Startup & Early Stage
Getting the foundation wrong at the start is the most expensive mistake you can make.
Most business problems aren't discovered at year five — they're built in at year one. Wrong pricing, unclear offer, no client identity, no structure. The habits that form in the first twelve months are the ones that cost the most to undo later. Getting them right from the start is the point.
The team problem
If you're building a team, build the consultation into it from day one.
The Babies Model in hairdressing. The copycat clinic in aesthetics. The trades business where every quote is a negotiation. These don't start as broken businesses — they start as new ones where nobody built the right habits in early enough.
A team that learns to have the value conversation properly from the first day performs differently at year three than one that learned the wrong way and had to be retrained. The cost of building it right is significantly lower than the cost of fixing it later.
The Consultation Mastery Program delivered at the start of a business — before the habits form, before the team normalises the wrong approach — is a different investment from the same program delivered to a team that's been doing it wrong for two years.
The Consultation Mastery Program fixes this.
Delivered in-house to your team, in your environment, in the language of your industry. All in-house engagements are private — we don't publish client names.
Learn more about Consultation Mastery →
The owner problem
Most startups fail because the foundation was never built — not because the idea was wrong.
The offer was never clear enough for a specific person to say yes without hesitation. The pricing was set by guessing what competitors charge rather than what the work actually costs and what the market will pay. The client was never identified precisely enough to market to them directly.
These aren't problems that fix themselves with more time or more revenue. They compound. A business that spends its first two years with a vague offer and wrong pricing is two years behind on the clarity it needs to grow.
The 4-Week Jumpstart is designed specifically for this — identity, offer, pricing, path to market, and a 60-day action plan to move on immediately. Four weeks of getting this right saves years of correcting it later.
The people delivering this work have operated inside the same industries. Not as consultants — as owners, managers, and practitioners.
Meet the team →Often both
The team problem and the owner foundation problem usually exist in the same business simultaneously. The Consultation Mastery Program gets us inside. What we observe there — particularly around pricing — often points directly to the owner work that needs to happen. Many businesses run both programs. The business improves at both layers at the same time.
Who we work with in this industry
Common questions
What should I do first when starting a service business?
Before marketing, hiring, or building anything: define exactly who the business is for, what specific problem it solves, and what the offer looks like. Then build pricing from cost floor up — not from what competitors charge. Foundation before anything else. A business that starts with a vague offer and wrong pricing spends years correcting problems that could have been avoided in the first month.
Why do most small businesses fail in the first two years?
The most common cause isn't lack of effort or bad ideas — it's foundation problems built in at the start. Unclear offer (too broad, not specific enough to market to anyone), wrong pricing (based on competitors rather than actual cost), no client identity (who exactly is this for), and owner dependency baked into the model from day one. These compound, not resolve, with time.
How do I price my services when I'm just starting out?
Start with cost floor: what does it cost you to deliver this service — time, materials, overheads, your own wage. Then establish what the market will pay for it at the level of quality you deliver. Competitor pricing is a reference point only — not a model. Pricing below your cost floor because you're new creates a habit that's extremely difficult to correct later.
Is the 4-Week Jumpstart suitable for a brand new business?
Yes — the Jumpstart is specifically suited to early stage businesses because it addresses foundation: identity, offer architecture, pricing, and a 60-day action plan. For a business still in its first year, getting these right early is far cheaper than correcting them at year three when they've calcified into the way the business operates.