Working Systems, Not Roadmaps.
For founders and senior operating leaders at 20-500 employee companies ready to stop describing what they’d like to automate — and start running a business where AI actually does the work, where people systems are built to scale, and where every consulting engagement produces working infrastructure rather than another binder.
The Problem We Solve
Most business consulting ends with a slide deck.
You get a list of opportunities, a 90-day roadmap, and a handshake. Then you’re on your own to implement it, manage it, and figure out why it isn’t working six months later.
Smartpreneur Consulting™ is built differently. We don’t give you a roadmap. We diagnose the operational and people-system areas where your business is leaking value, build the working infrastructure to close those gaps, manage critical systems on your behalf, and advise on what the systems tell us — continuously, not just at kickoff.
The Research Foundation — Applied to Business Operations
Smartpreneur Consulting™ operationalizes the framework Dr. DuBose proposed in her doctoral research (Pepperdine, 2024) — applied to the operations of small and mid-size businesses.
The McKinsey/IDEO-level structured methodologies — lean management, structured problem-solving, customer centricity, dynamic work design — have always been available to Fortune 500. Almost never to a ten-person dental practice or a fifteen-person property management firm. Dr. DuBose practiced these methodologies at enterprise scale for two decades across the Inter-American Development Bank, Fannie Mae Corporation, Skanska USA, Lockheed Martin, and federal agencies. She brings them into Smartpreneur engagements directly — not as a generalist consultant referencing them, but as a practitioner who has applied them at scale.
The framework’s measurement architecture governs every engagement. Each Smartpreneur retainer participates in the dual-layer measurement system — a managed dashboard monitoring business KPIs continuously, paired with a quarterly CVAL value report producing client-facing evidence of substantive execution. This is the organizational diagnostician’s discipline applied to small and mid-size business consulting: working systems, measurable outcomes, evidence rather than claims. The diagnostician evaluates whether systems produce what they claim to produce. The same discipline now governs whether your business produces what your consultant claims it will.
The Managed System — What Makes This Different
The system runs between every advisory call.
Most consultants are present when you’re paying them. The Smartpreneur managed infrastructure runs continuously — monitoring your business data, flagging anomalies, and generating the insights that make every advisory call substantive instead of a status update.
You’re not buying hours. You’re buying infrastructure with expert interpretation layered on top.
The Entry Point — AI Opportunity Audit™
Every engagement begins with the AI Opportunity Audit™.
A 90-minute session covering 7 opportunity areas and 26 questions, where we examine your workflows and identify specifically where AI can eliminate the inefficiencies costing you time and money. You receive a written findings report within 24 to 48 hours, with specific recommendations, ROI estimates, and a clear first implementation plan.
Investment
$597 Standard · $997 Comprehensive.
Equity-adjusted pricing ($200–$300) is available for BIPOC-owned and immigrant-owned businesses.
For founders earlier in their venture journey — evaluating direction rather than optimizing existing operations — the entry point is the Pathfinder™ Discovery engagement (see below). For organizations with existing operational complexity in talent, learning, leadership, or human capital, the entry point is the audit calibrated to that area (see the six practice areas below).
Six Smartpreneur Consulting™ Practice Areas
The six areas serve entrepreneur-led small and mid-size businesses (typically 20-500 employees) navigating growth-stage friction, AI disruption, and the organizational complexity that emerges when a founder’s direct involvement can no longer carry every decision.
Within the SMB range, the natural buyer varies by company stage and audit scope. Each area below names the buyer the audit’s design is calibrated to. Founder-CEOs are accessible across all six areas; CHROs and Heads of Talent become the operating buyer at the larger end of the SMB range for the people-systems audits.
AI™ — Artificial Intelligence Audit
The foundation of every Smartpreneur engagement. Identifies the highest-ROI AI integration opportunities in your operations, maps the workflows where AI will eliminate cost or surface revenue, and produces a 90-day implementation roadmap sized for an entrepreneur-led company’s pace and budget rather than enterprise transformation. Managed continuously as the operational infrastructure your team uses every day.
PRIMARY BUYER
Founder-anchored. Founders and CEOs of small and mid-size businesses (typically 20-300 employees) who know AI is reshaping their industry but can’t tell which specific operational areas in their business will benefit from AI investment versus where AI investment will be wasted.
Map your business across six areas to find your single biggest bottleneck — and the specific move that unlocks it. Free, about 10 minutes.
Take the free diagnostic and see where your biggest opportunities are hiding.
TM™ — Talent Management Audit
Anchored in SHRM Talent Acquisition and Management standards. Diagnoses where the talent lifecycle is leaking value — recruitment through retention — and produces a prioritized buildout plan with capability transfer to the internal team. Recruiting pipeline automation, retention monitoring, role clarity frameworks, workforce planning, applicant tracking infrastructure.
PRIMARY BUYER
CHRO-flexed. CHROs, Heads of Talent, and founder-CEOs at entrepreneur-led mid-size organizations (typically 200-500 employees) where the company has grown past the size where founder-led recruiting and ad-hoc talent management work — and talent acquisition and retention have become competitive disadvantages.
Anchored in the Kirkpatrick Four-Level evaluation model. Maps which programs are producing measurable behavior change and business results, identifies which investments to scale and which to cut, and builds the evaluation infrastructure that proves L&D value going forward. Learning system design, training completion tracking, skill-gap analysis, content delivery automation, facilitator documentation.
