What it is

An operating assessment, not an audit.

The diagnostic is the wedge service — high credibility, fixed timeline, real deliverable. Owners book it because we promise to either find recoverable profit or tell them plainly that we didn't.

The question we answer

Where in this business is profit getting left on the table, and what's the 90-day plan to capture it?

That's the only question the diagnostic is built to answer. Not "what is your strategy" — owners know their strategy. Not "what are your goals" — they have goals. The question is operational: where is friction quietly costing margin, and what is the executable plan to remove it.

Who it's built for

Privately held businesses doing $5M to $50M. Owner-operated. The diagnostic works best when the person paying for it is the same person making the operating decisions — that's where the plan actually gets executed.

Who it's not for

Pre-revenue companies. Businesses below $3M where a part-time operator change matters more than a diagnostic. Public companies. Anyone looking for a deck to wave at the board.

The two phases inside 30 days

What happens, week by week.

Four weeks. Two phases. Roughly two weeks of active engagement work — the rest is structured analysis time. Nothing in the engagement is theater.

01 Week 1 · Mapping

Discover the operation

Leadership interviews, walk of the building, financial and operating-cadence review. Existing digital and AI-search infrastructure audited. We listen more than we present.

02 Weeks 2–4 · Diagnosis & Scorecard

Score the friction · deliver the scorecard

Scored operational map. Ranked opportunity register. Sized estimate of recoverable profit, with the math shown. Operational Performance Scorecard built and walked through with leadership. Recommendation: capture as a 90-day engagement, internal execution, or — rarely — no work needed.

→ Next step · 90-Day Capture

Execute the top 3–5 opportunities

Optional, never automatic. If the diagnostic surfaces capturable profit and you want us to execute, the 90-Day Capture Engagement begins inside one week of scorecard delivery. See the 90-Day Capture →

Deliverables

What you walk away with.

Five tangible artifacts, owned by the client and built to be used. Plus the relationships — every diagnostic produces a list of where Carbacio Group can keep helping, but the diagnostic itself stands alone.

Scored operational mapEvery function in the business scored against a benchmark. The dashboard a CEO can look at in 60 seconds and see what's working.
Ranked opportunity registerEvery recoverable profit opportunity surfaced during the diagnostic, ranked by size, effort, and time-to-impact. Owned by the client, not us.
Sized profit recovery estimateThe number, with the math behind it. Honest range, conservative-realistic-aggressive, with assumptions documented and challengeable.
Operational Performance ScorecardThe weekly instrument the leadership team will use to run the business from this point forward. Custom-built for the specific operation — no generic template. Yours to keep whether you engage further with us or not.
Honest recommendation on what's nextWhether to engage the 90-Day Capture, execute internally with the playbook, or — if no recoverable profit was found — none of the above. We say so plainly.

How the engagement is structured

Fixed scope. Fixed timeline. No surprises.

The 30-Day Diagnostic is scoped to the size and complexity of the business and quoted at the second call — after discovery but before any commitment. Fixed scope. Fixed timeline. Documented in a short, plain-English engagement letter. No hourly billing. No retainer roll-forward.

Fixed

Scope & timeline

Quoted at the second call. Documented in a short, plain-English engagement letter before signature.

30 days

Engagement length

Discovery starts inside 5 business days of signature. Scorecard delivered by day 30.

2–3

On-site days

We come to you for the structured work. Weekly checkpoint by video. No theater consulting travel.

After

No automatic retainer

The diagnostic stands alone. Continuing work is optional — proposed only if the math supports it.

FAQ

Questions the operator always asks.

If your question isn't here, it'll be on the discovery call. There are no dumb questions and there are no commission-driven answers.

How is this different from a McKinsey engagement?

Scale, fit, and accountability. McKinsey-style firms are built for billion-dollar problems and bill accordingly — typically $300K–$2M+ for a 12-week engagement. Carbacio Group is built for the $5M–$50M owner-operated business that wants the same operating rigor without the billion-dollar overhead. You'll work with the partners, not a six-person team where the partner shows up at the readout.

What if you can't find anything?

We say so, plainly, in the scorecard delivery. If there isn't a recoverable profit opportunity worth the engagement, we tell you. The diagnostic stands on its own — you keep the scorecard either way. We have not yet had a diagnostic produce zero opportunities, but we want the right to say it if the day comes.

Will you fix the problems we find?

If the recommendation is to capture, the next engagement is the 90-Day Capture Engagement — both partners in the building, executing the top 3–5 opportunities surfaced in the scorecard. Some opportunities are best executed by the client's internal team using the playbook we hand over. Others — talent placements, AI SEO build-outs, infrastructure rebuilds — are work Carbacio Group can do directly. Either way, you own the choice.

Who actually does the work?

Both partners are on every diagnostic. Nick Carbacio leads the executive relationship, the leadership interviews, and the operating walk. Jeff Hatfield leads the financial modeling, the scorecard build, and the technical and AI-search audit when those are in scope. No junior consultants flown in from a roster.

When can we start?

Discovery starts inside five business days of signature. Scorecard is delivered by day 30. If the calendar is tight, we'll tell you on the discovery call before you commit.

What does it cost?

Scoped to the size and complexity of the business and quoted at the second call — after discovery but before any commitment. We price for the size of business we serve — material enough to require commitment, not extractive. The number is in writing in a short, plain-English engagement letter before you sign anything.

Find the hidden profit in 30 days.