Services
Hands-on help with the parts of a business that keep it running.
Six practice areas, each drawn from work Kevin has led himself. Start with one, or start with a diagnostic and let the numbers decide.
Operations & multi-site execution
Running events, programs and locations at scale: playbooks, partner networks, staffing and vendor contracts.
You might need this if: Your business grew faster than the processes behind it, and the same problems keep showing up.
- Multi-location and multi-event operations
- Partner, affiliate and franchise-style network design
- Facility, venue and vendor contracting
- Destination and municipal partnerships
- Operating manuals, policies and codes of conduct
- Onsite payments and cashless rollouts
- Operations playbook and standards
- Partner or operator handbook
- Staffing and scheduling model
- Vendor and venue agreement outlines
Cost control, procurement & governance
Charge-level spend reviews, software subscription audits, vendor consolidation, RFPs and approval policy.
You might need this if: Nobody can say with confidence how many tools you pay for, who owns them, or when they renew.
- Charge-level audit of every software subscription
- AP vendor spend analysis, year over year
- Telecom, device and MDM cost reduction
- RFPs and RFQs for services and vendors
- Purchase approval workflows and policy
- Board-ready reporting on spend
- Spend inventory with owners and renewal dates
- Board deck, cost waterfall and one-page memo
- Approval policy and request workflow
- Vendor shortlist with scored bids
Payments, systems & automation
Payment platform selection, POS and CRM evaluations, marketing platform consolidation, AI agents and internal apps.
You might need this if: Your team reconciles payments by hand, or you're paying for three systems that each do part of one job.
- Payment processor replacement: wallets, installments, subscriptions, discount engines
- POS selection and rollout
- Marketing and CRM platform evaluation and consolidation
- AI agents and workflow automation for inboxes, reviews and back office
- Internal tools and mobile apps for staff and contractors
- Calendars, dashboards and reporting in the tools you already use
- Requirements document and vendor scorecard
- Migration and cutover plan
- Live automations with written runbooks
- Dashboard your team can maintain
Retail & ecommerce
Store operations, Shopify, marketplaces and live commerce, email and SMS, loyalty programs and store policy.
You might need this if: You sell in four places, each channel runs on its own rules, and inventory and margin are hard to see in one view.
- Brick-and-mortar store operations
- Shopify storefronts and catalog operations
- Marketplaces and live commerce, including TikTok Shop
- Email and SMS programs in Klaviyo
- Loyalty tiers, consignment and specialty services
- Trade shows and pop-up events
- Channel plan with weekly operating cadence
- Store policies: shipping, refunds, protection
- Loyalty structure and launch calendar
- Show and event sales plan
Growth, partnerships & product
Sponsorship and partnership proposals, merchandise and product lines, and decisions on new sales channels.
You might need this if: You have more partnership and product ideas than capacity, and need to know which two are worth doing first.
- Sponsorship and strategic partnership proposals
- Merchandise and product strategy and assortment
- Co-branded product lines with partner brands
- Marketplace channel decisions, including Amazon go/no-go
- New revenue lines: subscriptions, media, memberships
- Pricing and package design
- Partnership proposal and term outline
- Go/no-go scorecard and checklist
- Phased launch timeline
- Assortment and pricing plan
Investor, founder & diligence advisory
Expert calls and diligence for investors, and hands-on support for early-stage founders, from an operator who also invests.
You might need this if: You're evaluating a company, or building one, and want an operator's read from someone who also invests.
- Seed-stage founder support: operations, hiring, pricing and go-to-market
- Expert calls through networks or booked directly
- Commercial diligence on software, POS and payments
- Membership and direct-to-consumer business models
- Events, venues, recreation and live experiences
- Retail, ecommerce and collectibles
- Facility operations and energy costs
- Call notes and a written follow-up memo
- Market map and operator perspective
- Diligence question list for management meetings
- Valuation support inputs
Engagement formats
Four ways to work together.
Lengths below are typical starting points. Scope is set together after the intro call.
Expert call
An operator's read on a market, a company or a decision. Booked directly or through your expert network.
Operations diagnostic
A written diagnostic with a quantified 90-day value plan: initiatives, owners, timing and annual impact. The most common place to start.
Project
One defined outcome: replace a payment platform, run a subscription audit, launch a channel or a partner line.
Fractional operations lead
Ongoing senior operations leadership for organizations that need the capability before the full-time hire.
Questions
Before you reach out.
What industries do you work with?
HCG works best where operations are complex and hands-on: events and recreation, venues, retail and ecommerce, membership businesses and the technology companies that serve them. If your problem is cost, systems or growth in an operating business, it's likely a fit.
How is pricing set?
Every engagement is quoted to fit your needs. After the intro call, we deliver a written quote for either ongoing advisory services or a project-scoped plan, and you will see the number before any work starts.
Do you work on site?
Yes. HCG is ready to mobilize wherever you need us to be, on site or remote, anywhere in the country. Seeing the operation in person is often the fastest way to understand it.
How do you handle conflicts of interest?
Kevin holds current operating roles. Every inquiry is checked for conflicts before an intro call, and HCG declines work that competes with those roles or would require sharing confidential information.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes. Mutual NDAs are standard before any data is shared.
Can you implement, or only advise?
Both. Most engagements include building the change: selecting and onboarding a vendor, writing the policy, setting up the automation or launching the channel.
Start a conversation
Not sure which practice area fits?
Describe the problem in a few sentences and we will tell you where we'd start, even if the answer is a quick call and nothing more.
Send an inquiry