L&D™ — Learning & Development Audit
PRIMARY BUYER
Dual-buyer. Founder-CEOs and Heads of L&D at entrepreneur-led organizations (typically 100-500 employees) who have invested in training infrastructure (LMS, training budgets, leadership programs, compliance content) but can’t demonstrate which of those investments are actually producing behavior change or business impact.
Anchored in GAO’s nine leadership practices. Maps the actual leadership capability across the organization, identifies the specific bench-strength gaps, and produces a 12-month build plan with measurable milestones — calibrated to an entrepreneur-led company’s pace and economics rather than enterprise scale. 360 assessment data monitoring, leadership behavior tracking, development plan design and progress management, coaching documentation.
LD™ — Leadership Development Audit
PRIMARY BUYER
Dual-buyer. Founder-CEOs at growing companies (typically 50-300 employees) where leadership bench strength is the visible constraint on the next stage of growth — AND CHROs/Heads of Talent at larger entrepreneur-led organizations (300-500 employees) where leadership pipeline gaps are showing up in succession risk.
HC™ — Human Capital Audit
Anchored in HCS competency frameworks. Maps the full HR architecture, identifies the structural gaps, and produces a prioritized 12-18 month buildout plan with capability transfer to the internal team — calibrated to entrepreneur-led mid-size company economics rather than enterprise scale. Workforce analytics, organizational health monitoring, HR compliance flagging, people strategy alignment, employee communication automation.
PRIMARY BUYER
CHRO-flexed. CHROs, Chief People Officers, and founder-CEOs at entrepreneur-led mid-size organizations (typically 200-500 employees) who inherited or are building the human capital function and need to know whether the people systems they have are actually positioned to scale with the business.
Pathfinder serves the entrepreneurial population at two distinct stages. Discovery serves would-be founders at the directional inflection point — a structured assessment battery plus market opportunity analysis produces two to three validated directional options with concrete next-step plans. Build & Operate serves active builders standing up the venture — a four-tier engagement architecture from productized strategic build plan through co-founder track through ongoing operator network subscription.
PF™ — Pathfinder™ Discovery + Build & Operate
PRIMARY BUYER
Founder-anchored. Would-be founders, career changers, and business owners considering a new direction — plus active builders standing up early-stage ventures. The two-stage architecture is detailed in the next section.
Pathfinder™ Discovery — Build & Operate
The Two-Stage Architecture
Pathfinder Discovery + Build & Operate exists for founders and would-be founders whose entrepreneurial capability has outpaced their access to the strategic-operational infrastructure needed to act on it. The infrastructure gap differs by stage, and Pathfinder is designed to serve both populations through different but related work.
The would-be founder — the Discovery stage. Some clients arrive with talents, passions, and domain expertise but without a defined venture. What they need first is structured opportunity identification: assessing their capabilities, surfacing their passions, mapping their expertise against market needs, identifying viable opportunity spaces, and arriving at a venture concept that fits both who they are and what the market needs. The Discovery work is the diagnostic-and-direction-setting phase, run as a structured human-delivered engagement with a full assessment battery.
The active builder — the Build & Operate stage. Other clients arrive with a defined venture, or one in early operation, and need the strategic frameworks, embedded practitioner partnership, and operational systems that turn an entrepreneurial instinct into a functioning business. The Build & Operate phase offers a four-tier engagement architecture — from productized strategic build plan, through plan-plus-operator placement, through co-founder track, through ongoing operator network subscription — designed to align practitioner incentives with venture outcomes across the multi-year arc of building.
Both phases close gaps that business schools and founder networks structurally close for their members and almost no one else. The Discovery stage closes the opportunity-identification gap; the Build & Operate stage closes the strategic-operational infrastructure gap. The two stages are sequential for clients who go Discovery → Build & Operate as their venture matures, and parallel for clients who enter at one phase or the other depending on where they are in the entrepreneurial arc.
Engagement Architecture
Every Smartpreneur engagement follows a consistent three-stage progression: diagnostic audit, strategic implementation roadmap, ongoing advisory retainer with managed system.
Stage 1 — Diagnostic Audit
Calibrated to the practice area (AI Opportunity, Talent Management, L&D, Leadership Development, Human Capital, or Pathfinder Discovery). Produces written findings within 24-48 hours with specific recommendations, ROI estimates, and a first implementation plan.
Pricing transparent for the AI Opportunity Audit ($597 Standard, $997 Comprehensive, equity-adjusted $200-$300). Pricing for other audits available on inquiry.
Stage 2 — Strategic Implementation Roadmap
Optional engagement that translates audit findings into a structured implementation plan with sequencing, success criteria, and measurable milestones. Roadmap engagements run typically 4-8 weeks. Starting at $2,500.
Stage 3 — System Plus Advisory Retainer
The managed system runs continuously between advisory calls. Retainer tiers calibrated to operational complexity and number of engaged practice areas. Three tiers spanning $1,000-$5,000 per month range, with specifics calibrated to engagement scope. Pricing available on inquiry.
Rewards Program
Smartpreneur clients earn credits across the engagement lifecycle that apply across CP4CD’s full service portfolio — the Smartpreneur consulting practice, the Grounded Leader™ coaching practice, and the Human Development Programs catalog.
Pathfinder Discovery purchases produce credit applicable toward subsequent Build & Operate engagements within a six-month window. Above-and-beyond contributions during and after engagements — testimonials, case study participation, conference co-presentation, qualified referrals — produce credit that applies toward your own future engagements or any other CP4CD service.