Systems with Arla
Your business is running.
You just can't see where it's going.
You're guessing at which offer actually makes money, when it's safe to hire, how much capacity you have left before something breaks.
A systems audit for solopreneurs and small teams shows you exactly where the data is missing, so you can decide with
evidence instead of memory.
$500 CAD · Free for 3 remaining good-fit applicants · Written build plan within 4-6 business days
THE GAP
The data exists. It was never organized to answer your questions.
Service businesses typically have revenue data, client records, and pipeline information spread across three or four tools. None of those tools were built to answer business questions. They were built to do one job: invoice, schedule, communicate. They do that job well.
The problem shows up when you need to make a decision. You need a number that lives across two tools and a spreadsheet you haven't updated in six weeks. You need to know whether a client is profitable, and the answer takes four manual lookups. You're the connection between organized silos, and that's not a sustainable position.
PRICING DECISIONS
You raise or hold prices on market feel. You don't have an hourly return number for your most profitable service line to check that feeling against.
CAPACITY DECISIONS
You take on new clients when things feel manageable. You don't have a real-time read on active load versus available capacity to check that feeling against.
MARKETING DECISIONS
You invest time in channels based on activity and gut feel. You can't see which sources actually sent clients who stayed, paid on time, and referred someone else.
HIRING DECISIONS
You consider bringing someone on when things feel unmanageable. Your numbers, if you had them, would tell you whether that's a sustained ceiling or just a rough week.
HOW YOU GOT HERE
The tools got you here.
They were never built for what comes next.
Most solopreneurs build their first operational layer to survive: a CRM to track clients, an invoicing tool to get paid, a calendar to manage time. Those tools work well right up until the business gets complex enough that the founder becomes the manual connection between them.
01
The tools aren't talking to each other
Revenue lives in one place, client records in another, pipeline in a spreadsheet updated inconsistently. Information entered twice is still information the founder is holding in their head.
02
The data isn't structured to answer questions
Knowing your total revenue is different from knowing which services, clients, or referral sources drove it. One tells you how the year went. The other tells you what to do differently next year.
03
The founder is the reporting layer
When you're the connection between three organized silos, the business can only see what you can hold in your head. That ceiling comes for every solo operator eventually.
04
Decisions get made on instinct instead
Instinct is what built the business in the first place. At $75k–$200k revenue, the decisions get too consequential to keep making without reliable numbers behind them.
05
DIY attempts stall before they finish
Motivated founders try to build a system and get partway there. They hit the ceiling of what tutorials cover: relational architecture, automation logic, interface design for daily use. The build sits unfinished.
06
The gap compounds over time
Every month without a reliable system is another month of decisions made without the data to support them. The cost is invisible until a consequential call lands wrong.
THE SOLUTION
Visibility before decisions.
Data can inform a decision. It can't make one for you. But informing anything requires the numbers to actually live somewhere connected, not scattered across tools nobody fully trusts. Organized storage that nobody looks at isn't visibility. Systems with Arla builds the system first, then the habit of using it.
01
A single source of truth
Your client records, revenue data, pipeline, and capacity picture connected and organized in one system. Information entered once surfaces where it's relevant. You stop being the manual connection between three organized silos.
This is the infrastructure. It is what makes the second pillar possible.
02
Data-informed decisions
When the system is live and usable, decisions that ran on instinct can run on data instead, with you still making the call. Which service to price up. Whether to take on the next client. Which referral source to invest more time in. The answer is there before the question becomes urgent.
This is the outcome. It usually takes three to six months of consistent use to compound.
Hi, I'm Arla!
The candles I can't stop thinking about
At a Christmas market a few years back, I stopped at a candle table and asked the woman running it: which one sells best?
She didn't know.
Not because she wasn't paying attention. She clearly loved what she made, and she was good at it. She just had no way to answer. Whatever data existed lived in her memory, a cash box, and bits she half-remembered from past markets. I still think about that gap sometimes. A little embarrassing, but true: I can't walk past an unanswered business question without wondering how I'd solve it.
By then I'd spent years in research and public health asking the same question, just with health patterns instead of candles: what's actually driving this? I'd seen what happens when an organization has real systems to answer that, with evidence instead of guesswork. Most small business owners never get that chance.
That's the gap Systems with Arla closes.
I dig into the problem with you first. Then we build something that fits how your business actually runs, not a generic template stretched to cover it. Entrepreneurs doing real work deserve the same clarity that bigger organizations have always had.
What you're building deserves to be seen clearly. I'd love to help you see it.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
What it's like to work with me
"[She] is a remarkably fast learner with excellent attention to detail and work ethics. Her analytical and problem solving skills are among the strongest I have seen—she routinely goes above and beyond to identify solutions to technical challenges, and her statistical codes are consistently clean, well structured, and reproducible."
