I've spent twenty years on the operator's side of the counter.

Retail and brick-and-mortar. Food and beverage. Real estate investment and rentals. Building sales and business development for start-ups. Consulting engagements with lifestyle brands. Some of it went well. Some of it taught me more than the wins did. All of it involved the same unglamorous work: making a business run when you're the one responsible for whether it runs at all.

That's the perspective I bring to FieldKit.

The problem I keep seeing

Owner-operated businesses don't usually fail because the owner lacks ideas. They stall because the owner is the bottleneck — the only one who knows how the scheduling works, who chases the invoices, who answers the phone, who was going to get to marketing last quarter. The business can't outgrow the owner's calendar, so it doesn't.

Meanwhile there's a wall of software and AI tools promising to fix it, most of which require more setup time than the owner has and solve problems the business doesn't actually have.

What I do about it

FieldKit is practical operations and AI consulting for owner-operated businesses — service companies, cafés and hospitality, retail, and the people running them.

I start with a Business Field Review: a clear-eyed look at how your business actually spends its hours and its money, where the friction is, and which of it can be automated, delegated, or eliminated. Then we build the fixes — the ones worth building, in the order that matters.

No enterprise rollout. No jargon. No six-month engagement before you see anything change.

Why this works

I'm not a consultant who read about small business operations. I've run the payroll, counted the inventory, hired and fired, made the margin call on a slow Tuesday. When I recommend something, it's because I've either done it or watched it fail firsthand.

I'm also not precious about AI. It's a tool. Sometimes the answer is a well-built automation; sometimes it's a spreadsheet and a different opening procedure. My job is to tell you which — honestly — and then help you put it in place.

Where I work

Based on Florida's Gulf Coast, working with owner-operated businesses locally and remotely.

Ready to see where your time is going? Start with a Business Field Review →

PaulFounder, FieldKit