Christopher Atkinson
IT, Marketing & Business Operations Consultant · Dykstra Consulting
Most owners already know which part of the business is holding them back. The hard part is finding the time — and the outside perspective — to fix it.
Advises owners on the operational, technology and marketing side of building a business that is worth more — and easier to hand over — than the one they have today.
Christopher works on the part of a business that a buyer inspects closely and an owner rarely has time to fix: the systems, the reporting, the marketing that generates demand without the owner in the room, and the documented process that makes the whole thing transferable.
That work matters commercially. Two companies with identical earnings sell for very different numbers, and the gap is usually operational — how dependent the business is on one person, whether the numbers can be substantiated quickly in diligence, whether demand is repeatable or relationship-bound, and whether a new owner could actually run it on day one.
For owners three to five years out from a sale, this is where the value gets built. For buyers, it is the integration plan that decides whether an acquisition performs after closing.
How Christopher can help
Where an outside pair of eyes pays for itself
Whichever of these is closest to what is bothering you is the right place to start — and if none of them quite fits, say so in your own words.
Performance & profitability
Performance Analytics
Reporting that says what changed, why, and what to do about it on Monday.
Cost Savings Analysis
Spend against what it returns. At a four-times multiple, a dollar saved is four dollars of business value.
Product Performance Analysis
Which lines make money, which quietly lose it, and which are worth keeping anyway.
Market Analysis & Research
Who is really buying and what they pay elsewhere — evidence you can price against.
Operations & systems
Operations & Management Consulting
The bottleneck is rarely where it feels like it is. We find the real constraint and fix it.
Systems Analysis & Refining
Software that fights you costs more than software that costs more. Cut duplication, join the pieces up.
AI Integrations & Training
Where AI genuinely saves hours in your business, put in safely, with your team trained to keep using it.
Guided Planning & Implementation
The part most consultants skip: staying through the doing, week by week, until it is done.
Growth & strategy
Developing Growth Plans
Where the next dollar realistically comes from, what it costs, and who owns each step.
Strategic Planning
Three years out, written down, with the trade-offs made explicit.
Business & Personal Coaching
A regular, confidential conversation with someone who has no agenda in the outcome.
Brand, web & sales
Website Design
Built to generate enquiries, not to win awards. Fast, findable, and clear in ten seconds.
Ecommerce
Storefronts that convert and back-ends that do not create work.
Brand Launching
Naming, positioning and identity, so a new brand arrives looking like it has been there a while.
New Product Branding & Launching
From "we should sell this" to in-market: positioning, pricing, packaging and channel.
Product Sales & Channel Development
Where it should sell, who should sell it, and the margin the channel needs to bother.
Also worked on
- Business operations and process documentation
- IT systems, infrastructure and security
- Marketing, demand generation and web presence
- Management reporting and business intelligence
- Reducing owner dependence before a sale
- Post-acquisition integration for buyers