What's the price to write a business plan with the help of a consultant?
I recently open a consulting company in Hong Kong focusing on business planning, performance management and management training.
My question is related to business planning. I help entrepreneurs to write their business plan by providing them with a structure and a one on one coaching.
It is easy to find the price for books, templates and all sorts of "Do it Yourself" alternatives. But when it comes to consultant I couldn't find much fees. I have a transparent price policy for my business but most of consultant don't.
Does any of you has some ideas of how much a consultant will charge?
For your reference you can have a look at my website:
http://www.athenasia.com/business-planning.html
Thanks for the help!
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Dec 23, 2016
Hi Laurent,
we use a business plan price overview to show how volume requirements, degree of difficulty and objective of the business plan influence the budget needed to write a high-quality plan. You can check out this overview at https://www.brainhive.de/en/business-plan-writing-services-cost/
Let me know if this was helpful for you. If you have any more questions, we would gladly answer them.
Regards & much success for your project!
Joe
Nov 12, 2013
It should vary depending on the client and their needs and goals. For example, I would charge anywhere from $2,000 for a very small client with small goals to $10,000 for a "large" start-up company with big plans and income or funding needs. (USD, total charge for the project).
Sep 9, 2013
when you talking about the fees... is it 300 to 1000 USD a day, a hour or other?
It seems like a very high daily rate, but anyway new businesses, probably will ot afford...
Nov 14, 2012
As an economic developer back in Canada, I used to see consultant quotes ranging anywhere from $300 to $1000 Canadian per day. This was dependent to a large degree on the experience and qualifications of the consultant. Time to the completion of a full plan ran from 20 to 30 days. Some (free) advice to you in preparing business plans: 1) NEVER, EVER cut corners by cutting and pasting between one client's plan and another. It's completely unethical and unprofessional and funders despise and blacklist consultants that do this; 2) make sure the numbers in your pro-forma financial projections MAKE SENSE. Provide best case, worst case, and most likely projections, and double and triple check your balance sheet numbers to make sure they actually BALANCE!
Nov 7, 2012
I have charged from nothing if people look at my website and follow the advice to more than $50,000 per year. The answer depends on the value of what you are providing. I see business planning as a learning process where the business is learning to become agile and capable in meeting current challenges and exploiting available opportunities. Your website suggests you are providing useful processes and I'm happy to share my website with you too www.RussellYardley.com
Oct 31, 2012
Really depends on the consultant, their experience, their pricing model and how "custom" the business plan portion is.
I'm hesitant to trust anything below $2,400 and hesitant of being gouged for anything over 50k.
Oct 31, 2012
For some reasons, I just think there are no such things as business plans. Well..
there are, but not in that sense of it
The business terrain today is highly dynamic. So your plans today might not comply with the trends tomorrow.
These are the steps I think would help one execute a business plan as it were.
1. You get out.. do whatever u wanna do...If it works..That is your plan.
2. If it stops working repeat 1.
Basically, experimentation is the new planning.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3001275/experimentation-new-planning
Oct 31, 2012
Out of my experience in asia and I live here for 15 years now and specially in the Greater China people are not willing to pay consulting fee but if they pay it will be not more then lets say around HK$500 unless you build your reputation so high that than will pay around HK$1500-2500. Welcome to Asia my friend..
Oct 31, 2012
Hi Laurent I would recommend a daily rate of £500 to £1000 depending on the level of work that you are doing for your clients.
Hope that helps Good Luck Malcolm
Oct 30, 2012
Having been an owner of an international "Business Development Company" (never a "consultant") within the food industry for over 30 years, I can tell you your work is never done. Clients have great expectation for your services and measure their success (and their dollars) not but what you say as much as what you do and how well you do it. Don't try and be all things to all people. Never, never keep a client more than three years unless you acquire an equity position. If they haven't made it over the hump by executing your business plan and plan-of-action in three years, they never will and you're wasting your valuable time.. Never sacrifice your principals or values. You are in command and your fees will express your expertise. Trust me; charging too little will only create aggravation. Charging a high amount ensures great expectations but creates great rewards. You're helping people and/or companies set a new course. You're taking the helm of their ship. Don't allow a mutiny.
Oct 30, 2012
Wow! I think I need to move to the US! Here in the UK, there are plenty of free resources which are excellent. There are Enterprise Agencies who provide free coaching and mentoring of the highest quality, providing bespoke and limitless coaching and mentoring, plus networking, funding applications and bid writing support. We work with pre starts right through to high growth including large manufacturing innovators and hi tech business.
There are of course, plenty of private consultants to support business development, who charge fees, but increasingly, people are searching out these free high quality services.
