Marika Olson · Hoodsport, Washington
About
Hi, I'm Marika.
I help small businesses get their operations and online presence working together.
I also really like travel, forests, mountains, and cats.
I didn't plan on becoming an operations consultant and web designer. But after 17 years of international work, including 15 years at USAID managing development programs worth up to $250M across three continents, I got really good at one thing: walking into complex situations and building systems that work.
Now I do the same thing for small businesses.
I started Marika Olson Consulting because I kept meeting founders who were incredible at their craft but drowning in the operational side. Their websites didn't reflect the quality of their work. Their client processes were held together with good intentions and Gmail. They knew something had to change but couldn't step back far enough to see what.
I can see what. That's the skill. Fifteen years of managing programs in some of the hardest operating environments on earth taught me how to find the signal in the noise, build systems that survive contact with reality, and keep things running when the plan inevitably changes.
I bring that same thinking to your business. Smaller scale, same rigor, same care. Whether you're growing it, getting it ready to sell, or just trying to take a vacation without everything catching fire.
These days I run all of it, the client work, this website, even a few stranger side projects, on AI tools and agents. That daily practice is how I know where they genuinely save you money, and where they'll hand you a confident, wrong answer if no one is checking. You're hiring the person who checks.
Build systems that survive contact with reality.
Fifteen years in the hardest places on earth
Komorebi · 木漏れ日
How I think about the work
A practice, not a service
I think of this work as a practice, not a service. That might sound like semantics, but it changes everything. A service is something you buy, use, and you're done. A practice is something you tend. It evolves, it responds to what's actually happening instead of what you planned six months ago, and it values steady progress over dramatic overhaul.
I named my approach after a Japanese word, komorebi, which describes the dappled light that filters through tree leaves. It's about finding clarity through complexity: noticing what's already working and building from there, and accepting that some things will be messy, and that's fine, because the goal was never perfection. The goal is a business that works and a life that has room to breathe.
When I audit your operations, I'm not looking for what's wrong, I'm looking for what's real. When I build your website, I build something that tells the truth about who you are, not whatever's trending this year.
Who I work with
Small teams, serious about the work
Owners and founders, typically teams of 1–15: service-based businesses, e-commerce brands, consultancies, retail shops. The industry matters less than the attitude: you care about doing good work, you're honest about where things stand, and you're ready to build something that lasts.
Most of my clients have a few things in common
- They've outgrown their current setup and know it.
- They're spending too much time on the backend and not enough on the work itself.
- They're thinking about what happens next: growth, a partner, or an eventual exit.
- They want a partner, not a vendor.
- They value clarity over flash.
If that sounds like you, we should talk.
My background
Fifteen years of operations at scale
- 15 years at USAID managing international development programs
- 2 years in the Peace Corps
- Portfolio management up to $250M across three continents
- Program design, monitoring and evaluation, operational systems
- Sectors from economic growth and access to finance to agriculture, renewable energy, workforce development, disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, tourism, and artisanal production
- Country experience spanning North Africa, West Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Eurasia
Not because your small business is the same as a USAID program in sub-Saharan Africa, but because the fundamentals are: understand the context, build systems that fit, keep adjusting, and never assume the plan survives contact with reality unchanged.
Selected credentials
Exit planning
CEPA candidate (Certified Exit Planning Advisor), sitting July 2026
AI-fluent operator
I run my own practice, this site, and a few side projects on AI agents daily. I know where these tools help, and where they'll quietly get it wrong.
Business analysis
IBM Business Analyst · IBM Generative AI for Business Analysis
Project management
COR/AOR II Federal Project Manager (since 2008) · IBM AI Product Manager · Google Project Management
Technology & languages
IBM AI Developer · English (native) · French (FSI 3/3) · Hausa (FSI 2+/1)
Sectors I've supported
The record behind the rigor
Seventeen years of field leadership, translated into actionable systems. A sample of the portfolio.
Agriculture & food security
Managed export-oriented agriculture programs that doubled exports from $115M to $278M, building resilient, high-value value chains and sustaining rural employment.
Renewable energy
Directed clean-energy programs to modernize grids and expand solar and wind: 560 MW of new production and the first U.S. DFC investments in Georgian renewables.
Microenterprise development
Guided post-conflict economic-recovery programs, mobilizing $45M in new finance for 3,400+ enterprises and creating thousands of jobs for women and youth entrepreneurs.
Workforce development
Led industry-driven training that connected employers with skilled workers, a workforce initiative that trained 3,600 Georgians and aligned education with market demand.
Public-private partnerships
Pioneered whole-of-mission partnerships linking business investment with development goals, integrating private-sector models across $113M in new programs.
Climate resilience
Redesigned economic-growth initiatives to embed climate adaptation and green finance, aligning national strategies with global climate commitments.
Outside the work
Three cats, a forest, and the light through the leaves
The cabin · Hoodsport
I live in Hoodsport, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. My office looks out at trees, and on a good day all I hear is the wind in them. I share the cabin with three cats who have strong opinions about my meeting schedule.
When I'm not working, I'm hiking, designing logic puzzles, solving immersive puzzle boxes, or trying to convince myself that the garden will survive the deer this year.
A few side projects
- Rogue Bureaucrat. You can take the woman out of diplomacy, but not diplomacy out of the woman. Thoughts on the current state of (un)civilization. roguebureaucrat.com →
- Vera Wren. A persona exploring the intersection of puzzles, patterns, and cognitive theory. vera-wren.github.io →
- Basil Brightmoor. Diving through the business-productivity world with fascination, cynicism, and humor. basil-brightmoor.github.io →
- PuzzleLore. Narrative logic puzzles, the kind you solve from the story itself. Made for the joy of a good deduction. puzzlelore.fun →
Let's work together
Now that you know my story, let's build the next chapter in yours. Book a free thirty-minute call. No pitch, no obligation. We'll talk about your business and figure out if there's a good fit for my practice.