Engagement & fees
Every engagement is scoped and priced in writing before any work begins. Nobody has ever received an invoice from us they were not expecting, and the structure below is designed so that nobody ever will.
01 · The three models
Most clients begin with a diagnostic and move to a retainer. Some take a diagnostic and act on it themselves, which is a perfectly good outcome and one we price for rather than discourage.
Fixed fee · two weeks
A structured review of your financial position, market standing and operating model, ending in written findings and a prioritised list of what to fix first.
Suits: a first engagement, or a board that needs an independent read
Monthly · one month’s notice
A continuing relationship across the disciplines you need, with a named senior adviser, a fixed monthly scope and reporting against measures agreed at the outset.
Suits: businesses without a full-time finance or strategy function
Fixed price · written scope
A single, bounded piece of work with a defined deliverable and end date: a funding pack, a positioning rebuild, a cost programme, an exit readiness review.
Suits: a specific event such as funding, sale, launch or restructure
02 · How fees are set
We do not publish a rate card, because a fee quoted before we understand the work is either a guess or a starting position for a negotiation. What we can publish is exactly how the number is arrived at.
If the scope needs to change
Occasionally work uncovers something material that was not visible when the scope was written: a reporting problem larger than anyone realised, or a finding that changes what the engagement should be about. When that happens we stop, explain what we have found, and put a revised scope and price in front of you as a decision. You may accept it, decline it, or end the engagement having paid only for what was delivered. What does not happen is an invoice that quietly grew.
03 · From enquiry to start
Usually two to three weeks, and none of it is a sales process. There are four steps and you can stop after any of them at no cost.
By email or the contact form, in as much or as little detail as you like. We reply within one working day.
Forty-five minutes with a senior adviser, free, confidential, no obligation. Followed by a short written summary of what we heard and what we would suggest.
Scope, deliverables, timeline, the named people and the price. Prepared at our cost, typically within a week. If it is not right, say so and we will revise it or leave it there.
On a date agreed in the proposal. Diagnostics usually start two to three weeks after sign-off, depending on the availability of your records and the people we need to speak to.
04 · Ending an engagement
Worth reading before you get in. A firm’s exit terms tell you more about how it intends to behave than any part of its proposal does.
Retainers end on a month’s notice in writing, at any time, without a reason and without a penalty. There is no minimum term and no automatic annual renewal to catch you out.
If a project needs to stop partway, you pay for what has been delivered and receive it. We do not hold work product against an unpaid balance for work that was not done.
Models, documents and processes created for you belong to you, in editable form, with the working documented. Nothing is delivered in a format only we can operate.
If we think a retainer has stopped earning its fee, we will say so at the quarterly review rather than let it continue. That conversation has happened, and it is the one that makes the rest of this page credible.
05 · Start the conversation
An introductory consultation is a straightforward conversation about your position and your priorities. No charge, no proposal deck, and no obligation to go further.