What to Expect From a Business Systems Audit

Welcome to the Well-Built Business Podcast. I'm Chelsea Fournier, systems strategist and founder of the Well-Built Business Method. Now, I get it, operations isn't the flashiest part of entrepreneurship. It's not the thing people usually want to focus on, but it is what can keep you in your zone of genius and away from burnout.

But if you are a service provider or expert-based business owner and you've hit a point where you realize structure, clarity, and clean systems are what actually unlock sustainable growth, you're in the right place. In each episode, I talk about what it takes to build a business that supports your life, not one that constantly drains it. I'm really glad you're here. Let's dive in.

Today we're actually diving into continuing a conversation. This is part two in a two-part series where we're really exploring what are some of the things that you can do as a service-based business owner to make sure you're here for the long run. We talked in last episode about some of the statistics about how many businesses close in their first year, five years, 10 years, it's fairly astounding, and why I believe that really understanding and being in touch with and continuing to improve the six different pillars from the Well-Built Business method actually ups your chances of being around for the long run, running a sustainable business.

Today, I'm walking you through exactly what happens if you do decide you want support in this. When you book a business systems audit with me, from the moment you say yes to what you walk away with, and even if you're not sure if this is a fit for you right now, it's gonna talk you through some of the things that you might need in your business that you aren't even aware of asking the questions about. So first, I wanna talk about a very specific philosophy of how I, as the service provider, how I approach running this particular container of the audit.

I believe that as the business owner, you are here to co-create improvements, but you're not here to outsource and just say, "Oh my gosh, let me close my eyes and hand it over to you. Can you go fix this for me?" That never really ends up in the result that the business owner wants, right? So before I walk through the process, I just wanna set this expectation.

This offer of how you can work with me, this is not, quote unquote, like, "I'm handing it over to you, Chelsea. Can you fix it?" You know your business better than anyone, the nuances, the relationships, the hard conversations that need to happen, the history, the vision of where you're going. My job is to come in and become an expert as quickly as possible to understand how you run your business, to really start to see some of the patterns and the systems under- underneath so that you can really step back, right?

I think many of us have said this, like, "I'm just too close to really see what the problem really is or how to solve this," and sometimes just bringing someone in like me Who's there to get up to speed as quickly as possible. It allows you to see things even as we start to work together in a different way. So the audit process is designed to be collaborative for you to truly own the changes that are gonna happen. And I bring the framework and this outside perspective so that you can just show up in this safe space with honesty and vulnerability and context, so that we can really do what's gonna be best for you and for the business that you run.

Now, there are some pre-work aspects and a lot of places where you get to chime in, and the more y- real you are in how you want to show up for that, the more you get out of it. So let's just first talk about if you were like, "Chelsea, I listened to the last episode. I wanna book you for a business systems audit. I want this level of clarity and systematization in my business."

You go to wellbuiltbusiness.com, you go to the services page, you click on business systems audit, and then it will bring you down to my calendar. Now, just be aware that I'm recording this at the end of July 2026, and currently I have all of the available dates through the end of the year. So if you go to my booking calendar and there's no availability, you can always reach out.

You can email me and see if there's anything else. But I do have currently all of the dates through the end of the year, so even if you're thinking, "Ooh, I wanna do this in the fall once the kids go back to school. I wanna do this before the holidays." Like, it's a good time to think about it regardless of how far out you're booking.

Okay. So once you book, you get a confirmation email, and you receive in that email a comprehensive pre-work assessment. It is a Google Doc. It is something that you can start and stop and come back to.

It's something that we can comment back and forth on. It becomes a very collaborative document, and it's designed to be completed in sections so that you don't have to sit down and, like, fry your brains on getting every single detail of your business down in one big spurt. You can do it over, you know, some chunks of time. Have a sip of coffee, come back and get up for a walk, and come back the next day.

So you are able to be in control of that, and I've designed it so that it's in a Google Doc for that reason. It's not like a form that you're gonna lose your work if you step away. Okay, so each section on this Google Doc has very specific and targeted questions relating to each of the six pillars of the Well-Built Business method, okay? So each section then has their questions, and there's a companion audio, a private podcast only for clients of this offer, where I walk you through what I'm looking for.

I also talk to you about why I am looking for something so that you're not guessing at what I need from you, and you're starting to already think about things from an operations standpoint just from hearing how I speak about it. So basically each section ties into a pillar. And then there's also a couple just other basics for me to really understand what you're looking to get out of the audit and what you're looking for after we have the audit. So honestly, the act of filling this out is already invaluable because you're gonna be walked through, at your own pace, experiencing realizations just from answering the questions.

