You’ve hired all this help — and somehow you’re still the one who has to make it all work together.
Rooted Operations helps founders of scaling service-based businesses untangle themselves from the roots of the business by building and running an operational foundation until it’s ready to hand off to a permanent operator (that isn’t you). Ilana Moreno brings 13+ years of experience across creative agencies, small businesses, and nonprofits, specializing in the growth stage where the founder is ready to stop being the only thing holding the business together.
Who This Is For
Founders of service-based businesses who have outgrown being the operating system for their business. You'll recognize them when you hear:
“I'm in meetings all day but have no idea what my team is actually working on"
"I’m constantly fixing client deliverables that got scrambled or missed at the last minute"
“I’m the only one with the full view - every question, decision, and fix runs through me"
"I’m ready to grow but I can’t handle coordinating one more tool, hire, or project."
Our clients typically reach out when they realize growth and profitability are capped by how much they can personally coordinate, and working more is no longer an option. Most are running teams of 5–20 people with $1M+ in revenue, or organizations experiencing similar growing pains.
How We Work Together
Ilana embeds as your bridge operator to diagnose, build, install, and run the systems that power your business — until it stops routing through you and the work is stable enough to hand over to a full-time operator.
We start with a diagnostic across the four operating systems of your business — delivery, growth, team, and founder — to find the three-to-four highest-leverage fixes. Then I build them and run them alongside your team, so you’re not handed another set of systems to manage yourself.
2 weeks | $3,000
Operations Audit
A focused diagnostic that maps your business across four core operating systems - delivery, growth, team, founder - and identifies the highest-leverage fixes.
Best for founders who want an expert assessment of where the business is bottlenecking before committing to a build.
8 - 10 Weeks | Starting at $20,000
System SOS
A targeted assessment that pinpoints your #1 bottleneck followed by a full build-out to fix it.
Best for founders who know something needs to give ASAP but don’t have the time, capacity, or expertise on their team to do it. This can be a standalone engagement or added onto the Operations Audit.
6-Month Min. | Starting at $6,000/month
Bridge Operator Retainer
A multi-month fractional engagement that transitions operational ownership of your business to someone else full-time so you can get back to focusing on leadership and growth.
Best for founders who need someone to build and run the operational machine alongside them until it’s ready to transition to a permanent operator.
What changes when the business is rooted in systems, not the founder
You can step away — a vacation, a family thing, a sick day — without the business wobbling.
You can see what’s happening across the business without chasing people for updates.
Routine decisions, questions, and fixes get handled without routing through you.
You finally know whether the business is profitable, and why.
Your team has clear ownership, quality control standards, and escalation, so work stops landing incompletely and at the last minute.
The agency becomes ready for a permanent operator to step into an environment that already works.
I’m a strategic operations consultant and Fractional COO with 13+ years of experience leading operations, marketing, and communications for mission-driven organizations.
I specialize in translating vision into structure — connecting people, systems, and strategy so leaders can tend to what matters most.
About
Let’s talk.
If you’re ready to strengthen your operations and position your organization for sustainable growth, let’s start with a conversation.