Vacation Test: three months -> one month of busy season (Mike: "3 is unreasonable" - busy-season month is the test an owner actually feels)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

index.html

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 <meta charset="utf-8">
 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
 <title>ShopWisdom | Keep What Your Best People Know — for Manufacturers</title>
-<meta name="description" content="Your best people are retiring. We help manufacturers with production shops capture the know-how the business runs on — quoting, pricing, orders — and build it into systems you own outright. No hype, no lock-in.">
+<meta name="description" content="Your best people are retiring. We help manufacturers with production shops capture the know-how the business runs on — quoting, pricing, orders — and write it into a cookbook your company owns outright — then build the systems to run it. Any platform, no lock-in, no hype.">
 <link rel="preload" href="assets/fonts/playfair-400.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>
 <link rel="preload" href="assets/fonts/playfair-400i.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>
 <link rel="preload" href="assets/fonts/dmsans-400.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 <meta property="og:type" content="website">
 <meta property="og:site_name" content="ShopWisdom">
 <meta property="og:title" content="ShopWisdom — keep what your best people know">
-<meta property="og:description" content="Your best people are retiring. We capture the know-how your business runs on — quoting, pricing, orders — and build it into systems you own outright, before it's gone.">
+<meta property="og:description" content="Your best people are retiring. We capture the know-how your business runs on — quoting, pricing, orders — and write it into a cookbook your company owns outright — then build the systems to run it. Before it's gone.">
 <meta property="og:url" content="https://shopwisdom.ca/">
 <meta property="og:locale" content="en_CA">
 <meta property="og:image" content="https://shopwisdom.ca/og-card.png">
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
       "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://shopwisdom.ca/og-card.png", "width": 1200, "height": 630 },
       "image": "https://shopwisdom.ca/og-card.png",
       "slogan": "Keep what your best people know.",
-      "description": "Knowledge continuity for manufacturers: ShopWisdom captures the know-how that lives in a retiring veteran's head — quoting, pricing, orders, customer history — and builds it into systems the whole business can run on. Clients own everything; Canadian hosting available end-to-end.",
+      "description": "Knowledge continuity for manufacturers: ShopWisdom captures the know-how that lives in a retiring veteran's head — quoting, pricing, orders, customer history — and builds it into systems the whole business can run on. Clients own their cookbook and everything built from it; platform-independent by design; Canadian hosting available end-to-end.",
       "email": "michael@opencommunications.consulting",
       "telephone": "+1-778-985-6736",
       "areaServed": [{ "@type": "Country", "name": "Canada" }, { "@type": "Country", "name": "United States" }],
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@
         "itemListElement": [
           { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "The Continuity Audit", "url": "https://shopwisdom.ca/continuity-audit.html", "description": "A fixed-fee diagnostic — a few focused hours with your team to find where the business is exposed (who holds what, what it costs you if they leave, the effect on the value of the business), delivered as a plain-English risk report and roadmap." } },
           { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Knowledge Capture & Systems", "description": "Sit with your best people, draw out the judgment in their heads, and build it into documented, trained systems the whole crew can run — without first cleaning up decades of spreadsheets." } },
-          { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "System Care — Continuity Partner", "description": "A recurring retainer — your continuity partner: tools hosted and kept healthy with regular check-ups (quarterly, monthly, or weekly), new tech folded in, and the next key person captured before they leave. You own everything; Canadian hosting available." } }
+          { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "System Care — Continuity Partner", "description": "A recurring retainer — your continuity partner: tools hosted and kept healthy with regular check-ups (quarterly, monthly, or weekly), new tech folded in, and the next key person captured before they leave. You own the cookbook and everything built from it; Canadian hosting available." } }
         ]
       }
     },
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@
