I built a tool that maps how a business runs. Then I ran my own Game Plan through it, and it showed me something I could improve.
When I started Hite Labs, I asked business owners what their pain points were. I got nothing but crickets.
I get it. That question is confrontational. No one wants to admit their stuff is messy. Some of it may be anxiety, or impostor syndrome, around technology. Everyone has to use it, but not everyone feels qualified. So a question like "what tools do you use to book appointments?" can feel like a quiz on something they already feel insecure about.
So I changed the question. I stopped asking about problems and started asking how something works. How does someone book a haircut with you? You'll get a different answer from every salon, and somewhere in the answer is the mess. They never had to say it out loud.
That's the Flow Audit. It walks you through one process, step by step. For each step it asks who's responsible, what happens, and how long it takes. Then it does it again for the next step.
You're also talking to an application, not a person. My hope is that takes some of the edge off. That's an assumption, and I don't know yet if it's true.
The first version was something I built in Claude using my extra monthly credits. I thought I could sell it on Etsy. True story. Nothing came of it.
Then a marketing agency I'm working with looked at it and said I could use it as a lead magnet. So I turned it into a tool. I wanted the depth of a back-and-forth conversation with Claude without paying for every back and forth. It mixes multi-select with written answers, so it's easy to fill out on your phone.
I needed a real use case, and I know my own stuff. So I picked the Game Plan.
A Game Plan is a 60-minute paid call, $350, where a business owner talks through how their business runs. I'm looking for three places that cost them time or money. If they move forward, part of the fee comes off the build.
I wrote out every step and the tools I use. Book the call. Talk for an hour. Build the report from the transcript. Send it. Wait for them to pick an option.
It sorted what it found into four areas: money, stress, time, and missed opportunities.
The honest take was that I'd built a strong front half and then handed the highest-stakes moment, the decision, to a silent email. No conversation. No chance to catch confusion. No way for them to give me feedback.
It also flagged that clients were seeing my prices for the first time inside the report. That was true. My site didn't list prices.
I'd half-suspected some of this. I'd even said something close to it in my own answer, that maybe I should deliver the report in a meeting. But seeing it sorted into those four areas, in my own words, was an aha. It's like having a conversation. You don't know what's going to come back, and that's the beautiful part. You see your own system reflected back and you learn something.
Two things.
I put starting prices on my homepage, so the number isn't a surprise.
And I now book a 15-minute call at the end of the Game Plan to deliver the report. The report doesn't go out until that call is on the calendar. The decision moment used to be a silent email. Now it's a conversation.
The call is untested. I haven't done a Game Plan since I made the change, so I can't tell you it works yet.
If you run a service business, write your steps down and look at the last one. What happens after you hit send? The more detail you give the audit, the better it gets.
If you want to see where your own process ends, try the Flow Audit: https://flowaudit.hite-labs.com/