Independent advisory
We work with owner-run businesses on how the work moves and how the product gets sold. Every engagement has a fixed scope, a fixed fee, and ends in a written document rather than a meeting you half remember.
The rule that costs us money
No referral fees.
We accept no commission from any vendor we recommend. It removes a revenue line and it is the only thing that makes vendor advice worth buying.
Engagements
The proposal states the fee and the dates. If the work needs more than we scoped, that is our estimating error, not a change order.
Format
Video sessions with written follow-ups, and deliverables that are documents. Time zones are agreed in the proposal.
Currency
Figures on this site are typical starting points in United States dollars for the scope described.
Services
Each engagement answers one question. If your problem is two questions, it is two engagements, and we will tell you which to do first.
A structured read of how work actually moves through your business: where it queues, where it is re-done, and which handoffs lose information. Delivered as a written findings document with a ranked list of changes, each with the effort it costs.
For a business that has a product and no repeatable way to sell it. We work through positioning, the buyer, the channels worth testing, and what the first ninety days of evidence should look like before you commit budget.
The unglamorous work of writing down how things are done, so the business stops depending on who happens to be available. Produces procedures your team can follow without you in the room.
An independent read on a software or supplier decision. We do not take referral fees from any vendor, which is the only thing that makes this service worth buying.
Ongoing availability for owners who need a second opinion regularly but do not need a full-time hire. A fixed block of hours each month, used for whatever is in front of you.
How we work
Principles that cost nothing to hold are not principles. These each remove something from the business.
Every engagement ends in a document you keep. Advice that exists only in a meeting cannot be checked later, and cannot be handed to someone new.
We do not accept commission from any software vendor or supplier we recommend. It costs us a revenue line and it is what makes the vendor advice worth anything.
Every recommendation says what it assumes. When the assumption is wrong you should be able to see it immediately instead of discovering it in the results.
The proposal states the fee and the dates. If the work turns out to need more than we scoped, that is our estimating error, not a change order.
The process
Forty-five minutes, at no charge, to establish whether the problem you have is one we can actually help with. We say no in this call when the answer is no — it is cheaper for both sides than discovering it in week three.
A document stating the question we are answering, what you receive, the dates, and the fee. Nothing starts on a verbal agreement, and the fee in the proposal is the fee you pay.
We look at what is actually happening before recommending anything: the records you already keep, a handful of interviews, and where necessary sitting with the work as it runs.
A written document. Findings are separated from recommendations, and every recommendation carries the effort it costs and the assumption it rests on, so you can disagree with the reasoning rather than the conclusion.
A working session with the people who have to live with the change. Documents nobody can operate are not a deliverable.
Next step
If what you need is outside what we do, we say so in that call rather than writing a proposal for it.