     <div class="wrap hero-wrap"><div class="hero-col">
       <p class="eyebrow">Knowledge continuity · for the office that runs the shop</p>
       <h1>Your best people are retiring. Their know&#8209;how doesn't <em>have to.</em></h1>
-      <p class="lead">We don't just install AI. Before it leaves with them, we turn the pricing instincts, the fixes, the hard&#8209;won judgment in their heads into systems your whole business can run on — and we stay on to keep them that way.</p>
+      <p class="lead">We don't just install AI. Before that know&#8209;how retires with them, we turn the pricing instincts, the fixes, the hard&#8209;won judgment in their heads into a cookbook your business owns — and systems your whole crew can run on. The tools will change. The cookbook doesn&#8217;t retire. We stay on to keep it true.</p>
       <div class="actions">
         <a class="btn" href="https://cal.shopwisdom.ca/michaelvictory/20-min-shop-wise-meeting" data-cal-link="michaelvictory/20-min-shop-wise-meeting" data-cal-origin="https://cal.shopwisdom.ca" data-cal-config='{"theme":"light"}'>Book a fit call — free, no pitch</a>
         <a class="btn link" href="#results">See client results</a>
@@ -180,8 +180,8 @@
           <p>Wisdom is a slower technology than intelligence. We work at the pace good work needs, not the pace the hype cycle demands.</p>
         </div>
         <div class="card">
-          <h3>You own everything</h3>
+          <h3>You own the cookbook</h3>
-          <p>Every system we build is yours — fully documented, free of lock&#8209;in, hosted where you want it. If keeping your data in Canada matters to you, we do that end&#8209;to&#8209;end.</p>
+          <p>Everything we capture — how you quote, price, decide, and keep customers — goes into a written cookbook that belongs to your company, in plain language your next hire can follow. The systems we build from it are yours too, free of lock&#8209;in and hosted where you want (Canadian end&#8209;to&#8209;end if that matters to you). But the cookbook is the asset: any tool, any time, anyone can cook from it. Software comes and goes. The cookbook stays on your shelf.</p>
         </div>
         <div class="card">
           <h3>One person, accountable</h3>
@@ -207,14 +207,14 @@
         <div class="card">
           <span class="step-k">Fix · Capture &amp; build</span>
           <h3>Capture it — and make it usable</h3>
-          <p>We sit down with your best people, draw out what's in their heads, and build it into systems the whole crew can actually use — documented, trained, and built to last. You don't need to clean up thirty years of spreadsheets first: that mess <strong>is</strong> the knowledge, and waiting for perfect data is how it gets lost. The modern tools do the heavy lifting so it's fast and affordable — but software records which buttons get pushed. We capture the judgment — the human part, the part that leaves with them when a veteran moves on — and you own it.</p>
+          <p>We sit down with your best people, draw out what's in their heads, and build it into systems the whole crew can actually use — documented, trained, and built to last. You don't need to clean up thirty years of spreadsheets first: that mess <strong>is</strong> the knowledge, and waiting for perfect data is how it gets lost. The modern tools do the heavy lifting so it's fast and affordable — but software records which buttons get pushed. We capture the judgment — the human part, the part that leaves with them when a veteran moves on — and write it into a cookbook your company owns. From there we build the tools your crew actually uses. Change platforms in five years? The cookbook comes with you and the new tools get built from the same book.</p>
           <p class="outcome">The day your best person retires, the work doesn't stop.</p>
         </div>
         <div class="card feature">
           <span class="step-k">Keep it handled · Recurring</span>
           <span class="card-tag">System Care · Continuity Partner</span>
           <h3>Your tools, kept running — and never falling behind</h3>
-          <p>Think of it as a continuity partner on retainer. Everything we build lives in its own managed space — hosting, infrastructure, and running costs handled, on Canadian servers if that matters to your business. We keep it healthy with regular check&#8209;ups — quarterly, monthly, or weekly, depending on how hard you lean on it — and flag the new tech worth folding in. When the next key person moves on, we capture what they know too. You own everything; walk away anytime and it all comes with you.</p>
+          <p>Think of it as a continuity partner on retainer. Each quarter we open your cookbook and check it against how the work really gets done now — what changed, what a new hire tripped on, what the next retirement will take with it — and we keep the tools built from it healthy, hosted and running (Canadian servers if that matters to your business), on a cadence that fits how hard you lean on them: quarterly, monthly, or weekly. When the next key person moves on, their chapter gets written too. You own the cookbook and everything built from it; walk away anytime and it all comes with you.</p>
