Grow Your Business.
Take Back Your Freedom.
Give us six weeks, and we’ll give you a streamlined business and a ready-to-go operations manager so you can grow while working less.
streamline your operations with a custom-designed system
meet your own World-class Operations Manager
save time from day one with personalized training
We want entrepreneurial freedom for you because we know what it’s meant for us.
My name is Ashlee Berghoff. I’m the founder of A Squared Online. I started my business in 2017 because I wanted freedom. I wanted to adapt my hours to the needs of my family, to be able to travel and to work on something meaningful.
I quickly learned the truth: none of this was going to just happen for me.
I was the most demanding boss I’d ever had. My to-do list was long, and I was afraid that if I let my foot off the gas, even for a week, the whole thing would collapse. I honestly had more free time (and mental space) as an employee.
When I had my first child, I had no choice but to make more freedom happen. My business needed to survive for over a month without me, and flexible hours were essential for the constantly shifting rhythm of a child’s early years.
So, I used the two tools we now wield for our clients – systems, and hiring a team.
Three years later, my business has clients who have never met me because they’re getting great results with my team. I went from 50 hours a week of work, to 30, to 20 – all while A Squared continued to mature.
Entrepreneurial freedom has been a powerful gift in my life, and I want that for you, too.
The most important thing you need to know is that it’s possible for you. And I don’t mean someday, after you reach some future revenue milestone or turn the corner on some perfect business model. I mean now.
It isn’t automatic, but it’s possible.
Here’s how we can help:
After working with us, you’ll be at the helm of your company instead of down in the belly of the ship. You’ll have the breathing space to think bigger and execute on your best ideas. And – best of all – you’ll start being able to let things go and take unplugged vacations without a second thought.
Here’s how our program – Smooth Operator – works:
1. Your Custom Core System
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- First, we’ll build a custom operational system into your business. We can capture your customer experience, map out how you will execute on your marketing plan, or help you set up a clear system for how projects and time are managed throughout your business and team.
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- You’ll walk away with a clear visualization of every step of the process and a simple game plan for bringing it to life. Your process will be consistent, streamlined, AND flexible.
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2. Your Smooth Operator
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- Then, we’ll hire an operations manager with a skill set and personality that feel tailor-made to you. Everyone we place has to pass a difficult series of challenges called The Gauntlet. This ensures they are dependable, proactive, and organized.
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- All you have to do is answer a few questions and interview a few perfectly-qualified candidates.
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3. Your Training, Already Done
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- Finally, we’ll train your person on the system we built. We’ll share our hard-won strategies for managing entrepreneurial businesses and walk them through everything they need to do to bring your core system to life.
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- Your ops manager will be ready to help you run the business and lighten your load from day one.
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We’ll do it all in six weeks. We know you’re ready for things to be different ASAP, so we’ve streamlined our own process to knock down all the hurdles between you and where you want to be.
FAQs
How could you train someone to run my business?
Only you can know all of the minute details of your business, but we’ve found a few things to be true:
1. The hardest parts of being a good operations manager are about their communications rhythms, ability to build trust virtually, and confidence to process complex information so they can make decisions, design solutions, and see things all the way through. Our gauntlet is designed to filter to people who already operate this way, and our training reinforces it. Those skills will serve you well no matter how your business operates.
2. Through the process of building your system, we’ll identify some initial things your operations manager can do for you from day one. Once you hit the ground running, it’s easier to just keep going because you’ll have the space to think about what’s next.
3. Knowing your big-picture system and understanding their role within it will help your ops manager get up to speed much more quickly because they don’t have to connect as many dots.
Of course, you’ll still need to learn how to lead and share projects with another person, and we’ll be there to support you too. But our goal is to knock down as many obstacles as possible so your operations manager can lighten your load immediately.
What does a custom core system look like?
Our clients walk away with three deliverables from the Custom Core System phase:
1. A visual process map containing all the puzzle pieces of their system (here’s an example – right-click and drag to move around the map, and click the small numbers to expand to new levels of detail)
2. A role description spreadsheet that breaks out all of the steps in the system and allocates each one to a different team member (in particular, you and your operations manager). We use this document to find the perfect fit.
3. A project plan outlining each of the steps that need to happen to fill in any gaps in your process, remove the bottlenecks, and otherwise bring your system to life. This project plan becomes your operations manager’s first task list.
What is The Gauntlet?
The Gauntlet is a series of challenges that gives our candidates a chance to show us what they can do. We want to see their skill, commitment to a high standard of work, and ability to keep their promises. The Gauntlet requires them to demonstrate problem solving skill, show up consistently over time, and communicate with us proactively. About 60% of people who complete the gauntlet pass it, and many more people drop out before completing it.
What if I don't need the systems stuff? I just need a great person...
Shrinking the program is an option! If you just want recruiting and training, or just recruiting, then we can make it happen.