How we price engagements.
Most boutique advisory firms hide their fee structure. We don't. The way an engagement is priced says as much about how a firm operates as the work itself — and the right buyer wants to understand both before the SOW.
Fixed weekly fee, scoped window.
Engagements are scoped against a defined window with a fixed weekly fee for each week we are on the project. Predictable for the buyer, accountable for us.
Conditional criteria in every SOW.
Every engagement carries written acceptance criteria. Quantitative where the work admits it, with named qualitative factors where it doesn't. We commit to the bar before we start.
The first week is free.
Discovery starts at zero risk. The first week of any Tier 01 engagement carries no fee. If the work warrants going further, weeks 2 onward are scoped and priced. If it doesn't, both sides walk away clean.
Senior judgment on completion.
Specialization carries discretion. When acceptance criteria require professional judgment, that judgment is ours. Earned through upfront SOW collaboration, transparent throughout delivery, and documented at close.
Most engagements fall into one of three tiers, sized by duration and senior practitioner footprint. Weekly fee bands are honest ranges — exact pricing within the band is shaped by complexity, sector, and the specific accountability we are taking on. The tiers are illustrative, not prescriptive. Real engagements live where the problem requires them to.
Discovery & Strategic Diagnostic.
// What's included
- Free first week: focused diagnostic of a specific program, function, or transaction
- Stakeholder interviews and document review
- Written assessment with prioritized recommendations
- Draft SOW for follow-on delivery (if applicable)
// When this fits
The buyer suspects something is off and wants a senior practitioner's read before committing to a full engagement. The first week is on us. If the diagnostic is sufficient and ends there, both sides walk away clean. If it warrants going further, weeks 2 and 3 carry a fixed fee, and any follow-on engagement is scoped from a foundation we have built together. Diagnostic engagements often end at week 1, and we will tell you when that is the right call.
Focused Practice Engagement.
// What's included
- Defined scope within a single practice area
- Working operating model, IMO standup, diligence package, or PMO redesign
- Weekly executive cadence with documented decisions
- Written close-out with operating model, reporting, and handoff
// When this fits
Most engagements live here. A program is launching, stalling, or integrating — and the work requires senior delivery on a focused scope with a clear acceptance bar. The fee band reflects the complexity of the engagement, the seniority of the named practitioner, and the duration window.
Multi-Practice Transformation.
// What's included
- Scope spanning multiple practice areas (Strategic Execution + Tech Risk + ERM, etc.)
- Embedded delivery with multi-workstream coordination
- Standing executive sponsor cadence and board-grade reporting
- Phased SOW structure with stage-gate reviews and named workstream leads
// When this fits
A large program where the operating model itself is the deliverable — multi-year transformations, complex M&A integrations, PE platform engagements. These engagements are scoped in phases. Each phase is a distinct SOW with its own acceptance criteria and duration window.
Senior Counsel Retainer.
// What's included
- Standing access to a named senior practitioner
- Defined response-time commitment (typically same-business-day)
- Monthly executive call + ad-hoc strategic counsel
- Carve-out provisions for specific deliverables, separately scoped
// When this fits
An executive sponsor wants senior counsel on standing call without committing to embedded delivery. Common for boards, audit committees, CISOs, or PE operating partners who want a sounding board across a portfolio.
Our pricing sits in the senior-led boutique band. Below is an honest comparison against the segments of the consulting market that compete for similar work. Bands shown are public market data, blended across firms.
| Segment | Typical weekly band | Pricing model | Practitioner profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 strategy firms (MBB) | $200K–$500K+/wk | Fixed-fee or T&M | Pyramid: partner + multi-tiered team |
| Big Four advisory | $120K–$300K/wk | Fixed-fee or T&M | Pyramid: partner + manager + analyst pool |
| National-tier boutiques | $60K–$180K/wk | T&M with caps, or fixed-fee | Senior-led with junior support |
| PROJECTpro | $18K–$50K+/wk | Fixed weekly fee, scoped window | Senior practitioners only, no leverage |
| Independent senior consultants | $15K–$40K/wk | Hourly, daily, or fixed-fee | Single practitioner, no firm overhead |
The position is deliberate. Our buyers don't want the staffing leverage of a Big Four engagement, and they need more than a single independent can deliver on a multi-stakeholder program. The senior-only model means a higher per-practitioner cost and a lower total engagement cost — because the work gets done by people who have done it before, without the friction of training a team while delivering.
Acceptance criteria, written upfront.
Every SOW carries conditional acceptance criteria — the bar that defines when the engagement is complete. Where the work admits quantitative measures (financial tracking implemented, IMO standing up, integration milestones tracked, governance cadence operating), those measures are in writing.
Where the work requires professional judgment — when a turnaround has been "stabilized," when a transformation is "ready for handoff," when a diligence is "sufficient for the IC" — those qualitative factors are also named, with the conditions under which we deem them met. Specialization means we are the ones making that call. The upfront SOW collaboration is what earns the right to make it.
The same SOW also defines what would extend the engagement window — material scope changes, dependencies that didn't surface in discovery, executive decisions that shift the bar. Extensions are priced at the same weekly fee, scoped against a new window, and require written agreement before the work continues.
From first conversation to engagement close, the contracting process is consistent across tiers. The level of detail in each step scales with engagement size, but the sequence does not.
Initial conversation.
Free. Typically 45–60 minutes. We talk about the situation, the constraint, the success measure, and the timing. By the end, both sides know whether a real engagement is plausible.
Discovery (first week free, weeks 2+ paid).
For larger engagements, a short discovery period produces a written diagnostic and a fully scoped SOW for the follow-on engagement. The first week is free. If the work warrants weeks 2 or 3, those carry the Tier 01 weekly fee. For smaller engagements, discovery is folded into the engagement itself.
SOW collaboration.
The SOW is shaped jointly. Scope, named practitioners, weekly fee, duration window, acceptance criteria, scope-change triggers, and pass-through provisions are all written before signature. We expect this step to take real time, and we treat it as part of the engagement quality.
Delivery.
Weekly fee billed monthly in arrears (Net-30 standard). Weekly executive cadence built into every SOW. Status, decisions, risk, and budget tracked transparently. No surprise invoices.
Close-out.
Written close-out documenting acceptance against the criteria, the operating model handed over, and an honest reflection on what worked, what didn't, and what we'd do differently. The reflection is yours. It's also how the framework keeps getting better.
The weekly fee covers senior practitioner time, all firm overhead, all routine engagement materials, and the working operating model we deliver. The following are billed at cost as pass-through expenses, with prior approval, and itemized on each invoice:
- Travel and lodging when on-site presence is required (booked at reasonable business-class standard, no markup)
- Third-party tooling licensed specifically for the engagement (where the buyer requires named platforms)
- Specialist subcontractors retained for narrowly defined scope outside our practice areas (with prior written approval and clear deliverable accountability)
No technology fees. No "research surcharge." No partner-time-vs-team-time billing splits. No timesheets to audit. The weekly fee is the weekly fee.
The weekly fee bands above are honest. They will hold against the work we do and the market we operate in. Specific pricing for a specific engagement always comes after discovery, because a real number requires a real understanding of the scope, the timeline, the named practitioners, and the accountability we are taking on. Anything published here is a starting point for a conversation — never a substitute for the SOW itself, where the actual commitments live.