Back of House Operator for Founder-Led Experience Businesses — Mary Alice Duff
There's a whole other business behind your business. I build it, run it, and get everyone paid.
You built the experience — the itinerary, the magic, the thing people fly across the world for. What nobody told you was that there's an entire other business behind that one. The pricing that actually covers your costs. The marketing system that fills your calendar. The team that executes without running everything past you. The operations that hold up when you step away.
You didn't hire yourself into any of those roles. You built something from passion and the machinery attached itself along the way. Now you're the chef and the CFO. The guide and the HR department. The host and the marketing team.
That's not sustainable. And it doesn't have to be.
I build and run your back of house — so your front of house can shine.
WHAT TO EXPECT
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WHAT TO EXPECT —
PRICING THAT LEADS TO PROFITABILITY
Most experience businesses are underpriced and leaving money on the table — not because founders are naive, but because the real cost model is genuinely complex. We build it properly, so you know the floor below which you won't operate, and you stop leaving money on the table every single season.
A TEAM THAT EXECUTES WITHOUT HANDHOLDING
Everyone on your team knows their roles, what great looks like, and how to make decisions without running everything past you. Less asking. More owning.
THE NUMBERS WORKING FOR YOU
Cash flow you can see, margins you understand, and a business model that pays you consistently. No more wondering if you'll make payroll. No more hedging on where to invest in your business.
A MARKETING SYSTEM THAT RUNS WITHOUT YOU
Not a content calendar. A system — a brand voice, email cadence, launch architecture, waitlist strategy — that fills your calendar with the right guests without requiring you to be on social media every day. No more winging it on brand and marketing. Simple systems, big results.
OPERATIONS THAT HOLD UP WHEN YOU STEP BACK
Processes and SOPs that don't live in your head. The business keeps moving when you take a day off, finish early, or disappear on a long-overdue vacation — without the panic.
SPACE TO BE THE FOUNDER AGAIN
Out of the weeds. Back into the work only you can do — leading, making strategic decisions, building what's next. The role you actually signed up for.
TESTIMONIALS
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TESTIMONIALS —
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ZONYA DAWSON
“From day Mary Alice impressed me with her kindness, collaborative style, and commitment to achieving real results. She has an incredible knack for blending creativity with execution, she doesn’t just generate great ideas she actually brings them to life.”
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CHRISTIAN HOLLAND
“Mary Alice is bold, brilliant, and fiercely loyal. She has a unique ability to push the organization forward. Whether leading strategic planning, restructuring the mission, or driving innovative program strategies, she was always ahead of the curve. Mary Alice Duff is a powerhouse leader who not only excels in her role but also fosters growth in everyone around her!!!”
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KALI STROTHER
“Mary Alice is masterful at analyzing existing and start-up business operations and developing the strategies and models necessary to help those operations achieve their goals. She will push you to think big and guide you in identifying potentials you didn’t even realize were there.”
You built something people love. The back of house is what's breaking you.
This is a great match if…
…you run a culinary retreat, food tour, wine experience, adventure travel company, or creative workshop with a travel component — with a small team and revenue between €500K and €2M.
…you're the founder and the product. You're exceptional at the experience. The business side is where it's falling apart.
…you've tried fixing it — a freelancer here, a consultant there, a new tool — but nothing's really changed because you've been solving problems in isolation instead of fixing the back of house as a whole.
…you want your team to run things without you being in every thread. You're ready to stop being the bottleneck.
…you want your business to serve your life. Finish early when you need to. Take a proper holiday. Stop checking your phone at dinner.
…you're done reacting and hoping for the best. You want someone who sees the whole picture, fixes the root problems, and builds the infrastructure that makes the magic sustainable.
TRUSTED BY FOUNDERS OF
THE DETAILS
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THE DETAILS —
HOW I WORK
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW…
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The entry point to every engagement. Thirty days of pure discovery — no implementation, no systems installation yet. Just going deep.
I review every document and financial record. I interview every team member and the founder. I audit pricing, operations, marketing, and team structure. I look at what's working, what's breaking, and what's quietly costing you money.
The output is a complete assessment with prioritized projects across all four areas of your back of house — categorized by effort and impact — plus a financial forecast showing where the business is headed as-is versus optimized over twelve months.
That forecast is the most clarifying thing most founders have ever seen about their own business. It makes the cost of doing nothing concrete.
The assessment is a genuine standalone product. You could take it and execute yourself or move to Phase 2.
The Business Blueprint starts at €3,000 depending on the size of the business. -
This is where the business actually changes.
Following the assessment, we move into 90-day sprints — focused, sequenced, and built around the priorities we identified together. Every 90 days, goals are reviewed, progress assessed, and both parties recommit. No open-ended engagements. No scope creep. Just clear work with clear outcomes.
