Mechanical contracting · an illustrative composite
The contractor who wanted four years and needed six
Nineteen people, family owned since the eighties
Every case study on this site is a composite. Every case study on this site is an illustrative composite assembled from several businesses. No client is named, no logo appears, and there is not a single testimonial on this website attributed to a person — a fabricated one would be the one genuinely dishonest thing a consulting site can do.
What was happening
The owner wanted to be out in four years. Every supplier relationship, every price and the entire estimating method were in his head, and two of his three long-serving staff were within a decade of retiring themselves.
What we did
A day shadowing him and counting interruptions, then a written plan with dates, then eighteen months of returning to see what had actually moved. Sixteen days over two years.
What is different now
Estimating is now written down and done by two other people. The plan says six years rather than four, which is the finding the owner paid for and the one he did not want.
What this cost, and how that number was arrived at
The engagement was a a succession plan and a handover: ten to twenty days at the partner day, over twelve to twenty-four weeks, ending in a written plan with dates on it, and a list of what has actually moved off you, kept current as it moves.
How that fee is arrived at
- Partner day× ten$22,000
- The same rate, at the long end× twenty$44,000
- Travel, materials and anything bought for youat cost—
- What you would be quotedten to twenty days$22,000 to $44,000
The day rate is $2,200 and it is on the fees page. That multiplication is the whole of the pricing model: there is no retainer hidden inside it, no percentage of anything and no success fee.
What is deliberately not on this page
- A company name. This is several businesses combined and none of them would be recognisable in it.
- A percentage. There is no version of their year without us in it to compare against, so any figure would be an estimate presented as a measurement.
- A quotation from anybody. There is not one testimonial attributed to a person anywhere on this website.
- A claim that we caused what happened next. What can honestly be said is what was decided, what was built, and what is now measured that was not measured before.
The practice area
Owner succession
What has to be true before the business can run without you, and how long that actually takes.
$2,200 a partner day · ninety minutes free · about one in four we talk out of it
Start with the assessment, or just telephone
The assessment takes about four minutes and gives you a written summary of what your answers suggest and which engagement addresses each thing. It is indicative and not professional advice, and it is a better opening than a blank contact form. If you would rather skip it, the telephone works and the first meeting is ninety minutes and free.