Service
Business Growth Consulting
Flat revenue with rising effort is not a strategy problem.
Free call first, then the $1,500 Bottleneck Diagnostic
Key takeaways
- Flat revenue with rising effort is not a strategy problem. Something specific is in the way, and only one thing binds at a time.
- It is usually one of three: capacity, sales organization, or how long you take to decide. Telling them apart takes evidence.
- A consultant who comes back with ten recommendations has not found the problem. They have described the company.
- The most common constraint is the owner's own decision speed, because it is the only one that implicates the person paying.
Flat revenue with rising effort is not a strategy problem. Something specific is in the way, and a company only ever has one thing binding it at a time. A business growth consultant who returns with ten recommendations has not found it. They have described the company. The value here is the subtraction.
What this covers
- One real constraint found and named, not a ten-point improvement list
- 90-day advisory with a defined end state and a written stop rule
- Capacity, sales organization and owner decision speed all examined before a cause is declared
- Weekly working sessions during the 90 days, not a report at the end
- The constraint measured before and after, using a number you already track
- The sequence written down so your team can run the second and third moves without us
The three usual suspects
- In owner-led companies between $500k and $50M, the constraint is nearly always one of three things.
- Capacity. The company cannot deliver more than it does now without quality slipping, so more sales just makes a longer queue. Sales organization. Demand exists and is being handled by an owner who sells well, a process nobody wrote down, and a pipeline that lives in someone's head. Decision speed. Both of the above are fixable, and the fixes have been sitting in a proposal folder for five months because every one of them needs you to decide something you cannot undo.
- The third is the most common and the least diagnosed, because it is the only one that points at the person paying.
How it works
The Bottleneck Diagnostic comes first. Interviews inside the company, a read of the numbers you already keep, and a written finding naming one constraint with the evidence behind it.
If a growth engagement follows, it runs 90 days. Weekly working sessions rather than a final report, because the report is the least useful thing consulting produces. A number you already track is chosen at the start, recorded, and recorded again at day 90.
The stop rule
Written into the scope: the engagement ends when the constraint moves. Not when a retainer lapses, and not when a new constraint appears to justify continuing. A new one always appears, because removing the first promotes the next in line. Whether that one is worth a second engagement is a decision made after a gap, with the first result visible.
Who should not buy this
Companies below $500k, where the constraint is usually demand and the right spend is sales, not advice. Owners who want their answer confirmed rather than found. We will say so on the free call.
Alternatives
A business consultant for small business when the question is broader than growth. Organizational development consulting when the problem is how the company runs internally. CEO coaching when the diagnostic lands on decision speed, which it often does.
| First step | A free 30-minute call |
|---|---|
| Then | The Bottleneck Diagnostic, $1,500, fixed |
| After that | Scoped and priced from what the diagnostic finds |
| Delivery | Virtual, or on site by arrangement |
| Built for | Owner-led companies, $500k–$50M revenue |
| If we are not the fix | We say so on the call |
Next step
How to start
Book a free call. We talk for about thirty minutes about your company and what is stuck. If it sounds like something we can help with, the next step is the Bottleneck Diagnostic, a fixed piece of work at $1,500 that tells you in writing what is actually holding the company back. Any work after that is scoped and priced from what the diagnostic finds. If it turns out we are not the right fit, we will tell you on the call.
Locations
Business Growth Consulting by city
Start with a free call
Thirty minutes about your company and what is stuck. If we can help, the next step is the $1,500 Bottleneck Diagnostic. If we cannot, we will say so.