What this looks like in practice:
Depending on what your back of house needs, a sprint might mean building a pricing model from scratch — one that accounts for every real cost at realistic occupancy, so you finally know the floor below which you won't operate. It might mean codifying your brand voice, establishing an email cadence, and creating a full launch architecture so your next season sells out without you posting on Instagram every day. It might mean restructuring your team, writing the SOPs that get decisions out of your head and into a playbook, and installing the communication systems that let your people actually own their work.
The through-line in every sprint: I do the work. Not a to-do list for you. Not homework. I execute.
What the ongoing engagement includes:
Weekly 60-minute call with you to align on priorities and unblock decisions
Daily execution during the week — inside your business, working with your team, building and running the systems
Monthly micro-goals within the larger quarterly arc
A Notion workspace updated continuously — visible at any time without a meeting
By the end of a sprint, you're making more money with less headache, less scramble, less "what are we even doing today" energy. A business run on systems and strategy — not gut feels and vibes.
Implementation sprints starts at €6,500 per month.
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Once your back of house is built and your business runs with genuine independence, the engagement transitions to monthly or quarterly strategy sessions. A sounding board for what's next. This is the natural evolution for most clients after twelve to twenty-four months.
I intentionally limit my client list to ensure every founder gets my full strategic focus. If you’re interested in working with me, please book your free discovery call. We’ll dive into your business and talk through what’s feeling heavy to see if we’re a good match ↓
STILL GOT QUESTIONS?
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STILL GOT QUESTIONS? —
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Most consultants solve one problem in isolation. Fix the marketing, ignore the pricing. Hire a new person, skip the onboarding system. I look at the entire back of house as a connected system — because that's what it is. I'm not handing you a strategy deck and disappearing. I'm inside the business, building and running the parts that are breaking you.
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Because the wrong diagnosis leads to the wrong fix. I've seen founders spend years solving the symptoms instead of the root cause. The assessment tells us exactly what the back of house needs and in what order — so we're not guessing, and we're not wasting your time or money on the wrong priorities.
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Absolutely. The problem isn’t your team; it’s likely a lack of clear systems and decision-making frameworks. I shift your team from a culture of "asking" to a culture of "owning." I’ll give them the tools and the confidence to execute to your standards independently, removing you as the bottleneck so you can finally stop micromanaging.
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Actually, the opposite. I am strictly anti-hustle. If your business requires you to work 60 hours a week to grow… your business is broken. My goal is to increase your profitability while decreasing your manual input. We build a well-oiled machine that generates predictable sales and supports your life, allowing you to finish early or take a vacation without a panic attack.
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I don’t want you to be dependent on me. My goal is to build real internal capacity. I design the workflows, the culture of accountability, and the operational playbooks so that when I step away, the foundations are solid. You’ll be perfectly positioned to either run the business with ease or hire a permanent ops lead in the future who can step into a system that already works.
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I’m not an expense on your balance sheet. I’m the person who fixes the leaks in your profit.
When you’re drowning in the day-to-day, you’re losing money through inefficient team workflows, missed strategic opportunities, and founder burnout. My fee is designed to be offset by the value we create:
Recovered Time: How much is 15+ hours of your week worth?
Operational Efficiency: Stopping the "re-inventing the wheel" cycle that eats your margins.
Team Performance: Getting a 2x output from the team you’re already paying for.
Most founders find that by the time we’ve streamlined their pricing and tightened their operations, the partnership has more than paid for itself. You aren’t paying for "consulting hours", you’re paying for a business that finally yields the financial and personal freedom you built it for.
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When I talk to your team, I’m not there to audit you. I’m there to audit the workflow. If they’re frustrated, it’s usually because they don't have the clarity they need to succeed. I’m the bridge that turns that frustration into a high-performing, autonomous culture.
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Never. I’m a former social worker and creative founder, I value heart and vision as much as you do. "Systems" don't have to be cold or corporate. They are simply the containers that protect your creativity. My goal is to strip away the "busy work" so the core of your business can actually shine. Structure doesn’t kill soul, it gives it room to breathe.
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I completely understand. Your business is your 'baby,' and opening up the hood to show someone the internals feels incredibly exposing. But I can’t fix what I can’t see. To build a solid foundation, I need the full picture. Think of me like a doctor… I can’t give an accurate diagnosis if I’m only looking at half the symptoms.
Our partnership is built on 100% confidentiality. Having managed €10M budgets and run my own small business, honestly, nothing shocks me. I’m not here to judge your past decisions or your current numbers, I’m here to make them work for you.
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The reason "solutions" haven't worked for you in the past is likely because they were implemented in isolation. A marketing strategy fails if your pricing is wrong… a new hire fails if you don't have a system to onboard them. Because I look at the entire ecosystem, we don't neglect those blind spots. We fix the root cause, not the symptoms. If we find a pricing problem while looking at your marketing, we pivot and fix the pricing first.