The archive · The Operator's Brief
Every issue is one company, one mechanism, one thing you can do this week.
The reading is free, all of it. What members pay for is running it: the calculators set to your own numbers, the benchmarks for your trade, and the note between issues on how the last call went.
The Wash You Meant to Take
Mister Car Wash. The quiet member is the margin. The devoted one is the discount. A quarter of the plan may be paying every month without ever driving through.
RetentionEnterprise value
The Cost of Coming Back
Terminix + Carrier. You made $240 margin on that job. You made $197 and paid the rest yourself. Every shop you bid against is carrying the same wrong number.
PricingCost-to-serve
Eight and a Half Phone Calls
Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Who chooses is not who pays. The adjuster picks on her own time cost, not your rate. Your discount lands on someone she does not represent, and buys nothing.
Go-to-marketRevenue
The Override Tax
UPS and the ORION routing program. This looks like a software problem. It is an access problem. Three quarters of the cost sits in a gate and a locked door no optimizer can open.
OperationsEnterprise value