           <p class="outcome">The system stays alive, current, and improving — with a partner who already knows how your business thinks.</p>
         </div>
       </div>
@@ -284,8 +284,8 @@
     <div class="wrap narrow reveal">
       <p class="eyebrow">Why it's worth more</p>
       <h2>Captured know&#8209;how isn't just safer. It's worth <em>more.</em></h2>
-      <p>When the person who knows how you really quote, price, and keep customers is the one closest to retirement, that knowledge is worth money — and right now it isn't written down, and it isn't yours to keep. We turn it into something the business owns, before it moves on with someone. Buyers, and the advisors who help owners sell, look for exactly this: a company that can run without its most knowledgeable person is worth more than one that can't.</p>
+      <p>When the person who knows how you really quote, price, and keep customers is the one closest to retirement, that knowledge is worth money — and right now it isn't written down, and it isn't yours to keep. We turn it into a cookbook the business owns — the documented DNA of how the place actually works — before it moves on with someone. Buyers, and the advisors who help owners sell, look for exactly this: documented, transferable know&#8209;how is what turns a company that depends on one person into one that holds its value without them. A business that can hand the next owner the cookbook is worth more than one that hands over a login.</p>
-      <p class="emph">Could the office run for three months without your most knowledgeable person? Buyers ask exactly that — and when the answer is &ldquo;yes, it's captured, and it's ours,&rdquo; your business is worth more.</p>
+      <p class="emph">Could the office run through a month of your busy season without your most knowledgeable person? Buyers ask exactly that — and when the answer is &ldquo;yes, it's captured, and it's ours,&rdquo; your business is worth more.</p>
       <p><a class="card-link" href="vacation-test.html">Take the two&#8209;minute Vacation Test &#8594;</a></p>
     </div>
   </section>
@@ -313,15 +313,15 @@
         </li>
         <li>
           <h3>A paid discovery session</h3>
-          <p>If there's a fit, a focused 90&#8209;minute working meeting where we map the real problem, decide what's worth solving first, and outline what a solution looks like. You leave with a written recommendation — whether or not we work together further. Fixed fee, agreed up front — and if a project follows, it comes off the bill.</p>
+          <p>If there's a fit, a focused few hours working together where we map how work really moves through your business — who holds what, where the judgment sits, what would break first if someone left. You leave with a written map and recommendation, yours to keep whether or not we go further: the first rough table of contents of your cookbook. Fixed fee, agreed up front — and if a project follows, every dollar of it comes off the full cookbook.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
-          <h3>A fixed&#8209;scope proposal</h3>
+          <h3>Writing the cookbook</h3>
-          <p>You know exactly what gets built, what it costs, and what you own at the end — before any work begins. Written in plain language, not jargon. Scope changes are a conversation, not a surprise invoice.</p>
+          <p>Once scope and price are agreed — written in plain language, before any work begins — we spend a day or so with the people who hold the know&#8209;how, drilling into the recipes: how a quote really comes together, what gets checked before a job ships, the calls only experience knows how to make. The methods, the ingredients, the why behind each one. Then the cookbook is loaded into your AI tools, so the systems we build cook from the real thing — and quietly gather what changes between quarterly reviews. Scope changes along the way are a conversation, not a surprise invoice.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
-          <h3>A deliverable you own</h3>
+          <h3>An asset you own — and grow</h3>
-          <p>The work moves in short cycles with regular review. At the end it's hosted, documented, and yours. Run it on your own, or keep us on call through System Care — a choice, never a requirement.</p>
+          <p>The work moves in short cycles with regular review, and what lands is yours: hosted, documented, owned. The first thing you notice is time — the systems take the repetitive work, and hours come back every week. Then the compounding starts: each quarterly review folds what changed into the cookbook, so the book gets richer, the systems get sharper, and the know&#8209;how keeps accruing to the business instead of to any one person's head. Run it yourself, or keep us on call through System Care — a choice, never a requirement. Either way, you're not buying a tool that depreciates. You're building an asset that doesn't.</p>
