The Fractional One-Pager

What this is for

You know how to fix a specific, expensive problem inside a company. What you lack is a document that says so in a way a decision-maker acts on in one read. This is for the moment before a discovery call or warm intro turns into real money.

Before you start

• Have a rough answer to "what's the most expensive mistake I've watched companies make in my field."
• Pull up three past projects where you fixed that mistake, with any numbers you remember.

The 5 required blocks

In this order. Skip one and the reader has to do work to say yes — which means they won't.

1. The expensive problem. Named specifically, in the reader's language, with a cost attached.
2. Proof. Two or three lines showing you've solved this exact problem before, with a real number.
3. Scope. What you actually do, as deliverables, with a duration. Not "strategic guidance."
4. Price. Three tiers, so the reader picks a number instead of deciding whether to spend at all.
5. The next step. One sentence. One action.

Prompt 1 — Draft the one-pager from a career interview

Use in: ChatGPT or Claude, either works. Long-context extraction; Claude edges ahead if you paste in more than a few thousand words of raw notes.

ROLE: You are a positioning consultant who writes one-page fractional-services offers for experienced operators moving into consulting.

CONTEXT: Use only what I tell you — no invented achievements, numbers, or clients. If an answer is too thin, flag it as a gap instead of filling it with generic language. My answers:
1. Industry/function and years: [EXAMPLE: 22 years, mid-market manufacturing operations, plants of 150-400 employees]
2. The most expensive recurring mistake I've watched companies make: [EXAMPLE: They promote plant managers on tenure, not systems ability, and it takes 18 months and $400K in scrap/turnover to find out]
3. 2-3 times I personally fixed this — company type, what I did, measurable result: [EXAMPLE: Auto parts supplier, rebuilt shift-handoff during a quality crisis, cut defect-driven returns 31% in 5 months]
4. What I'd actually produce in a focused engagement — concrete deliverables: [EXAMPLE: process map, 90-day corrective action plan, trained internal owner, written playbook]
5. Realistic duration: [EXAMPLE: 6 weeks]
6. Lowest price for a scoped-down version, and price for the full build: [EXAMPLE: $2,500 diagnostic, $8,000 full build]

CONSTRAINTS:
- 300-400 words total. One page, not a proposal.
- No hype words, no exclamation points. First person, plainspoken, short sentences.
- Proof section uses only my examples — don't generalize them into vaguer claims.
- If an answer is too thin to build a block from, say so under "Needs more input" instead of guessing.

OUTPUT FORMAT: Markdown with these headers in order:
# [Benefit-first title, not my name]
## The Problem
## Why Me
## What You Get (deliverables + duration)
## Investment (three tiers: name, price, one-line scope difference)
## Next Step (one sentence, one action)

Prompt 2 — Cut it down when it's bloated

Use in: Either. Editing task — use whichever tool already has the draft.

ROLE: You are a ruthless editor whose only job is to protect the reader's time.

CONTEXT: Below is a draft one-page fractional offer, currently too long or vague to read in under 90 seconds. [PASTE YOUR CURRENT DRAFT]

CONSTRAINTS:
- Final version readable aloud in under 90 seconds — aim for 300-350 words.
- Cut any sentence describing a feeling or approach instead of a fact, number, or deliverable.
- Cut adjectives that aren't load-bearing ("innovative," "comprehensive").
- Keep all five blocks: problem, proof, scope with duration, three-tier pricing, next step — even if reduced to one sentence each.

OUTPUT FORMAT: The revised one-pager in markdown, then a "Cut for length" list showing what you removed and why.

Worked example — former operations director

Problem: Manufacturing companies with $20M-$80M revenue lose $300K-$500K a year to scrap, rework, and turnover because plant managers are promoted for tenure, not systems skill.

Proof: 24 years running operations for a Tier 2 auto supplier. Rebuilt shift-handoff and quality-hold processes during a 2019 quality crisis; cut defect-driven returns 31% in 5 months. Reduced new-hire time-to-competency from 11 weeks to 6 across three plants.

Scope (6 weeks): Current-state process map of your top two failure points. A 90-day corrective action plan with named owners. One trained internal process owner. A written playbook your next plant manager can run without me.

Price:

• Diagnostic only (2 weeks, process map + findings memo): $2,500
• Core engagement (6 weeks, full scope above): $5,000
• Extended (6 weeks + 60 days of async support while your team runs it): $7,500

Next step: Reply with your two worst-performing lines and I'll tell you in one call whether this fits.

Where this goes wrong

• The problem is framed from your side, not theirs. "25 years of operations expertise" tells the reader nothing. "You're losing $400K a year and don't know which shift it's coming from" gets read.
• Pricing has one number instead of three. A single price forces yes/no, and no is easier. Three tiers turn it into "which one."
• Deliverables are really just promises. "Ongoing strategic support" is a promise. "A written 90-day plan with named owners" is a deliverable. If you can't picture the document, it's not one yet.

The 2-minute version

Answer the six interview questions from Prompt 1 in a text file, paste them into Prompt 1, and get a draft. Read it aloud — if it takes over 90 seconds, run Prompt 2. Send it to one warm contact today.

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