Value and costs
Our fees are linked to the value of the solution. If you can live with a problem, do not have it fixed. If the value that your company will receive if it is fixed is low, do not bother. If the value is high, fixing it will constitute a good investment.
We will assist you in calculating the value that you will get from the investment. Do not only think "cost". Calculate the value which a consultancy project should generate.
You and your team have to be able to turn the investment into both a tangible and an intangible value. My clients at the conclusion of a project invariably get satisfaction from the knowledge that they have actually turned their investment into a really healthy return.
Most capacity-building interventions (such as planning and execution) take time. Strategies or objectives have to be developed with people and not for them. The size of the group affects the speed of the process. Small groups move faster. Small companies are less complicated than large companies.
Any strategy or plan leads to change. It is easy to develop plans and strategies. It takes time to execute them as this means a change in work patterns and personal routines. Such changes only come about when participants gain personal insights; when they personally are keen to make a difference. You have to be emotionally committed enough to change your personal work patterns to see the project through.
After your plans are in place, execution becomes vital. Change has to be introduced incrementally. An organisation and its people can only absorb a few change elements per month. I will accompany you through the process until you have new routines and especially results.
Major projects for medium-sized or small companies
An ABPLAN intervention normally stretches, as matters cannot be rushed, over 12 months and takes place in two parts:
- Part A: The planning process over 1 to 2 months
- Part B: Careful and committed execution of the plans over the remainder of the period
You will note why we are called ABPLAN.
Value-based-fees
Please note, my fees are not hourly/day-based. They are value based. You should not be required to make an investment decision every time you wish to call me or request a few hours for a discussion. Nor should your staff have to get your approval to contact me or book time with me. I do not have a running meter. There is a ceiling to my fees and this is decided before the project starts.
I cannot quote fees without having met you and having analysed your needs and have determined the results and value which you seek. We will calculate the value of the results together. You need to decide whether you wish to make the effort to achieve the envisaged results/outcomes.
Often achieving results and value is a matter of you and your team doing a series of things differently. Sometimes one major new approach suggested by ABPLAN and executed properly by a client generates new revenue which during the consultancy period exceeds the cost of your investment in my consulting services many times over.
From a practical point of view you have to realize that the project will demand a number of hours of your company and of my company each month. In the first two months plan on devoting about 15 hours per month of your time on the project and know that I invariably will spend more hours in guiding and assisting you.
You and your team can only become fit if you are prepared to spend time in the gym.
The pace of the project (and with it, the getting of results) is determined by agreed-upon monthly measures and targets and by the volume of actions which you and your team are willing and able to take.
We could cut down on time spent in meetings if you like communicating by e-mail and via telephone calls. Note that you need to personally spend a number of hours each week on execution.
Your ability to execute will determine the rate of success.
The project could be completed in a shorter period than 12 months - if you and your team are committed and ready to give it a go. (My fees covers achieving the agreed-upon outcomes and not the period of time.)
Affordable retainers
I work on fixed financial retainers for long-term projects which make my services very affordable. You will immediately know whether your monthly cash flow iwill be able to absorb my monthly retainer fee.
Payments are spread. For instance, a client might make three main payments in each of the first three months with the remainder spread over 9 months whether nine months are required to complete the consulting assignment or not. We will come to some arrangement about retainers which suit you.
This approach ensures precise instalments. It eliminates surprises.
Small projects and workshops
- Some of my proposals cover a month or two only, if the intervention is small.
- Some clients ask me to deliver one or two workshops. That's it.
- Sometimes I will deliver only one outcome - such as rewriting the content of a company's website, as the present website generates no enquiries or new clients
An appropriate value-based fee will be negotiated.
Long-distance clients
I have a number of long-distance clients whom I serve through a combination of rare visits, phone calls and e-mails.
An interesting consulting tool is a collaborative website or wiki which assists in cutting down on the number of meetings. (See the box below.)
This combined approach of communicating cuts down on travel and accommodation costs.
My guarantee
ABPLAN guarantees satisfaction. For details please see my guarantee.
A partnership aimed at attaining high-impact results
Each month we will thoroughly evaluate the results achieved. This step is essential.
We will also determine what outcomes you would like to see realised in the forthcoming month. Our project will require a determined "partnership" effort, commitment and especially decisive action to achieve results.
This approach ensures that you are receiving consulting services which generate high-impact results. Of course, you have to live up to your obligations and be somewhat of an ideal client.
Please visit collaborative websites for details of a modern and really indispensable Internet tool which cuts costs and heightens results.
I serve a wide range of clients. Please see our clients.
Please also go to ideal client.
Last modified: 08-06-2010