Marwa Ebrahim, Senior Advisor and Former Manager
PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF CANADA
"Arlanna consistently delivered rigorous analyses while collaborating effectively across the team. Her exceptional work ethic, clear communication, and meticulous problem-solving approach makes her especially strong at translating complex data into actionable insights and knowledge translation products."
Shailly Dave, Senior Epidemiologist and Former Colleague
PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF CANADA
GETTING STARTED
The audit comes first.
Everything else follows from it.
Every engagement starts with the Systems Audit. What comes next is shaped entirely by what the audit finds in your business. The audit fee is credited in full toward your first build if you decide to move forward.
STEP ONE
The Systems Audit
$500 CAD
Free - 3 spots remaining
Launch Offer: Free for the first 5 good-fit applicants in exchange for honest feedback and a short video testimonial. Regular pricing resumes when spots are filled.
A fixed-price, fixed-scope diagnostic across all six dimensions of how your business actually runs. You walk away with a clear, prioritized path forward.
-
The Business Context Questionnaire and SOURCE Assessment, an 18-question intake covering all six dimensions of operational health, using our SOURCE Framework
-
A 90-minute live Workflow Mapping Session, recorded, mapping how work actually moves through your business in real time: handoffs, owner-dependent steps, and the gaps producing recurring friction
-
A five-page written report: your scores, the cascade analysis naming what's really driving the strain, three priority issues, and a sprint roadmap
-
A standalone deliverable identifying the five business questions your data should be answering, and the exact metric that answers each one
-
A 15–20 minute personalized Loom walkthrough of your full report
Every finding is specific to your scores, your intake responses, and what comes up in your mapping session.
No generic recommendations. Implement it yourself with the roadmap, come back for a guided base build, or sit with it. The report stays accurate for 6–12 months. There's no expiry and no pressure.
THE SIX SOURCE DIMENSIONS ASSESSED
S Systems - documented, usuable processes
O Ownership - clear accountability for every role
U Usability - information findable when needed
R Reliability - consistent output regardless of capacity
C Capacity - a real model of what the business can carry
E Efficiency - time directed toward the right things
STEP TWO
Coming Soon
Single Base Build
$2500 CAD
One operational layer, client management or business reporting, built, set up, and handed off. Your existing data is cleaned and imported. Automations are set up for the triggers relevant to that layer.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
— Database architecture designed around your actual workflows
— Existing data cleaned and imported from up to two source platforms
— Interface set up for daily use by the founder
— Up to three automations set up and tested
— Live handoff session and 14 days async support
NOT INCLUDED
— More than three automations without a separate scope conversation
— Architecture changes after handoff
WHO IS THIS BUILT FOR
Five signals. If most of them fit, so do you.
Systems with Arla works with solo service providers and small teams who are past survival mode but making consequential decisions without the data to support them.
You're probably a fit if:
✓ You've been in business at least two years and have real data worth organizing
✓ You're making pricing, capacity, or hiring decisions without reliable numbers to back them up
✓ You're analytically inclined but under-instrumented: you care about the numbers, you just don't have a reliable way to see them
✓ You've tried to build something yourself and got partway there before stopping
✓ Your annual revenue is $75,000 CAD or above
This probably isn't right if:
✗ You're in your first year of business and don't yet have enough data to organize
✗ Your revenue is under $75,000 CAD, where the investment won't return at that stage
✗ You genuinely prefer not to look at your numbers; the system requires a founder who'll use it
✗ You already have a functioning reporting layer and need task support, which this isn't built to provide
✗ You can't say roughly what you earned last quarter; you likely need a bookkeeper before a reporting system
THE PROCESS
How the work is structured.
From a feeling that something's off to a number that proves it
01
Apply and qualify
Submit the application form. Applications are reviewed within five business days. If it's a fit, you receive a booking link. If it's not, you hear that too.
02
Systems Audit
A 90-minute structured assessment produces a written build plan. You receive the report within five to six business days. This is the starting point for everything that follows.
03
Build: One layer at a time
The first base is built, handed off, and in use before the next one begins. Adoption is built into the delivery structure, not left to happen after the fact.
04
Run the business from real numbers
With data connected and visible, decisions that ran on instinct can be checked against real numbers instead, with you still making the call.
START HERE
The Systems Audit is the right place to start.
It maps your operational gaps, identifies what to build first, and gives you a written plan you can act on.
The first 5 good-fit applicants receive the audit at no cost (originally $500 CAD) in exchange for honest feedback and a short video testimonial. 3 spots remain.