         </li>
       </ol>
     </div>
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@
       <p class="section-intro">ShopWisdom is probably not the right fit if you're:</p>
       <ul class="notfor">
         <li><strong>Looking to cut headcount through automation.</strong> AI used to make people redundant isn't what we do.</li>
-        <li><strong>Shopping for a black box to rent forever.</strong> You own everything we build — yours to take anytime. We'll keep it running and current if you want that (that's System Care), but it's a choice, never a leash. We don't do lock&#8209;in.</li>
+        <li><strong>Shopping for a black box to rent forever.</strong> You own the cookbook and everything we build from it — yours to take anytime. We'll keep it running and current if you want that (that's System Care), but it's a choice, never a leash. We don't do lock&#8209;in.</li>
         <li><strong>Shopping for a Super Bowl AI strategy or an AI pilot project.</strong> No hype, no transformation slides, no buzzwords — and no pilots that quietly die in IT. Just specific work with measurable outcomes.</li>
         <li><strong>Facing people problems that run deeper than systems.</strong> Tools amplify what's already there. If trust is missing, software won't fix it — though that's exactly what our sister practice, <a href="https://www.opencommunications.consulting/">Open Communications</a>, takes on.</li>
       </ul>

vacation-test.html

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
 <meta name="theme-color" content="#f7f4ef">
 <title>The Vacation Test — Could Your Business Run Without Them? | ShopWisdom</title>
-<meta name="description" content="A 2-minute owner check: could your business run three months without its most knowledgeable person? Buyers ask exactly that. Find out where you stand — and what it means for what your business is worth.">
+<meta name="description" content="A 2-minute owner check: could your business run a month of its busy season without its most knowledgeable person? Buyers ask exactly that. Find out where you stand — and what it means for what your business is worth.">
 <link rel="preload" href="assets/fonts/playfair-400.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>
 <link rel="preload" href="assets/fonts/playfair-400i.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>
 <link rel="preload" href="assets/fonts/dmsans-400.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 <link rel="icon" href="favicon.svg" type="image/svg+xml">
 <meta property="og:type" content="website">
 <meta property="og:site_name" content="ShopWisdom">
-<meta property="og:title" content="The Vacation Test — could your business run three months without them?">
+<meta property="og:title" content="The Vacation Test — could your business run a month of busy season without them?">
 <meta property="og:description" content="Buyers ask exactly that. A 2-minute owner check on how much of your business lives in one person's head — and what that means for what it's worth.">
 <meta property="og:url" content="https://shopwisdom.ca/vacation-test.html">
 <meta property="og:image" content="https://shopwisdom.ca/og-card.png">
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
   <section class="band light" data-bg="light" style="padding-top: calc(var(--nav-h) + 72px);">
     <div class="wrap vt-wrap">
       <p class="eyebrow">The Vacation Test · a 2-minute owner check</p>
-      <h1>Could your business run three months <em>without them?</em></h1>
+      <h1>Could your business run a month of busy season <em>without them?</em></h1>
       <p class="lead">Buyers ask exactly that question. The Vacation Test is a quick, honest read on how much of your business lives in one person's head — and what that means for what it's worth. Five questions, honest answers, no email required.</p>
 
       <div class="vt-card" id="vtCard">
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@
   var BOOK = '<a class="btn" href="https://cal.shopwisdom.ca/michaelvictory/20-min-shop-wise-meeting" data-cal-link="michaelvictory/20-min-shop-wise-meeting" data-cal-origin="https://cal.shopwisdom.ca" data-cal-config=\'{"theme":"light"}\'>Book a fit call — free, no pitch</a>';
 
   var Q = [
-    { q: "Your most knowledgeable person is away for three months, starting Monday. What happens to quoting and pricing?", a: [
+    { q: "Your most knowledgeable person is away for a month — right in your busy season, starting Monday. What happens to quoting and pricing?", a: [
       { t: "Not much — it's documented, and others already do it", s: 0 },
       { t: "We'd manage, with some digging and a few phone calls", s: 1 },
       { t: "Quotes would slow down, and some would go out wrong", s: 2 },