Defined-scope business review

What a business review is

A review takes one large question and breaks it into parts that can be checked against evidence. It sits between a paid strategy session, which settles one decision, and ongoing advisory, which supports execution over months.

Common review scopes:

• Marketing assessment. Every channel you pay for, what each one produces and what to cut, keep or add.
• Enquiry-to-customer review. What happens from the moment someone contacts you until they pay, and where sales are lost.
• Launch plan. A new service line, location or market, with a staged budget and the numbers that decide whether to continue.
• Growth plan. A 12-month plan with priorities, a budget envelope and the measures that show progress.
• Pre-sale readiness check. A business-strategy view of what makes the company easier to run without the owner. It is not a valuation, legal or tax opinion.

Who it suits

It suits owners whose problem has at least three moving parts at once. If marketing, follow-up and pricing all feed into the same disappointing result, fixing one at a time in separate sessions tends to cost more than a single structured review.

It also suits businesses that need a written document for someone else: a partner, a board or a lender's business-plan requirement. We write the strategy; any financial statements or projections a lender requires should be prepared or reviewed by your accountant.

What's included

A typical review proposal sets out:

1. The question, written in one paragraph you've agreed to.
2. Inputs we need from you: reports, account access, a few staff conversations, customer data.
3. Milestones, each with a deliverable and a payment.
4. The final deliverable: a written plan or assessment in plain language, with priorities ranked.
5. A walkthrough call to go through the findings and answer questions.

Anything not listed is out of scope until both sides agree in writing.

Timeline

Reviews run in milestones, not one long silence. A modest marketing assessment might have three: data gathering, analysis, then findings and plan. A growth plan with staff interviews might have four or five.

Each milestone ends with something you can read. That way you see the thinking develop, and you can correct a wrong assumption early instead of at the end.

How results are measured

A review is measured in two stages. First, at delivery: does the plan answer the agreed question, with priorities you understand and can act on? Second, over the following months: did the numbers the plan named actually move?

A worked example of a measure that matters: a review finds that 40% of enquiries wait more than a day for a reply. If faster follow-up lifts the close rate on those enquiries from 20% to 28%, and you get 50 of them a month at $1,800 each, that's four extra sales, or $7,200 a month. The plan names that number, and you check it.

Our approach to measurement draws on proof from our HVAC work. CombiBoiler.ca, for example, reached 300% ROI and 300+ monthly leads. Those are results from our HVAC work, not promises for your sector; the results page explains what transfers.

Mistakes to avoid

• A scope that says "improve marketing". If the question can't be written in a paragraph, the review will drift.
• Withholding data. A review built on guesses produces a plan built on guesses.
• Letting the plan sit. Book a date to start the first priority before the final walkthrough ends. The guide on turning advice into decisions helps.
• Expecting a lawyer's or accountant's opinion. We advise on strategy and operations only.

The pricing page shows the project range alongside the other formats, and the contact page explains how to start.