Helping Owners Build Businesses That Do Not Depend on Them for Everything
Dan Paulson is an Owner Dependency Advisor, creator of the MAAX System, and author of Escape the Owner’s Trap. He helps established business owners strengthen leadership, improve accountability, and build organizations capable of performing without constant owner intervention.
Successful owners often become central to the company because they care deeply, solve problems quickly, and carry knowledge others do not have. Those strengths help build the business. Over time, however, they can also teach the organization to wait for the owner.
Dan’s work is not about removing the owner from leadership. It is about helping the owner stop compensating for unclear responsibility, inconsistent accountability, and operating systems that work only when personally enforced.
Dan’s perspective on ownership started early. He grew up on a multi-generational Wisconsin dairy farm and watched his parents carry the weight of ownership through a family succession and the farm crisis of the early 1980s.
He built his career in corporate leadership and sales, hiring and promoting people into leadership roles, before founding his own advisory practice in 2005. Since then he has worked with business owners and leadership teams as an advisor, coach, facilitator, and speaker. He is a two-time author, of Escape the Owner’s Trap, an Amazon best seller, and Apples to Apples: How to Stand Out From Your Competition.
How Dan works:
- Direct and candid without shaming the owner or team
- Practical and grounded in observable business behavior
- Focused on measurable financial and nonfinancial outcomes
- Tailored to the company rather than imposed as a generic program
- Designed to make leadership and operating changes hold under pressure
Start by Seeing Where the Business Still Depends on You
The free Owner Dependency Scorecard helps owners identify the operating patterns most likely to require their continued involvement.
Talk Through What Still Depends on You
Schedule a confidential 30-minute Owner Dependency Review. In one conversation, Dan will help you pinpoint where decisions, accountability, and follow-through still return to you, what that dependency is costing the business, and where to begin. Share a few details, and Dan will reach out to set a time that works for you.
Not ready to talk yet? Take the Owner Dependency Scorecard first.
Escape the Owner’s Trap: An Amazon Best Seller
You did not intend to become the center of everything. Escape the Owner’s Trap explains how capable leaders unintentionally train their companies to depend on them, and how to change the behavior, discipline, and systems that keep the pattern in place.
Robin P.
Owner at The Treysta Group
I am continually impressed with Dan’s ability to see an opportunity for his company but more importantly, teach others how to find that opportunity for their businesses. You can’t go wrong with choosing to work with Dan.
Daniel K.
Board Member at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County
Dan is the quintessential professional, down to earth, and personable. His suite of skills makes Dan invaluable and a delight to work with.
David S. Boyd
Dan brought a high level of “out of the box” thinking to our process. He helped us understand how social media would fit into our business model, introduced us to the possibilities of work in China, and helped us think about how our re-branding efforts would be integrated with our strategic and tactical business decisions.
Gary Mack H.
Mary Mack’s, Inc.
Dan is not what I thought a consultant or coach would be, and that’s a good thing. Dan helped me get out of my own way and make hard decisions. He is results-oriented, big on culture, big on results, and big on empowerment!
Dan & Becky C.
Carey Seamless Gutters
Dan is straightforward and addressed our challenges in a way that pushed us outside of our comfort zone. Our revenue has continued to grow each year since working with Dan. He knows his stuff and isn’t afraid to have tough and necessary conversations to help improve our business.
David D.
No Fear Dentistry
We have seen double-digit growth every year since we hired Dan as a business consultant/coach! Dan is great at listening and understanding the issues. I plan on working with Dan for many years to come.