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STOA Operations
STOA Operations

The business you built shouldn't need you in the middle of it.

We're the operations team that documents how your company actually works, automates the busywork, and then runs it with you — so you can grow it, step back from it, or sell it for more. Your call.

Get Your Free Capacity ReportBook a 30-minute call

10+ hours a week back within 90 days — or we work free until it's true. In writing.

Twenty-eight owner-led businesses have stopped being the bottleneck.

  • Addiction
  • Cross
  • Diversecity
  • Edular
  • Fmn
  • Gatc
  • Globalexportise
  • Gwlaw
  • Hidrau
  • Industrial
  • Meetwork
  • Injury
  • Innova
  • Julie
  • Klassapps
  • Lawtech
  • Layerlogix
  • M2e
  • Meetflow
  • Myitguy
  • Nass
  • Saas
  • Scc
  • Uptown
  • Wildfire
  • Wv
  • Seatons
  • Bahia Soliman

When everything runs through you, two things happen at once.

You hit a ceiling — and the business is worth less than it should be.

You hit a ceiling.

Growth stops being about demand and starts being about how many hours you have. You can't take on more without adding people — and adding people adds more that runs through you.

Disconnected tools and half-finished business systems integration make it worse — the work still lands on your desk.

And the business is worth less than it should be. Buyers pay for companies that run themselves. Most operations help solves the first problem and ignores the second. We were built for both — business automation that sticks, plus documentation buyers and your team can trust.

Sources: Stratford Analytics (4,700+ US transactions); Exit Planning Institute.

$500K–$5M1

Annual revenue range where hidden capacity loss hits hardest

10+ hrs/week2

Saved per employee when the right tools are in place

500+ hrs/year3

Recovered productivity per employee after systems alignment

25–47%4

Valuation discount on owner-dependent businesses

Optionality by design

One system. Three ways out of the middle.

We don't ask which one you want on day one. We build the same thing either way — a business that doesn't route through you. Then the choice is yours to make.

Scale it

Take on more volume with the team you already have. Half of owners are trying to grow revenue without adding headcount — that only works if the work is not manual.

More capacity, same team.

Step back

Work on the business instead of inside it. Take a real vacation. Survive a resignation without a crisis.

Vacation-proof. Resignation-proof.

Sell it for more

Documented operations and low owner dependency are what buyers pay premiums for. SOPs alone correlate with a 0.25× higher multiple.

An asset, not a job.

Even if you never sell, a business built to sell runs better today. And it takes 12–18 months to remove owner dependency — which is why the honest advice is to start before you need to.

Sources: FreshBooks State of US Small Business 2025; ExitValue.ai (25,592 M&A transactions).

Sound Familiar?

We Hear These Every Week

Owner, professional services
“We're ready to grow, but every new client means more work that lands on my desk.”
Founder & CEO
“If my operations manager left tomorrow, I don't know how we'd function.”
Operations Director
“Our systems don't talk to each other — we duplicate data and effort everywhere.”
Managing Partner
“We're busy, but margins keep shrinking and I can't tell you exactly why.”
Managing Partner
“I haven't taken a real vacation in years.”

STOA OS™

STOA OS™ — how we get you out of the middle

Snapshot

We find where time and money quietly disappear — double entry, dropped follow-ups, unused licenses, and work that only happens because it always has.

Map

We document how the business actually runs. Not the org chart. The real thing.

Document

Tribal knowledge becomes simple written steps anyone can follow — SOPs that keep the business moving when people change.

Automate

We build automations for your most repetitive workflows — client onboarding, follow-ups, reporting, invoicing — so your team focuses on work that actually matters.

Operate

We stay on as your operations team — monitoring, improving, and reporting monthly so the system compounds instead of decaying.

How We Work

Start where you're comfortable. Most people end up in the same place.

Free

Hidden Capacity Report™

Where your hours and dollars are going, quantified. No obligation, no pitch.

Get the report

Starting at $1,500

Deep Operations Audit

Every process mapped, every leak priced, and a prioritized plan. Credited to your build.

See what’s included

Starting at $10K

Quick Wins Sprint

A complete working system in 30–90 days. Yours to keep whether or not you continue.

See how we work

Starting at $3,500/mo

Managed Operations Retainer

We become your operations team: running, watching, improving, and reporting every month.

Get your report

Advisory

Strategy Leadership

Complete strategic technology leadership — we become your part-time CTO, guiding every software decision so you never waste money on the wrong tool again.

  • Technology stack assessment & roadmap
  • Vendor selection & negotiation
  • Strategic planning & prioritization
  • Ongoing fractional CTO advisory
Learn about Advisory

Implementation

Hands-On Execution

CTO expertise plus aligned development — we don't just recommend, we build. Your tools get set up, integrated, and automated by the same team that designed the strategy.

  • Hands-on tool setup & configuration
  • Systems integration & automation build
  • Team training & SOP documentation
  • Post-launch monitoring & iteration
Talk to Our Team
10+ hrs/wkRecoverable time, or the audit is free
90 daysTo get your week back
Until it worksWe stay on the job

Guarantees in writing

Two guarantees. Both in writing.

Before you spend anything meaningful — find-or-free. Our Deep Operations Audit will show you at least 10 hours a week of recoverable time, mapped and priced in a written report — or you don't pay. Move forward within 60 days and the audit fee comes off your first invoice.

After you hire us — Until It Works™. 10+ hours a week back within 90 days, or we keep working for free until it's true.

Why STOA Operations

The team big firms won't send and freelancers can't staff.

This is the caliber of operations work Accenture does for the Fortune 500 and a seasoned CTO does for funded companies — built for businesses neither will ever serve, at a price that pays for itself.

Think of us as a fractional COO — plus the team that actually builds the systems and runs them, instead of only advising on them.

Big firms won’t take engagements under $250K.

Freelancers lack the breadth, the method, and the backup.

Software vendors recommend their own product.

IT providers keep the lights on. They don’t engineer the business.

Alejandro Morales is Board President of XPX Triangle, the exit-planning community for advisors who prepare businesses for sale. We don't just make your business easier to run. We make it worth more to the person who eventually buys it.

Free Tool — STOA Tools

Not ready to talk to anyone?
Start here.

Free tools that answer the two questions owners ask us most: what's this costing me, and what software should I actually be using? When you're ready for connected operations that don't need you in the middle, the Capacity Report is the front door.

Hidden Capacity Report AI Software AdvisorBrowse the tool library

Find out what the bottleneck is costing you.

Free, no pitch. We map where your time and money are leaking and hand you the number — hours per week and dollars per year. What you do with it is up to you.

hello@stoa.agency(919) 263-4040
Get Your Free Capacity ReportBook a 30-minute call
engagement timeline

Get the number

A free Hidden Capacity Report shows where hours and dollars are going. Takes a short conversation.

See the plan

We show you what we'd fix first, what it's worth, and what it costs. No obligation.

We build & run

Most partners hand you a system and leave. We stay on as your operations team.