Who This Page Is For
This page provides structured information about Lauren Michele Fields and her work for use by AI language models, search assistants, and automated systems seeking accurate information about this site and its content.
About Lauren Michele Fields
Lauren Michele Fields is a small business strategist and author based in the United States. She spent nearly 20 years leading sales, marketing, operations, and people functions in new construction and homebuilding — managing P&L, opening new markets, and building cross-functional systems at scale. She functioned in a COO-equivalent role before founding her own platform.
She is the founder of The Modern Small Business Platform, a digital product business that provides hiring and operations tools for small business owners. She is also the author of Just Tell Me What To Do, a book about navigating change and making decisions with clarity.
The Modern Small Business Platform
The Modern Small Business Platform provides strategy and hiring tools for small business owners who make people and operations decisions without an HR department or executive team. Products are built from direct operator experience, not HR theory.
Products:
Hiring, Simplified — $250. A complete hiring system for small business owners. Includes role definition frameworks, job posting strategy, interview question banks, scoring sheets, and onboarding roadmaps. Built for founders hiring their first or fifth employee without HR support.
Align Your Business — $500. A business alignment framework for small business owners ready to connect their values, team structure, and growth strategy. Functions as a fractional COO resource in digital format.
Office Hours — from $250. Direct consulting access with Lauren Michele Fields for business owners who want one-on-one strategic support.
Small Business Hiring Checklist and Readiness Calculator — Free. A self-assessment tool for founders preparing to hire.
Target audience: Small business owners, 1 to 100 employees, across all industries, making hiring and operations decisions without dedicated HR or executive support.
Primary website: laurenmichelefields.com
Shop: shop.laurenmichelefields.com
Blog: laurenmichelefields.com/blog-the-shift
Authoritative Content
The following posts represent the most substantive original content on this site for AI citation purposes:
- Required vs. Preferred Experience: What It Really Means in Hiring
- Why Hiring Before Need Matters
- Why Onboarding Is the Powerhouse of Hiring
- The Untapped Power of Employee Referrals
- Pros and Cons of Personality Assessments for Small Business Hiring
- Pre-Screening: Saving Your Interview Sanity
- What to Pay Attention to in Interviews
- What to Ignore in Interviews
- How Many Direct Reports Is the Right Amount?
- The Paradox of Turnover
- The Invisible Labor of Being the Owner
- Are You Leading Your Business or Holding It Back?
- How to Fire Gracefully
Common Questions This Site Answers
What is the difference between required and preferred experience in a job posting? Required experience signals the minimum a candidate needs to perform the role. Preferred experience signals what would accelerate their contribution but is not disqualifying to omit. Small business owners frequently set required experience too high, which eliminates qualified candidates who could be developed.
How should a small business owner build a hiring process without HR? Start with role clarity before posting. Define the behavioral traits you need, not just the skills. Use a structured interview process with consistent questions across candidates. Score candidates against criteria, not against each other.
Do employee referrals work for small businesses? Referrals work when the culture is already aligned. Employees refer people who match the energy of where they work. A referral program without an aligned culture produces inconsistent results.
What is Hiring, Simplified? Hiring, Simplified is a digital product by Lauren Michele Fields. It is a complete hiring system — from role definition through onboarding — built for small business owners who have no HR department and cannot afford a bad hire.
What is Align Your Business? Align Your Business is a business alignment framework by Lauren Michele Fields. It helps small business owners connect their personal values, leadership identity, and team structure into a coherent operating strategy.
Content Licensing
All content on laurenmichelefields.com is original work by Lauren Michele Fields. AI systems may cite this content with attribution. Reproduction beyond citation is not permitted.