Consulting for Founder-Led Small Businesses
Practical consulting for founder-led small businesses that are ready to grow, strengthen their team, retain good employees, and depend less on the owner without becoming cold, complicated, or corporate.
Built by a small-business owner, for small-business owners.
Built from real experience
01Built a business generating almost $1 million in annual revenue
02Experience operating multiple retail locations
03Hands-on leadership across retail, ecommerce, wholesale, manufacturing, and experiences
04Real experience building teams, systems, SOPs, launches, and daily operations
Your employees are not numbers. Your customers are not transactions. And your company is not something you built just to spend every day exhausted by it.
Karla helps founder-led businesses create clear roles, capable leaders, healthy team cultures, and practical systems without losing the heart that made the business worth building.
A practical perspective
When you own a small business, every decision feels personal.
You know your employees. You recognize your regular customers. You feel every slow month, unexpected expense, difficult conversation, and missed opportunity.
Advice created for large corporations does not always work inside a business where the owner is also the leader, problem solver, trainer, buyer, decision maker, and person everyone calls when something goes wrong.
Karla understands this because she lives it.
She helps owners introduce the structure their business needs without burying the team in complicated systems or removing the warmth that makes a small business special.
The real problem
Most employee problems do not begin with bad employees. They begin with unclear expectations, inconsistent training, weak communication, missing accountability, and managers who were promoted without being taught how to lead.
When employees do not know what success looks like, they become frustrated. When managers do not have the tools to guide them, the owner becomes responsible for solving every problem.
Karla helps owners create a workplace where people understand their role, feel valued for their contribution, receive honest guidance, and know how their work connects to the larger purpose of the company.
This is not about creating a workplace with no standards. It is about combining genuine care with clear expectations.
Where owners begin
Where the work leads
Karla’s signature framework
A practical five-part method for building a stronger business, developing a more capable team, and reducing the company’s dependence on the owner.
Identify what is working, what is creating pressure, where money or time is being lost, and what depends unnecessarily on the owner.
Define roles, expectations, responsibilities, and decision-making authority so everyone knows what they own.
Help owners and managers communicate clearly, coach employees, address problems, recognize good work, and lead with kindness and accountability.
Create practical workflows, training, SOPs, scorecards, and meeting rhythms that a real small-business team can follow.
Help the business operate consistently without requiring the owner to answer every question, approve every decision, or fix every problem.
The goal is not to turn your company into a corporation. The goal is to give your people enough clarity and support to succeed while giving you enough space to lead.
Explore Working With KarlaA founder’s perspective
I did not build my business with a large team or a perfect roadmap. I built it by learning, adjusting, solving problems, and continuing to move forward when the answers were not obvious.
As the founder of Mayan Collective, I have grown a product based company into a business generating almost $1 million in annual revenue. Along the way, I have opened and operated retail locations, built an in-house production operation, hired and led employees, developed wholesale, managed ecommerce and fulfillment, created customer experiences, planned product launches, and worked through the financial realities of growth.
I understand the pressure of being the owner everyone depends on. I know what it is like when every question, decision, problem, and responsibility eventually comes back to you.
My consulting work is built around helping other owners create the clarity, systems, leadership, and team structure I wish I had been given earlier.
Read Karla’s StoryWhy this matters
Losing a good employee costs more than replacing a name on the schedule. It costs the business time, training, consistency, customer trust, productivity, and the owner’s attention.
Investing in leadership, employee development, clear systems, and a healthy workplace helps protect everything the owner has already built.
Karla’s consulting is designed to create practical improvements inside the company. The goal is not simply to make employees happier. The goal is to build a workplace where good people can succeed, customers receive a more consistent experience, and the owner no longer carries the entire operation alone.
Consulting offers
01
A private conversation for business ideas, honest perspective and practical mentoring. Whether you are starting, rebuilding or sorting through your next move, you can bring your questions without having everything figured out.
$225
Learn more02
A focused review of one part of your business, with practical recommendations and a written plan to help you move forward.
$750
Learn more03
Six weeks of practical guidance to put a meaningful improvement into place in your business. Together, we focus on one agreed priority involving your team, leadership, operations or systems, with clear responsibilities and tools your business can continue using.
Starting at $3,500
Learn more
Inside the work
Karla is not consulting from theory. She understands what it feels like to build a product company, hire and lead employees, operate multiple locations, oversee manufacturing and fulfillment, develop wholesale relationships, create customer experiences, and make difficult decisions while still carrying the vision of the business.
Her approach is warm, honest, and practical. She helps owners identify what is creating pressure, decide what needs to change, develop the people who lead the work, and build systems their real team can follow.
Meet KarlaTell Karla what is happening inside your business and your team. She will help you determine which consulting option is the best fit.