★ For Self-Employed Owners

Your business is working.
Your life is not.

Back In Control™ shows you exactly which stage of your pipeline is the constraint — and what to do about it. Every week. Without guessing.

Learn More Read the Book First →

The app assumes you know the framework. The framework lives in the book.

Ryan Carter, Contractor — watch the constraint move through 22 weeks of real data

backincontrol.app / dashboard
Back In Control Dashboard
Weeks 1–3 · Collecting

The first 4 weeks are a data collection period. The dashboard shows what's there but holds its judgment — you can't diagnose a constraint from a single bad week. The system waits for a pattern.

The Control Panel

Three questions.
Answered every week.

Pilots don't stare at the sky. They read instruments. Your business needs a control panel — not another dashboard full of numbers you cross-reference for hours.

01
Which stage is the constraint?
The app evaluates your pipeline from output backward — Fulfillment first, then Offer, Interest, Attention. The constraint is the one stage limiting everything downstream. It tells you exactly what to fix — not what hurts right now.
02
Where is risk building?
Trends reveal what snapshots hide. A rising backlog with flat revenue. Contacts climbing while qualification drops. The app uses 4-week rolling averages so you see problems before you feel them — 6 weeks before they hit your bank account.
03
Are you within your boundary?
Your boundary is your maximum sustainable weekly hours. The app tracks actual hours by stage against that boundary every week. You do not break the boundary to grow. You grow inside it. That's the whole game.

The Five Stages

Every self-employed business
runs on the same pipeline.

Attention
People who give you permission to reach them directly. Measured in contacts added per week.
Interest
Contacts who are ready, willing, and able. Qualified leads — not everyone, the right ones.
Offer
A specific, explicit ask for a decision. You cannot convert what you do not solicit.
Fulfillment
The work gets done. Hours tracked, backlog monitored, jobs completed each week.
Revenue
Cash collected — not invoiced. The system isn't healthy until money is in the account.
The constraint is always upstream from the pain. Revenue feels wrong but the problem started four stages earlier. The app evaluates from Fulfillment backward because that's the closest upstream point — if Fulfillment is fine, it checks Offer. If Offer is fine, Interest. And so on. Fix the right thing first.

The Ecosystem

One framework. Four ways in.

The book is the starting place. The app is where the work gets done. The rest is how deep you want to go.

Step 1
The Book
Understand the framework
The five stages, the boundary, the constraint logic — told through the story of six business owners at a four-day retreat. This is where it starts. The app doesn't exist without this.
$19.95 one time
✓ Completely standalone
You are here
Step 2
The App
Run the framework
Enter your numbers each week. The app finds your constraint, tracks your trends, and tells you exactly where to look. The framework, running live on your actual business — every week.
$49.95 /month after trial
⚠ Start with the book — the app assumes the framework
Step 3
The Masterclass
Master the framework
John teaches it directly — the reasoning behind the decisions, the edge cases, the judgment calls the app can't make for you. The book on steroids. Best after you've used the app for a few months.
$199 one time
✓ Standalone, works best after the book

The Origin

The app wasn't the plan.

The Book
The framework needed a story
Theory of Constraints is powerful. But self-employed owners don't need theory — they need a way to see their business clearly, every single week. The book told that story.
→
The Bonus
A spreadsheet became the thing
The app was supposed to be a free extra — a nice companion to the book. Then readers started using it every week and ignoring everything else. It turned out the app was the point.
→
Now
The book sells the thinking. The app does the work.
They're not the same product. The book gives you the model. The app gives you the practice. Neither replaces the other. But this is where the framework runs every week.

Created by John P. Tighe  ·  A Tg Tech product

Ready to run the framework?

Start your free trial. Enter your numbers. The app will tell you exactly where to look — every week.

Learn More Read the Book First

No credit card required for trial  ·  Book is $19.95 at johnptighe.com