Questions
The things people ask before they book.
Answered here rather than held back for the call. If a question you have is not on this page, email us and we will add it.
Money
- What does this cost?
- Most firms work with us on a monthly retainer between $1,500 and $10,000. Where you land depends on how much is in flight rather than on hours logged, and we agree the band up front. There is a full breakdown on the How we engage page.
- Is there a minimum term?
- No. The retainer is month to month, with no notice period beyond the month you are in. A retainer that has to be escaped is one that stopped earning its place, and we would rather find that out than have you locked in.
- Do you bill hourly for anything?
- No. No hourly billing, no change orders, and no renegotiation every time the work turns out to be slightly different from what anyone expected — which it always does. That predictability is most of why firms prefer the retainer.
- What is not included?
- Third-party licence and hosting costs, which are yours in your own name. We are also not a helpdesk and should not be your first line for password resets, and we are not filling a seat on your team.
How it works
- What happens in the first month?
- Usually mapping rather than building. We look at how the firm actually runs — including the spreadsheet somebody keeps privately because the real system cannot do it — and come back with what is worth fixing, ranked and costed. That includes what is not worth fixing, and any system you are paying for that should simply be switched off.
- How long before we see anything working?
- Weeks, not at the end. We ship in production increments, because a programme that delivers nothing for six months and then asks for trust has not earned any.
- Will this disrupt the firm while it happens?
- New systems run alongside the ones they replace until the numbers agree. Nothing is cut over on a promise, and anything switched off can be switched back on. The cutover period is real work and we budget for it — a proposal that does not is not a serious proposal.
- Who actually does the work?
- We do. The people who map the operation are the people who write the code. It is not a specification handed to an offshore team.
Software and ownership
- Who owns the software you build?
- You do. Repository, hosting, database and credentials, in your name from the first day. If we stop working together nothing switches off and nothing has to be handed over, because it was never ours to hand.
- What do you build with?
- TypeScript end to end. React and Next.js on the front, Postgres on the back — usually Supabase for auth, storage and row-level security, deployed on Vercel. That stack is a choice rather than a religion: it is boring, widely known and cheap to hire for, which matters because you keep this code after we are finished.
- Can you work with the systems we already have?
- Yes, and usually that is the higher-return work. Practice management, accounting, telephony, e-signature, payment gateways, calendars and Slack are all things we integrate with rather than replace. Most firms do not need new software so much as they need their existing software to agree.
- What happens to our client data?
- We work inside your systems under accounts you create and can revoke. We do not take copies of client data onto our own infrastructure and we do not move it to a third party for analysis. When an engagement ends we send you the list of what to revoke rather than waiting to be asked.
Fit
- Are we too small for this?
- Under about ten people, usually yes. The friction is real but the arithmetic rarely works, and you are better served by configuring what you already own. Between ten and 250 is where this pays for itself.
- We are not a law firm. Does that matter?
- No. Law is where most of our work has been, but the condition we solve for is shared across professional services — expensive people spending a meaningful part of the week on work that does not require their judgement. Accounting, consulting, financial advisory, engineering, architecture and insurance all qualify.
- We want AI. Where do you start?
- With the question of which specific task is expensive, repetitive, and tolerant of a draft that a person then approves. That review step is what makes a model safe to use at all. If a task cannot be graded, it cannot be improved, and we will tell you not to automate it.
- What if you look at our firm and there is nothing worth doing?
- Then we say so, on the call rather than in a proposal. Some of what an assessment finds is that a system you are paying for should be switched off and nothing needs building. That is a good result, and it is cheaper for both of us than an engagement that does not pay for itself.
Still wondering
Ask us the one that isn't here.
Thirty minutes, an honest read on where your friction actually is, and a recommendation. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you on the call.
Book an Operational Strategy Call