I am asking you to look in corners of your business that you maybe haven't looked at in quite a while. Now, I want you to know that I personally review every word of the pre-work before we meet. I'm not just loading this into an AI and asking it to point out patterns. No.

You're getting me, my 20 years of experience as a business lawyer, business coach, consultant, entrepreneur. I am going through and looking for patterns and understanding what you wrote and maybe what you didn't write, and really diving into, if this was my business, here's what I'd be doing first. And that's the level of support and high touch that you get in this container. So you go through and do all of the pre-work I have time to review it.

There is a boundary that you have to get it to me in advance of the call, so I really have time to dive in and put comments and make notes and, you know, jot down questions I wanna dive deeper into, so that when we actually show up for the actual call date that you booked, we can dive straight into the areas that need the most attention. I'm asking follow-up questions. I'm kind of pressure testing some ideas or assumptions I have. We're identifying connections.

We're going deep, and you're getting high-level, high-touch coaching during this call. But it's strategic, and I am there to help make sure that what we are creating is honest, it matches your goals and your priorities and how you want your business to feel, not only for you to run, but also how you want it to feel to your clients who are engaging you. I'm gonna tell you what I see, even maybe have a hard conversation or point out parts that might feel uncomfortable, because you're paying me to be honest and real and map out a plan.

So during that call, I get as much information as I can, get those questions answered. Maybe we are able to start brainstorming and co-creating a plan of which pillar you feel is the biggest rub in your business, the one that you wanna dive into first. And then I step back, and I put all of that into my brain, and I take some time, and I go through, and I start creating a prioritized roadmap for you. So I now have a clear picture of which one or two of the six pillars need your attention first and why.

And this is gonna depend. Uh, are you someone who cares the most about ROI? Are you someone who cares the most about solving a particular thing that's keeping you up at night? Can we solve that first, please?

Right? So how you show up and the needs that you have is going to dictate how I help us to prioritize what needs to be done. I'm gonna talk to you about where you would need to invest your time, your energy, and your money next so that you're not guessing. If you're someone who says, "I came to this audit really so you could tell me what I can DIY first," because this is something that you wanna take on, amazing.

I'm gonna give you as much detail and coaching as possible. If you are someone who is saying, "Well, I'm hoping that once we do the audit, you can help me to implement," sometimes I have room in my client base for that, and then we can have that conversation. Or maybe there's someone that I can refer you out to who's a trusted service provider for that specific thing that you now know confidently that you need. If there's a fit to continue working together, whether it's booking another business audit, you know, the next year, whether it's doing a VIP day, whether it's booking me to do some actual consulting and implementation in your business, I'm not worried about us figuring out what's gonna be next before we even have the audit because your assumption or my idea might be completely different once we honestly lay out that prioritized map.

So if you've been listening to this podcast and nodding along and you realize that you really have had enough growth in your business, maybe revenue-wise, amount of clients that you're supporting, maybe it's the number of team members that you have. You have this new hurdle, you have this new level that you're at, and maybe you're starting to realize that you're still having bottleneck level conversations where things really can't move beyond you. Maybe your team is saying that they're frustrated or they need more support than you know how to create systems for.

Maybe your marketing time is taking way too much time and effort, and you know you need to create some workflows around that. Whatever it is, if you're feeling like, "I really need to get a system in place, stabilize, and anchor in the success that I have, or I'm gonna become one of those statistics," this is not a fear-mongering conversation, but it's just very real. Many of us can feel that, especially if you've recently had a new level of success and are saying, "Great, now how do I anchor this in, really hold and contain this?"

And then prepare for whatever your next level is. You don't have to have everything figured out before you book. You can literally just be like, "I know that booking, you know, like my client journey is a disaster," or, "I know that marketing is taking me too much time, but like you tell me what you think by the time we get through the audit." Or you might come in with a very just generalized understanding that you need someone else's eyes on your business.

The best time to do this is before things start to break, or you drop balls, or you lose team members who are frustrated. When you can still be really strategic about it instead of reactive is when I encourage you to be looking at booking a business systems audit. Now, like I said, as the time I'm recording this, all of my available dates are up on the calendar through the end of the year. If you know that you need this but you don't see a date that matches up, if you're in a different time zone, please feel free to reach out and email me.

And if you go to book and realize that you would need the investment split into two payments, again, please email us and we'll be able to get you a custom invoice. So if this inspired you to start doing some of your own systems work and auditing, I love that for you. If you are here to take a next step and lean in and book with me, I would be honored to take that step on your journey with you.