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Featured · Strategy

Why most strategic plans collapse by Q2 — and the small change that prevents it.

Every January, leadership teams sit down to write the year's plan. By April most of those plans are quietly dead. The problem isn't ambition or execution. It's a missing ingredient that takes about ninety minutes to build — and it's the difference between a plan that drives the year and a document that gathers dust.

Levi Holder · 8 min read April 2026
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Filter: All Strategy Accounting Market Research Economic Impact Case Studies
Article
Strategy6 min read

The KPI cheat sheet for $1M – $10M businesses

Five metrics that almost always matter, three that almost never do, and how to know which is which for your specific shape of business.

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Article
Accounting5 min read

Cleaning up QuickBooks Online without losing your mind

A field-tested four-week plan for getting bad books into shape — what to fix first, what to leave alone, and when to start over.

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Article
Market Research9 min read

Sizing a market when the data doesn't exist

Triangulating market size from imperfect public data, expert interviews, and bottom-up unit math — with worked examples from real engagements.

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Article
Economic Impact11 min read

What every elected official should ask about an impact study

Six questions that separate a defensible economic-impact analysis from a vendor pitch — and how to read between the assumptions.

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Article
Case Study7 min read

How a 14-person agency rebuilt margins in two quarters

Inside a fractional engagement that took a $4M services business from break-even to 18% net margin — without losing a single client.

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Article
Strategy4 min read

The "one-page strategic plan" we actually use

Skip the 60-slide deck. Here's the single page we ask every leadership team to fill out — and the questions that make it useful.

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Article
Accounting6 min read

Reading your P&L like an investor would

A short course in turning a monthly profit-and-loss statement into a decision-making tool — what jumps off the page, what hides in plain sight.

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Article
Case Study10 min read

From feasibility to council: a developer's journey

The full timeline of an economic-impact engagement — from first call through council vote, with the artifacts produced at each step.

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Article
Strategy5 min read

When to hire your first fractional partner

Three signals that fractional is right for you, two that say "not yet," and the question that'll save you a year of ambiguity.

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