Business Growth & Operations · Chicago

We help good businesses run better and grow smarter.

AK Foundries helps small businesses build the systems behind sustainable growth — from attracting new customers and improving sales processes to organizing operations and automating repetitive work.

StrategyMarketingTechnologyOperations
What We Help With

The systems behind sustainable growth.

We bring together business strategy, marketing, technology, and operations to help you spend less time managing disconnected tools and more time running your business.

01 / ATTRACT

Attract

Websites, digital marketing, lead generation, and customer acquisition.

  • Websites that earn trust fast
  • Search, email, and paid campaigns
  • Local visibility and lead generation
02 / CONVERT

Convert

CRM systems, sales pipelines, lead follow-up, and customer journeys.

  • CRM setup and clean pipelines
  • Follow-up that doesn't slip
  • Mapped customer journeys
03 / OPERATE

Operate

Workflow automation, reporting, team processes, and operational improvements.

  • Automation for repetitive work
  • Reporting you can actually use
  • Team processes and training

A practical partner for the business behind the brand.

No bloated agency retainers. No unnecessary complexity. Just thoughtful solutions built around how your business actually works.

Book a Business Growth Consultation →
How We Work

Understand. Build. Improve.

A simple process that starts with how your business actually runs, not with a package we want to sell you.

01

Understand

Learn how your business operates, where opportunities are being missed, and what needs to improve.

02

Build

Design and implement the right systems, tools, and processes.

03

Improve

Measure what is working, refine the process, and help your business operate more effectively.

Case Study

Light Up Your Holidays: from $500K to $2M+.

Revenue Operations & Marketing Lead · 2017 – 2026

Growth came from fixing the whole path a customer takes, from first click to closed sale to repeat business, instead of adding more marketing on top of a leaky process.

4x
Revenue growth, from $500K to $2M+ a year
80%+
Customer retention, year over year
~30%
Less manual operations overhead (estimated)
20+
Sales and ops team members trained each year

Results from Kodey Thomas's 2017–2026 engagement with Light Up Your Holidays.

What was built

  • A rebuilt lead-to-close funnel connecting marketing, CRM, and sales.
  • CRM architecture across Monday.com, Salesforce, Square, and Zapier, with automated pipelines.
  • Conversational AI for phone and web that handles lead intake and qualification.
  • Multi-channel campaigns across email, Meta Ads, Google Ads, and organic.
  • Optimized WordPress sites for search, user experience, and conversion.
  • Repeatable team training that standardized tools and workflows without adding headcount.
Starting Small?

Websites are still where a lot of businesses begin.

Our website builds are the simplest way to work with us: a clean, fast site matched to your real brand and linked to the booking or contact method you already use. We quote it after a short conversation, and include one free rebuild if the first draft isn't right.

BUILD

The Foundry Build

A one-to-three-page site built around your actual logo, colors, and photos, plus a rate sheet you can print on day one.

LAUNCH

Domain & Hosting

We register your domain, connect reliable hosting, and hand you working credentials. No tech left for you to untangle.

CARE

Ongoing Care

An optional small monthly plan keeps your hours, prices, and photos current long after launch.

Live client site
Ramos Chiropractic & Massage
Burlington, Colorado

A walk-in chiropractic and massage practice that also treats dogs and horses. We built a mobile-first site with online booking through the practice's existing Square account, downloadable new-patient paperwork, clear hours and directions, and local search markup.

View the live site →
Who's Behind It

Kodey Thomas

Business Growth & Operations Consultant

I've spent more than eight years in revenue operations and digital marketing, mostly inside a growing small business where a few people had to sell, market, and keep everything running at the same time.

At Light Up Your Holidays I rebuilt the lead-to-close funnel, set up the CRM and automations behind it, and helped take revenue from $500K to $2M+. Before that, I ran SEO, paid search, and email campaigns for law firms at AttorneySync and led a 20-person team at Best Buy.

I run AK Foundries with my business partner, Austin. When you work with us, you work with the people who actually do the work.

Monday.comSalesforceHubSpotZapierSquareGoogle AnalyticsGoogle & Meta AdsWordPressAI & Automation
B.A. in Business & Marketing, Columbia College Chicago

Start with a conversation.

Tell us where your business is today, what's getting in the way, and what you'd like to accomplish. We'll identify practical opportunities to make things better.

Book a Business Growth Consultation.

A few quick questions so whoever you talk to already knows what matters to you.

Retail / Shop
Restaurant / Food & Drink
Home Services
Professional Services
Health & Wellness
Something else
Not enough new customers
Leads slip through the cracks
Too much manual, repetitive work
Disconnected tools, no clear numbers
I need a website
Attract customers
Convert more of them
Run things more smoothly
Not sure yet
As soon as possible
In the next month or two
Just exploring
Just need a couple more answers above, including one button for each question.
✓

Thanks, we've got it.

We'll reach out within one business day to set up your consultation.

Get In Touch

Based in Chicago, working across Chicagoland.

Prefer to write instead? Send a note and we'll get back to you.

Prefer email? Reach us directly at contact@akfoundries.com