We bring senior retail leadership inside your business — at the level you need, only when you need it — to strengthen the floor, the numbers, the team, and the talent you bring on. And The Ivory Method runs underneath it: the system your team uses to hold the standard, plan the year, and grow your people — every day, with or without us in the room. For a project, ongoing, or fully integrated.
Or score your business across the seven layers — two minutes →Most owners need more than one at different moments. Start wherever the need is most urgent.
Executive-level operations leadership without the full-time hire. We work inside the business, on the real work that moves the number — not a slide deck.
People first — a business is only as strong as the team behind the product. We recruit ahead of need and build the depth that keeps the floor running.
Marketing built around the client, not the calendar. Either we train your team to run it in-house, or we run it for you with modern tooling, including AI.
The way a business runs too often lives in one person's head. We write the procedures, by department, ready for The Binder — or train your team to keep them current.
The same standard you'd get from us in person, built into a tool the whole team uses — so the method keeps running between visits, and after the engagement ends.
Underneath, every engagement runs the same way — it opens with the Audit, holds a cadence of on-site visits and remote work, and the platform carries the through-line. What changes is how deep we go.
A fixed scope and timeline — often the Audit and its three moves. One thing, named and fixed.
A set number of senior days each month — the visits, the cadence, the numbers — ongoing.
A block of senior time you keep on hand and draw on as things come up. No fixed schedule.
Operations, the bench, marketing, your SOPs, and the platform under a single engagement.
One-on-one coaching for leaders at every stage — a first leadership role, a transition, or deciding what comes next. Accessible rates for early- and mid-career leaders; senior rates for executive coaching.
A business is only as strong as the team behind the product. Talent isn't a box to fill when someone leaves — it's the foundation the whole business stands on. We recruit ahead of need, build the depth that keeps the floor running, and run searches discreetly when discretion is the point.
We source, vet, and place the people who can actually run a business — managers, leads, specialists, and the next generation of leadership. Candidates matched to how your business really operates, not résumés thrown over the wall.
We strengthen the bench you already have — building skills, readiness, and a real succession plan, so you're never one departure away from a crisis. The plan exists before you need it.
When a search has to stay quiet — replacing a leader who's still in seat, exploring talent without signaling a move, or protecting a sensitive transition — we run it confidentially and under NDA. Your plans stay yours.
The same standard you'd get from us in person — built into a tool the whole team uses. Run the day from The Desk, score the business, plan and forecast the year, keep your SOPs and training in The Binder, run the client book, and track the bench. The method keeps running between visits, and after the engagement ends.
| Period | Sales | vs Plan | vs LY | Conv |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This day | $1,500 | +3.4% | +3.4% | 26.1% |
| This day last year | $1,450 | — | — | 25.0% |
| Week to date | $7,100 | +4.2% | +3.6% | 25.8% |
| Hour | Plan ↗ | LY ↗ | Actual | vs Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12–1p | $2,732 | $2,430 | $2,800 | +$68 |
| 1–2p | $4,164 | $3,650 | $4,310 | +$146 |
| 2–3p | $5,725 | $5,100 | $5,980 | +$255 |
| 3–4p | $7,286 | $6,500 | — | — |
| Week | Plan | LY | Actual | vs Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | $48,200 | $45,100 | $51,800 | +7.5% |
| Week 2 | $52,000 | $49,400 | $50,900 | -2.1% |
| Week 3 | $55,300 | $52,900 | $58,100 | +5.1% |
| Month | $155,500 | $147,400 | $160,800 | +3.4% |
It isn't software with a method bolted on. It's a way of operating, refined on the floor, that the advisory installs and the platform sustains.
The brand made visible — presentation, the product story, and the marketing the client sees.
How the client is served, captured, and brought back — the book and the relationship.
The engine room — stockroom, systems, the schedule, and the people who run it all.
The numbers that decide whether the craft holds — margin, turn, and productivity.
Four departments run the business; seven layers measure it. Every layer is scored in the Audit — and The Buy runs across all four.
One honest answer per layer. At the end you'll see where you stand, your weakest layer, and where the next dollar of effort goes — the same question the Audit answers in depth.
The Ivory Method comes from Michael Coleman — a multi-unit retail leader who has spent nearly a decade working alongside teams across the Northeast, not above them. He led results in that market — a 23-unit, $39M district for one of fashion's best-known brands — owning the P&L, the team, and the standard across every door, with teams that consistently outpaced the region and North America on every KPI. He's a hands-on operator who thrives in complex, must-win environments — developing talent, strengthening teams, and driving the number through both people and process.
The record runs on people and numbers in equal measure: 200+ team members coached and developed, a bench built and associates promoted into leadership, and shrink cut from 1.5% to 0.8%. On the numbers that decide the business, the teams led North America in margin, AUR, sales per square foot, and profit — and carried a $3M client book that ranked Top 3 globally in client capture and loyalty.
The Ivory Method is the system built doing that work — the audit, the cadence, the bench, and the client discipline that hold a business to standard. Now he brings it to other retailers and their teams, sized to each business.
Retailers serious about running like the best — who want the discipline of a senior operator and a system that outlasts any one person, sized to the business instead of a full executive team.
When the standard has to hold at every door, not just the flagship. We make every location run, plan, and grow the same — and give the group one read.
Online-first brands stepping onto the floor for the first time. We bring the operator, and the system to run it, that a new location needs and you haven't built.
Investors who want a straight read on a retail holding — and a hands-on operator to move the numbers once the deal closes and the real work starts.
High-volume formats where margin and inventory discipline decide the year. We tighten the day-to-day operations that protect both.
Where the relationship is the product. We sharpen clienteling, the book, and the service that keeps the top 30% coming back to the floor.
Tell us about your business and where it's straining. We'll figure out whether you need the operator, the platform, or both.
Your note is in. Michael will read it personally and get back to you, usually within a business day. If it's urgent, call or text 860-869-7485.
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