000-000-0000 · closed Sundays
The whole list
Twelve engagements across seven practice areas, plus a retainer and a first meeting that costs nothing. Days are chargeable days. Weeks are how long it takes on the calendar, which is always longer, because nobody sensible buys five consecutive days of a consultant.
Every fee here is a rate times a number of days. Every fee on this site is a day rate multiplied by a number of days, and both numbers are printed. A partner day is $2,200, a blended day is $1,800 and a consultant day is $1,400. There is nothing else: no retainer to be quoted later, no percentage, no success fee.
| Engagement | Days | Rate | Over | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy and planning | ||||
| Direction review | six to ten days | partner day | four to six weeks | $13,200 to $22,000 |
| The one-page plan | four to six days | partner day | three to four weeks | $8,800 to $13,200 |
| Operations and process | ||||
| Follow the job | eight to fourteen days | blended day | five to eight weeks | $14,400 to $25,200 |
| Capacity and scheduling | six to ten days | blended day | four to six weeks | $10,800 to $18,000 |
| People and hiring | ||||
| Roles, pay and who decides | five to nine days | partner day | four to six weeks | $11,000 to $19,800 |
| A hiring run, start to finish | six to twelve days | blended day | six to ten weeks | $10,800 to $21,600 |
| Sales and growth | ||||
| Where the revenue comes from | six to ten days | blended day | four to six weeks | $10,800 to $18,000 |
| Pricing and quoting | five to eight days | partner day | four to six weeks | $11,000 to $17,600 |
| Systems and software | ||||
| Choosing and installing a system | eight to sixteen days | blended day | eight to fourteen weeks | $14,400 to $28,800 |
| A monthly reporting pack | four to eight days | consultant day | four to eight weeks | $5,600 to $11,200 |
| Numbers and margin | ||||
| Where the margin actually is | five to nine days | partner day | four to six weeks | $11,000 to $19,800 |
| Owner succession | ||||
| A succession plan and a handover | ten to twenty days | partner day | twelve to twenty-four weeks | $22,000 to $44,000 |
The three rates
$2,200a day
A day where a partner is the one in the room asking the questions. Every strategy, pricing, margin and succession engagement is priced at this.
$1,800a day
What a two-person day actually costs — a partner and a consultant. Most engagements here are two people, so most of them are priced at this.
$1,400a day
A day of the work that follows the questions: the counting, the drafting, and sitting with somebody while they do a thing for the first time.
Practice areas
from $8,800
Where the business is going, what it will stop doing to get there, and which three things happen first.
We are busy and we are not getting anywhere.
from $10,800
How the work actually moves through the business, where it stops, and what it costs every time it has to be done twice.
Everything takes longer than it should and I do not know why.
from $10,800
Who does what, who decides what, what each role is paid, and how the next person is hired without it taking six months.
I cannot take a week off without the place falling over.
from $10,800
Where the revenue comes from, how concentrated it is, what happens to an enquiry, and what you charge for the work.
One customer is nearly half our revenue and I have stopped sleeping.
from $5,600
What the business needs a system to do, which one to buy, and how to get it in without stopping work for a month.
We bought something and nobody uses it.
from $11,000
Which work makes money, which work does not, and what the monthly numbers would have to show for you to know without asking.
We had our best year and there is no money in the account.
from $22,000
What has to be true before the business can run without you, and how long that actually takes.
I want to be out in four years and I have no idea how.
The other two shapes
Two days a month, bought three months at a time. Usually one day on your premises and one day of work that follows it, and it exists for businesses that do not need a project and do need somebody to think with on a schedule.
What the retainer works out at
It is cheaper because it buys us certainty about next month, not because it is a reward for buying more. That is the whole of the reasoning and it is the reason the arithmetic is printed rather than described.
Ninety minutes, no fee, and no obligation on either side. It is not a sales meeting with a different name: at the end of it you get our actual opinion on whether this is worth doing, and about one in four of them ends with us saying it is not.
Nothing, is the short answer, and it is worth saying at length because in this trade it usually is not true. There is no administration percentage, no mark-up on anything bought for you, no success fee, no percentage of a saving, no retainer quietly attached to a project and no charge for the proposal, the first meeting or the call ninety days afterwards. Travel, materials and anything bought on your behalf are at cost, itemised, and nothing else.
Either side can stop at the end of any week. Either side can stop at the end of any week. You pay for the days worked, you keep everything written so far, and there is no notice period and no termination fee.
We do not prepare or file your accounts. We read the financial statements your accountant prepares and work out what they say about the business. We do not prepare, compile, review or audit accounts, and we do not prepare or file a tax return — that is a licensed profession and a different one.
No investment advice and no valuations. We do not give investment advice, we do not put a value on a business and we have nothing to do with securities. Work that makes a business more valuable is not the same thing as an opinion of what it is worth, and we do the first.
$2,200 a partner day · ninety minutes free · about one in four we talk out of it
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.