Why Me?

I am a small-business consultant based in Melbourne, Australia.

I use the term “consultant” because it’s simpler, although less accurate, than “part-time executive working on a regular basis with a select group of small-business clients”. (You could also use “business coach”, “mentor” or “advisor”… they all work.)

If you want the full story, including my background, services, prices and testimonials, check out the various pages under the “About” menu at the top of the page

If you’re like 95% of us and don’t have much time, here is the important stuff:

My goal is simple: to help my clients generate a decent return for the time and money they invest in their business.

That’s all very nice, but what you really want to know is why you should talk to me when there are so many business consultants to choose from. Right?

Firsly, maybe you shouldn’t! I am right for some clients, but for many others I won’t be the best option. And there’s my first bit of advice to you – don’t try to please everyone, because you can’t. Instead of being just an okay option for everyone, why not be the best option for some people and let your competitors look after everyone else? Far too many business owners say they can make money with just 0.01% share of their market, then go out and design a product or service that they hope will please everyone. Ultimately they end up not even reaching that small market share because there is always a better option for their customers.

But I digress. Why me?

I’m worth talking to if the following sounds interesting:

• I believe that the most important thing in a relationship between a consultant and a client is trust, particularly for small business clients. Breaking that down further, you need to trust that I have the capability to help you, and the character that will make you comfortable opening up your business to me. No matter how hard I try, there is nothing I can say on this website that will build the level of trust required for you to decide to hire me. My hope is that I can show you enough here so that you can decide whether there is a decent chance we could work well together, in which case we should spend some time together to see where it leads.
• If you want the best financial adviser, the best web developer, the best marketing consultant, the best HR adviser, or the best strategist, then I’m probably not for you. There are people that do that stuff all day, every day. But if you want one person that you can turn to with questions on all of these issues and more, knowing that you’ll get a decent conversation and some good ideas, I can help. My clients don’t want or need specialists in all of those areas. They need one person that knows their business inside and out and has the skills to help in all of these areas. I like to think of myself as the business equivalent to a medical GP – the person you know, like and trust and who knows your history, and who you usually turn to first on a broad range of issues. I will help you most of the time, and when it’s beyond us both we’ll find a specialist together and go to them with a plan on how to use them.
• I find that it takes more than an hour to reach the point where trust gets even close to the level required to want to hand over your hard earned money with a level of confidence that your business will be better off. So instead of a “free one hour consultation” that all consultants offer, I prefer two meetings of up to two hours each before we sign an agreement. Even then we’ll just be getting started… but it’ll be a very good start. If the worst that comes from this is that you go away with some free ideas for your business and a couple of my business cards to give to friends, that’s not all bad!
• One of my strongest beliefs about business is “the one who cares the most, wins”. I care deeply about my clients, which is why I only have a very small number of clients at any time and am available for them at almost any hour of the day. Again, there is nothing I can say here that will convince you of that. If we meet, maybe I can.
• It’s not a huge thing, but I hate billing by the minute. When my clients call me for a five minute chat they know they won’t see it on their invoice. That goes for postage and photocopying as well… but who uses those now anyway?
• And finally, I am affordable. I don’t have an expensive office, large advertising budget, support staff, or investors I need to satisy. As good as 100% of my revenue is profit, so I can afford to charge well less than the rate I would be billed out if I was working for a firm that had to cover all of those costs. (And they’d make me bill for those darn 5 minute phone calls!)

Thanks for reading! Even if you’re not in the market for a small business adviser, consultant, mentor, coach or whatever I am, please enjoy looking around the site. I think there is something here for all small business owners… even if you have to go to the Articles page where all of the content is chosen by me but written by other people (because guess what, I’m not the world’s best blogger either!)