Oct 25, 2012
I typically charge between $2000 and $4000, but it varies depending on how much of the actual research on the plan the client has already done. Many with whom I work have spent most or all of their time on their product/service/technology and have devoted little or no time to the business itself. This really isn't that uncommon, at least for me, since I specialize in helping SMEs and inventors turn their ideas into revenue. Usually they are passionate about their technology/space, but lack the experience, talent and/or interest about the sales/marketing, revenue model, financing, etc. That's where I come in. For those clients, I generally need to do a fair bit of market research, talking with target customers, etc. which takes more time and hence costs more. For those who have much of that already done and mostly need the lucid explanation and investor-ready presentation, the charge is less.
Oct 24, 2012
Laurent, here is my coaching minute for you.
First:
Who is your target market?
Who are you consulting to?
Are you trading dollars for hours?
Second:
Presuming you have a track record in this area:
What packages have you designed?
What levels are these packages designed for - basic, premium, elite?
Third:
What is the value you provide to clients?
Why you and not another service provider?
What makes you unique/different?
Fouth:
Answer those questions for yourself and not from a book (not disparaging books - I am a learning addict)
Get REAL clear on what you do and what you offer.
Wrap and system around it, create a package, price the package(s)
Fifth:
Review the answers here from Freda.
What gaps would you fill for her practice?
What gaps could Freda fill for you?
You must think WIN-WIN-WIN: a Win for Freda, a Win for your customers, a Win for you.
Odesk - I've used the service - Quality Business Planners are not found there.
Finally, for my audience I created a one hour business plan - one plan, one page, one hour. The product forces the mind to answer the question is my idea a business?
I am not offering it here because it is not appropriate, I mention simply as an illustration of differentiation and the additional thought you must put into your service offering if you want to get clear on the price of your package offering.
I will tell you right now, Freda nailed this work. Her package is clear, well priced and offers an additional value add to her practice and clients.
If you desire the same, you must do the mental work required.
No offense intended to Gerald or Brant about oDesk. As stated I've used oDesk but when I want a qualitative outcome, I don't use oDesk. I use my network to secure referrals for the service needed and get a reasonable price.
Were I you, I'd consider this coaching moment, pull my package together and call Freda for a real value-add.
Hope this Helps.
PS: I don't know Freda and receive no compensation from her. I just recognize quality and precision thinking when I see it. If you want to advance your business, strategic alliance is the way business is done now and in the future.
Oct 24, 2012
Great question and great answers! I think oDesk is a great place to start. Thanks for the resource.
I have gone back and forth on different ways to charge my clients as a business mentor and the one thing I keep coming back to is "who is my client" and how large is the scope of the work. Most to the time what I do is listen to what they want and take my hourly rate and go from there. I usually end up with something pretty fair.
I believe the trick is to knowing what you feel your services are worth and go from there. Most small business owners never charge enough for what they do in an effort to get the business. But, be careful to not over charge either.
Let me know if this helps.
Gerald Grinter, Business Mentor / Author
The Art of Working for Yourself
Oct 24, 2012
My company is new (few months) but I have been doing this for 3 years already (even before opening the business).
Up to know I worked on 4 projects related to business plan: I can say I got 100% results. Each time my clients either met their objectives or are about to meet them.
This is great and frustrating at the same time. Because when you charge the client he find it a bit expensive but when he gets his 1-3 millions USD funding or when he grows his business than I become the one thinking I'm cheap
Oct 24, 2012
Hi Laurent, I charge $2,700 to $5,000 and in some cases I get proceeds from the funding resulting from the proposals that I write. I would say my fee is about the norm. Nobody hassles me about the fee, but then again, my target is the fast growth business owner or established company with revenue of $250k to $3million. If you'd like to collaborate on any projects, I'm open. Visit my website www.consultflt.com to learn more about what I do.
Oct 24, 2012
Hi Freda, I'm about the same rates. Really appreciate your answer it gives me a good idea. I went on your website and it seems we are doing something pretty similar. Would be nice to connect and bounce some ideas.
Oct 24, 2012
Hi Laurent,
I would recommend looking on a consulting service like Odesk (http://www.odesk.com) for posting a job there.
You can restrict your service it down by budget, written / spoken language fluency, people that specialise in Business Plan writing, service ratings on previous projects, etc.
I'd suggest posting a business plan job there (of the type that you propose doing yourself through your service) and see where the range for bids fall. That should give you a good idea for where you would place your services within that range of vendors.
Hope that's helpful!
Brant Nicholas, Founder
Nicholas Production Group, LLC
Oct 24, 2012
Thanks for the answer... I went there but found the people way too cheap. I think I do not target the same market as them but thanks for the advise.
Yes agree with you... I used to under charge but since I have show results and decided to live from it. I really want to charge for the value of my work but as you said I want to make sure I do not overcharge.