These answers cover the questions owners raise most often before signing a consulting engagement. If yours is not here, text (604) 632-4959 or email Ali@Sedighi.ca, and we will answer it directly. The services overview explains what each engagement delivers, and the pricing page sets out every fee range.
Frequently asked questions
What does a consulting engagement cost?
Hourly consulting is $175 to $350 per hour, projects are $3,500 to $25,000, and monthly retainers are $2,500 to $12,000, in Canadian dollars plus GST/HST based on your province (GST and QST in Quebec). The Growth Partner Program is custom and performance-based. The initial 30-minute consultation is free.
Do we sign a long-term contract?
No lock-in. A project ends when its deliverables are accepted. If you choose a retainer, its term and notice period are written into your proposal before you sign, so there are no surprises later.
How long before we see anything useful?
A diagnostic typically takes three to five weeks after we receive your documents, and its findings session gives you a ranked, costed priority list. Some quick wins, such as tightening collections, can show in cash within the first 90 days.
We hired a consultant before and got a binder nobody used. How is this different?
Every recommendation we make comes with an owner, a measure, a starting value and a date, and there are never more than a handful at once. If your team lacks time to carry them, implementation support exists precisely to keep the plan moving.
Who owns the reports, spreadsheets and models?
You do. Forecasts, margin models, scorecards, process maps and role outlines are delivered in editable formats and remain yours whether or not the engagement continues.
Can you promise a result?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. We commit to the scope and deliverables in the proposal and to honest measurement against your baseline, not to a revenue figure.
How is progress reported?
On a retainer, you receive a short written update each month against the milestone tracker, plus a steering meeting. On a project, reporting follows the milestones in the proposal.
How do you handle confidential information?
We see financial statements, payroll summaries and customer data, so confidentiality terms are set out in writing in your proposal before any documents are shared. Send only what the agreed scope requires.
Do meetings happen online or in person?
Both. Working sessions are held online by video call or in person, and day-to-day contact happens by phone, text and email. Choose whatever suits your team.
Will you work with our accountant and lawyer?
Yes, and we encourage it. Your CPA confirms tax timing and payroll burden in our models, and your lawyer reviews anything that touches contracts or employment agreements. We provide business consulting, not accounting, tax or legal advice.
Is our company too small for a consulting firm?
Usually not, if you have trading history and at least a few employees. For a very small business, a few hours of hourly consulting or a narrow project, such as a 13-week cash forecast, often makes more sense than a full diagnostic.
Can the engagement be conducted in French?
Please raise it in the first conversation, and we will tell you plainly what we can offer for your team before any proposal is written.
Do you work outside British Columbia?
Yes. We are headquartered in Vancouver but work with owners in all ten provinces and three territories, with tax applied at your province's rate.
Money and contracts
Price and commitment are the first concerns for most owners, and both are settled in writing before work begins.
Fees follow four models: hourly, project, retainer and the custom Growth Partner Program. Projects are paid at milestones tied to deliverables. There is no lock-in, and any retainer notice period is written into your proposal. We do not discount; if a budget is tight, we narrow the scope instead. Anything else you would want confirmed about terms, such as how expenses for in-person sessions are handled, is stated in your proposal.
Time, effort and what your team does
An engagement asks something of your people, and it is better to know that up front.
For a diagnostic, expect two to four hours of interviews across the owner and key staff, plus time to gather three years of statements, an ageing report and sales or job data. Improvement projects ask more of whoever runs the process being changed, because they help redesign it. A useful rule: if no one on your team can give a project two to three hours a week, plan for implementation support from the start.
Deliverables, measurement and honesty
You keep every deliverable, and progress is measured against numbers recorded at the start.
At the outset we record starting values for the measures that matter to your plan, such as days sales outstanding, margin by service line, rework rate or owner hours per week. Those are the figures we report against. The owner KPI scorecard guide shows how such measures are defined, and the results page explains how we treat published figures from our HVAC work.
Where our advice stops
We are business consultants, and we say clearly when a question belongs elsewhere.
That means no bookkeeping, tax filings, legal drafting, employment-law advice, lending, securities or engineering work. For a business sale, valuation or succession, the group's exit brand, BizSell.ca, works alongside Sedighi.ca. Everything else, from cash forecasting to role design, is described on the about page.
How to judge whether an engagement worked
Owners should judge an engagement by its numbers 90 days after the plan starts, not on how persuasive the report sounded.
Before you sign, ask three questions of any consultant, including us:
- Which measures will move, and from what starting value? If the answer is vague, the engagement will be hard to judge.
- Who on my team owns each action? A plan whose every task sits with the consultant stops the day the invoices do.
- What will you tell me not to do? A useful strategy names the options you are dropping, so your people stop spreading effort.
Here is a simple check you can run yourself. Suppose the diagnostic records receivables at 61 days on $1.8 million of credit sales. Each day of collection holds about $4,930 ($1,800,000 ÷ 365). If the plan targets 45 days and you reach 48 by day 90, roughly $64,000 has moved from customers' accounts into yours ($4,930 × 13 days). That figure, not the thickness of the report, tells you whether the work paid for itself. The 13-week cash flow guide shows how to track that release week by week.
Choosing between a full engagement and a narrow one
A full engagement makes sense when the problems are connected; a narrow project makes sense when one problem clearly dominates. If margin, cash and owner workload are all strained, they usually share a cause, and the business diagnostic finds it. If only one number is wrong, such as a single service line losing money, scope that piece alone and keep the fee proportionate.
Still deciding?
The initial 30-minute consultation is free, by phone, video call or in person. A short text to (604) 632-4959 with your sector and main issue is enough to start. See contact for what to include.