These are the questions owners most often ask before they hire a consultant. If yours is not here, call, text or email; a quick text to (604) 632-4959 with your question works fine.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost?
Hourly consulting is $175 to $350 per hour, projects run $3,500 to $25,000 and retainers $2,500 to $12,000 per month, in Canadian dollars plus GST/HST based on your province (GST and QST in Quebec). The first 30-minute consultation is free.
Do we have to sign a long contract?
No. There is no lock-in. Projects are paid by milestone, and any notice period on a retainer is written into your proposal before you agree.
How quickly will we see something useful?
Usually within the first two or three weeks. In a pricing project that is your true cost per billable hour; in job costing, a first view of projected margin on open jobs.
We hired a consultant before and nothing changed. Why is this different?
Often because the earlier work ended in a report. Ours ends in working tools your people use, such as a rate sheet, a weekly job review or a hiring calendar, plus agreed measures we check afterwards. If the numbers do not move, we look at why together.
What information do you need from us?
Typically your payroll summary, recent financial statements, job-cost reports or timesheets, a sample of estimates and, for project work, your WIP schedule. We tell you exactly what we need in the proposal.
Is our financial information kept confidential?
Yes. We use it only for your engagement and do not share it with anyone outside the work without your permission.
Will you work with our accountant?
Yes, and we encourage it. Your accountant prepares statements and handles tax; we use their numbers to make operating decisions and often ask for a short call to align definitions.
Who owns the rate sheets, models and reports?
You do. Everything we build for your business, from spreadsheets to written rules and dashboards, stays with you when the engagement ends.
Can you promise a margin increase?
No. Nobody can honestly promise that. We agree on measures at the start, such as bid-to-final margin fade or billable efficiency, and report them so you can judge the result.
Do you provide technical or code advice?
No. Everything we offer is business and marketing consulting, so you will not get engineering, mechanical design, inspection or code-compliance services from us. Licensing and safety questions go to your provincial regulator.
Do you meet in person?
Yes. We meet in person and online by video call, and you can also work with us by phone, text and email.
Do you only work with large firms?
No. We work with firms from about five field staff upward. Smaller shops often benefit most from pricing work, because a rate error affects every hour they sell.
Can you help us sell the business?
We prepare the business for sale or succession. Valuation, buyer search, succession planning and deal structuring go through Sedighi.ca and BizSell.ca, the group's exit brand.
Money and contracts
Fees follow the published BusinessConsulting.ca rates, listed in full on our pricing page. You will always see the exact fee, deliverables and payment schedule in writing before anything starts, and there is no lock-in.
The cheapest engagement is not always an hourly one. If an owner books five separate hours to work through pricing, a short fixed project often ends up costing less and finishing faster, because the scope is agreed in advance.
Sales tax depends on your province. National pages, including this one, quote fees plus GST/HST based on your province (GST and QST in Quebec); each region page gives that province's rate.
Working together
Most work happens online by video call, with in-person meetings when they help, for example a session with your estimators or a walk through the shop's dispatch process. Phone, text and email work for everything in between.
We will ask for data early. The single biggest factor in how fast an engagement moves is how quickly payroll, job and financial reports arrive. If your records are messy, say so at the start; tidying them is part of the work, not a reason for embarrassment.
We work alongside your accountant, lawyer and any software vendor, not in place of them. Where a question belongs to one of them, we say so.
Results and measurement
Every engagement starts with agreed measures. For pricing, that might be average gross margin on new jobs and the share of jobs below a minimum margin. For job costing, the gap between bid margin and final margin. For capacity, billable efficiency and overtime as a share of payroll. For owner time, the owner's logged hours by category.
We report those measures at set points. If they are not moving, we discuss why, which is usually more useful than the original plan. The services page explains the measures for each kind of work.
Our published proof comes from HVAC companies, and we present it as results from our HVAC work. The results page explains what each case does and does not show.
Signs it is time to get outside help
Owners rarely call because everything is fine. These are the situations that most often lead to a first conversation, and each points to a different starting place:
- A record revenue year with a disappointing profit. Usually a pricing or overhead-recovery problem. Start with the rate.
- Two or three jobs in a row that closed well below their bid margin. A job costing and change-order problem, sometimes an estimating one.
- A foreman or estimator resigns and the business wobbles. Too much knowledge sits with too few people, which is an owner-time and structure issue.
- The bank or surety starts asking harder questions. Your WIP schedule and job-level numbers need to tell a clearer story.
- A competitor or buyer asks whether you would sell. Time to find out what a buyer would see, before the second conversation.
If one of these sounds familiar, you already know roughly where to begin, and the first 30 minutes will be more useful for it.
Scope and boundaries
We advise on the business side of a mechanical contracting firm: pricing, costing, capacity, mix, management structure and exit preparation. We do not provide technical services of any kind, do not prepare statements or file taxes, and do not give legal, securities or real-estate advice.
Regulators for each province and territory are named and linked on our areas pages for reference. For any licensing, permit or safety question, contact the regulator directly.