Most consulting engagements end with a deliverable nobody reads. The plan goes into a SharePoint folder, the engagement closes, and six months later the same problem is still sitting on the same desk. This is what I do instead.
Thirty minutes on a Zoom or a phone line. No deck, no pitch, no follow-up proposal sent at 11:47 p.m. the same night. You walk me through what is on your desk — the data you can’t see, the process that won’t scale, the AI question you’re tired of being sold to about. I ask a few questions. By the end of the call we both know whether there is real work to do.
If there is real work to do, we scope a fixed-fee discovery engagement — typically two to four weeks. I sit with your team, your data, and the systems already in place. I read the integrations, talk to the people closest to the problem, and build a small working prototype where it helps clarify the answer. You walk away with a written plan you could hand to any contractor (including me) and a clear recommendation — sometimes including “do not build this.”
The first conversation is free. There is no commitment beyond your half-hour.
A discovery engagement runs between $8,000 and $25,000, depending on scope and depth. Fixed fee, written before we start, paid half on signing and half on delivery. No hourly billing, no change orders unless you ask for one in writing.
Build engagements (if you and I both decide they make sense after discovery) are quoted separately — also fixed fee, also written up-front. You will know exactly what something costs before anyone touches a keyboard.
I would rather lose a deal than surprise you on an invoice.