Here from the book? Your templates are in the free toolkit →
Free tools for small business owners
The FORCE System is Zachary Maley’s method for getting clear on your numbers, writing down how the work gets done, and deciding who can make which calls, so your team can keep moving without waiting on you.
Ten worksheets from the book: find your first system, write the SOP, set who can approve what, split every deposit before you spend it, and plan your next ninety days. Fill them in on screen or print them for your team.
Inside the toolkit
Each one turns a chapter of the book into a page you fill in for your own business. Answers save in your browser as you type, and every worksheet prints cleanly.
O · Operations · Chapter 4
Get one recurring task out of your head and onto a page a new hire can follow.
Name of the process
e.g. Answering a new lead call
1. The trigger · what starts it
2. The steps · one action each, in order
3. The owner · 4. The tools · 5. What success looks like
O · Operations · Chapter 4
Decide, in dollars, which calls your team makes without asking you.
Tier 1Under $200
Frontline team decides · e.g. a refund, a comp, a small supply order
Tier 2$200 to $2,000
Manager decides · e.g. a repair, a schedule change, a vendor swap
Tier 3Over $2,000
Owner decides · e.g. a new hire, equipment, a price change
The book’s amounts. Change them to fit your business.
Included in the free toolkit
E · Execution · Chapter 7
Turn one ninety-day goal into weekly targets and time on your calendar.
Your ninety-day goal
e.g. Increase direct bookings by 25 percent
Month 1 objective
Wk 1
Wk 2
Wk 3
Wk 4
Months 2 and 3 · Daily action · Time blocked on your calendar
Included in the free toolkit
Built in a real business
Zach and his mom bought the Silverland Inn in Virginia City, Nevada, when it had never made a profit. The book tells what they changed. Here are three of those changes, in its words and numbers.
3 months
Silverland Inn · Virginia City, Nevada
Chapter 3, Finance Worksheet: Unit Economics & Pricing
$400K → $800K
Silverland Inn · website and bookings
Chapter 5, Revenue
30 → 10 hours
Silverland Inn · event planning
Chapter 4, Operations Worksheet: SOP Template
As Zach reports them in The FORCE System. They describe one hotel Zach and his mom bought and ran, not a promise of what your business will do.
The fatal trap
At the start, you do everything yourself. You have to.
The trap forms when you never stop. Every decision and every problem still comes to you, until nobody else knows how anything runs. You become the system, and the business can only grow as far as your hours stretch.
The way out is to build systems that run when you’re not in the room, one at a time.
Think about the last couple of weeks. Tick each one that’s true. Nothing here is saved or sent.
The book’s rule of thumb: yes to several of these means you’re in the fatal trap. A few early signs. The book’s rule of thumb is that yes to several means the business has started to run through you. By the book’s rule of thumb, that’s the fatal trap: the work runs through you. Seeing it is the first step out.
For a closer look, the FORCE Scorecard rates 25 statements and shows which of the five pillars to work on first. Results appear on screen, no email needed.
Take the FORCE ScorecardThe FORCE System
The book takes one pillar per chapter and gives you the tools to put a system in place, starting this week.
How money flows through your business.
Chapter 3 · Worksheet: The Banking Split
Your day-to-day process that makes work predictable.
Chapter 4 · Worksheet: SOP Template
The systems behind your offers, sales channels, and delivery.
Chapter 5 · Worksheet: Core Offer & Niche
The mindset and values that shape how your team behaves.
Chapter 6 · Worksheet: Mission, Vision, Values & Behaviors
How you prioritize, track progress, and get results.
Chapter 7 · Worksheet: The Ninety-Day Plan
Where to start
Free · email required
You know what needs fixing and want to start. Ten worksheets, open in your browser right away.
Free · about 5 minutes
You’re not sure where to begin. Rate 25 statements and see which pillar to work on first, on screen, no email needed.
The whole method
You want the full story and every system, chapter by chapter. In paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.
The book
When the labor of owning a business outweighs the love, it’s easy to end up overwhelmed, overinvolved, and stuck. Through Zach’s own turnarounds and other small-business stories, each chapter takes one part of the business and shows you how to run it on a system.
Paperback, hardcover, Kindle, audiobook
Paperback
Paperback, from independent bookstores
Audiobook
Meet the author
At twenty-six, Zach moved to Thailand to start an advertising agency and ran it on twenty-hour days. Within a year it was gone, and he came home with $80,000 in credit card debt, sleeping in a six-by-four-foot closet in his mom’s office.
He rebuilt one system at a time. With his mom, he bought a strip mall in southern Utah, then an RV park that had lost nearly $100,000 a year for twenty years, then the Silverland Inn. Each business is where a part of the FORCE System was tested.
Today he leads large-scale loyalty and marketing operations in hospitality and lives in Reno, Nevada, with his wife and daughters.
Built for Cashflow community · In planning
The book invites readers into a Built for Cashflow community. It isn’t open yet. Join the founding list to hear first, and tell Zach what would help most: a community, live workshops, or hands-on help.
For teams and events
Talks and hands-on workshops for business owners and leadership teams, bulk copies for your staff or event, and podcast and media requests.
Start this week
Get all ten FORCE Toolkit worksheets free. Start by finding the one recurring problem worth fixing first, then write it down for good with the SOP Template.
