegate it.” → delegation-1-3-1
- “Where am I still the bottleneck?” → owner-bottleneck-assessment
- “Score my lead tech for a crew-chief promotion.” → middle-manager-scorecard
- “Is my team ready to lead?” → leadership-readiness-checklist
- “I have a hard conversation to plan with my PM.” → accountability-planner
- “What breaks if I take two weeks off?” → owner-dependency-audit
- “Am I exposed if something happens to me?” → succession-5ds-checklist
- “Build my leadership bench.” → leadership-bench-builder
- “Build me a 90-day plan to get out of the truck.” → doer-to-leader-90-day
Run the skills in this order

Run skills in order — then develop the manager who owns them.

Same spine as the 90-day plan. Do not skip ahead.
1. Setup, then the bottleneck assessment and the dependency audit. Name the top 3 places the company still runs through you.
2. delegation-1-3-1 on the next five escalations. One issue, three options, one recommendation, a default if you do not answer by a deadline.
3. Readiness checklist. Six sections. Red / yellow / green. Name the next-leader candidates.
4. Scorecard on the one person you are betting on. Nine traits, 1-5. Promote about 37-45. Develop first about 27-36. Not yet 26 or below.
5. Bench builder. One row per function. Go deep on that one person. One observable 90-day action.
6. Accountability planner for the one hard talk this phase. Script plus a 30-day follow-up.
7. doer-to-leader-90-day to date the six two-week phases. Then 5 Ds as the what-if-tomorrow check.
The 1-3-1 handoff, in plain terms

1-3-1: one problem, three options, one recommendation.

Someone brings you a problem. You do not solve it in the hallway. You send them back to write one issue (the actual decision, not the whole week), three options they can live with, and one recommendation with why. You decide. They own the work. That is how you stop being the bottleneck without abandoning the job.

What the zip actually contains
- .claude-plugin/plugin.json and marketplace.json
- skills/ (10 folders: setup plus the nine leadership skills)
- README.md with the full install
Outputs from each skill are formatted to paste into the matching Notion template in the Restoration Leadership Toolkit. The Notion side is the system of record. These skills help you fill and act on them.

This is a coaching and operational assistant only. Not legal or HR advice.

If you want the packaged install

You can rebuild this from the outline above. Buy Now is the zip delivered by email after checkout: plugin files, the ten skills, and the README so you drop it in and run setup. Same Square button at the top of this page.
Related on Tygart Media: operations kit · leadership OS · leadership readiness.
August 13, 2026
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

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

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

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.
August 13, 2026
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

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

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

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.
August 13, 2026
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

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

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

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.
August 13, 2026