Lean Inventory Systems
Open-to-buy models, sell-through dashboards, and dead-stock rescue plans designed for shops carrying 400 to 4,000 SKUs.
- Weekly OTB tracking spreadsheet
- Vendor margin & MOQ playbook
- 90-day dead-stock triage
The Pure Small Playbook
Boutique ops, lean inventory, and growth frameworks for independent retailers.
A working library of systems, spreadsheets, and founder stories built for shops doing under $3M a year — the ones powering Main Street, the high street, and the side-street corners of every neighborhood.
Six Practice Areas
Everything you need to run a tighter, calmer, more profitable shop.
Each practice area is a self-contained module with templates, walkthroughs, and a 30-day rollout plan. Work through them in any order — most founders start with Inventory and Cash.
Cash & Margin Control
Markup math, payroll-to-revenue ratios, and the 13-week cash forecast every founder should review every Friday morning before opening.
- Keystone vs. vintage pricing matrix
- 13-week rolling cash flow
- Payroll budget vs. revenue guardrails
Floor Staffing & SOPs
How to schedule a 2 to 8 person team, write a one-page opening checklist, and build a part-time handbook that doesn't live in someone's head.
- Open / mid / close checklists
- Labor % model by daypart
- New-hire two-week ramp plan
Visual Merchandising on a Budget
Window rotations, signage templates, and a fitting room reset routine that lift conversion without lifting your rent.
- 4-week window rotation calendar
- Canopy & zone map template
- Signage typography kit
Omnichannel Without the Burnout
POS, e-commerce, and Instagram DMs in one inbox. Pick one channel to add this quarter and grow it before opening the next one.
- Channel priority decision tree
- Unified inbox workflow
- 90-day launch checklist
Community & Retention
Loyalty programs, local partnerships, and the soft-power marketing that turns a Saturday browser into a Sunday evangelist.
- Independent loyalty ladder
- Neighborhood collab kit
- Email cadence for 200 to 5,000
How a 90-Day Rollout Works
A four-step path from "winging it" to a system you trust.
We don't sell a six-month transformation. Most founders see a measurable shift in their numbers inside one quarter — and a calmer Monday morning by week three.
Diagnose
We map your current state across 12 signals — sell-through, gross margin, payroll %, repeat-customer rate, and 8 others. You get a one-page baseline before any change.
Pick Two
Choose the two practice areas that move the most cash fastest. Inventory + Cash is the most common starting pair. We focus, not dabble.
Install
Plug in the templates, run the weekly 30-minute review, and replace one old habit at a time. No new software required — most modules work in Google Sheets.
Review
At 30, 60, and 90 days we look at the numbers together. What worked, what to drop, what to layer in next quarter. Then we pick the next two modules.
Why Founders Choose This
Built by people who have signed the lease and worried about payroll.
The Playbook isn't theory. Every system was tested inside a real shop, then pressure-washed by another six founders before it made the cut.
01
Operator-written, not agency-written
Each module is drafted by a founder actively running a shop — most of them under 1,800 square feet with a team of fewer than six. No MBAs, no decks, no quarterly retainers.
02
Plain numbers, plain language
If a template needs a paragraph of explanation to use, we throw it out. Every sheet, doc, and checklist is designed to be opened on a Monday morning and finished before your coffee gets cold.
03
No vendor lock-in
Your data lives in Google Sheets, your SOPs in a shared Drive, your emails in your own platform. Walk away at any quarter and keep everything you've built — we mean that literally.
From the Floor
Two founders, two very different shops, one shared playbook.
We were carrying 11 weeks of inventory in a category that turned in 4. The OTB sheet forced us to have the conversation we'd been avoiding for two seasons. Cut 38% of the line, doubled the buys that mattered, and freed up enough cash to redo the back stockroom we'd been ignoring since 2019.
+34%Gross margin
−42%Dead stock
11 wks→ 5 wks inventory
I run a children's bookshop on a side street in Bristol. The omnichannel module helped me stop feeling guilty about not having a website that looked like the big chains. We launched a tiny curated online shop, ran pre-orders through Instagram, and added a Saturday storytime that doubled foot traffic. I'm working fewer late nights now.
+58%Saturday traffic
3.2×Email list growth
0Late-night order packing
Common Questions
Things founders ask before they start.
Do I need to be a member, or can I just buy one module?
Both work. The full Playbook is a single subscription that unlocks all six modules, the template library, and the monthly founder call. If you only need one — say, the Cash & Margin module — you can buy it standalone and upgrade later. Nothing you build gets taken away.
What kind of shop is this actually built for?
Independent retailers doing roughly $200K to $3M a year, with a founder still working in the business. Categories we hear from most: home & gift, apparel, bookshop, plant shop, children's, specialty food, vintage, and outdoor. If you're a single-location or two-location operator with 1 to 12 staff, you'll feel at home.
Will this work with my POS and accounting tool?
The templates are built in Google Sheets and use CSV exports, so they pair cleanly with Square, Lightspeed, Shopify POS, Toast, Clover, and most modern accounting tools (Xero, QuickBooks, Wave). We include a one-page "how to export" for the seven most common setups. If yours is unusual, ask us — we have a running list of workarounds.
How much time will this actually take each week?
Plan on about 30 minutes per module per week for the weekly review, plus a 90-minute setup block the first time you open a module. Most founders run two modules in parallel, so a realistic commitment is roughly 90 minutes a week for the first quarter. After that, it becomes part of the rhythm.
Ready to read the first chapter free?
The Inventory & Cash starter kit is yours to keep — two modules, three templates, and the 90-day rollout calendar. No card, no follow-up sequence.