Business Advisory & Strategic Planning

Every engagement starts the same way. With a Health Check.

A Health Check is a real, paid diagnostic, not a discovery call and not a sales meeting. You tell me where you're taking the business. I tell you what's standing between you and there.

Let's grab a coffee What the Health Check covers
Handwritten session notes from a Health Check, mapping revenue analysis and competitor analysis questions.
Where every engagement starts

The Health Check

Not a clear picture of your business in general, a clear read on what stands between you and where you say you're going.

Every client enters here, whatever happens next. It carries the first two movements of the work: you declare the direction, and I test the business against it.

  1. 01

    First, a coffee

    Free and informal. You talk through what's on your mind. If a Health Check makes sense, you'll hear it straight.

  2. 02

    Before we meet

    A short questionnaire about the business. Facts only. Short answers are fine, and "not sure" is a useful answer too.

  3. 03

    Nothing to hand over

    No financials, customer lists or plans until there's an agreement in place, so your information stays protected.

  4. 04

    Together

    Two hours. You tell me where you're taking the business first, then we test the business against it.

  5. 05

    Afterwards

    A short written read you keep, and a proposal for how we'd work together, within two business days.

  6. 06

    One fixed fee

    The same fee for every business, whatever its size or stage. I'll tell you the figure over coffee, before you commit to anything.

  7. 07

    Credited in full

    If you decide to go further, the fee is credited in full toward your first month.

  8. Start with a coffee
The offerings

Five ways to work together.

The Proving Ground is for founders still proving the model. The other four are one path at four depths: you choose how much support you want. Each has its own set monthly rate and minimum term, and you'll see both in your proposal after the Health Check.

The Proving Ground

Prove it's real before you bet everything on it.

For you if You're early. You have an idea you believe in, maybe your first customers, and you want proof there's a real business here before you commit everything to it.

What you get

  • A two-hour session each month, putting your biggest open question to the test: is the problem real, will people pay, does the model hold.
  • A short written brief after each session: what we tested, what it showed, and what it means next. Yours to keep, and to show an investor.
  • The analysis I do between sessions on your business model and unit economics, your ideal customer and what sets you apart, using your real numbers.
  • A running picture of what's proven and what's still unproven.

Term: Minimum three months, then month to month.

The advisory path

One path. Four depths.

Same work underneath. The difference is how much of me is in the business with you.

The Cornerstone

A trusted outside brain, month to month.

For you if The business works, but you're hitting real challenges, and seeing opportunities, that you'd rather think through with someone than keep carrying on your own.

What you get

  • A half-day together each month, working on the business.
  • A written direction you keep, and a rolling 90-day plan so there's always a next move.

Term: Minimum three months.

Growth

A strategy partner on the decisions that matter.

For you if You want someone to think the big moves through with, and to keep you moving on them once they're made.

What you get

  • A full day together each month, on the decisions that actually move the business.
  • A clear direction, revisited as things change, and someone holding you to it.

Term: Minimum three months.

Senior Partnership

In it with you, through the whole month.

For you if You want someone across the numbers and in the room when the real decisions get made. You still own every call.

What you get

  • A full day every fortnight, on live matters, strategic and financial.
  • In the room for the live decisions as they happen, with your leadership and at the board when it counts.

Term: Minimum six months.

Fractional CSO

The strategy seat, held without a full-time executive.

For you if You want the strategy seat filled, owned, driven and answered for, without carrying a full-time executive.

What you get

  • About two days a week, embedded as your part-time Chief Strategy Officer.
  • The strategy agenda owned end to end: set, driven and delivered.

Setting expectations honestly: I hold one Fractional CSO seat at a time. If the seat is full, you go on a short list and we talk when it opens.

Term: Twelve months. One seat at a time.

At a glance

What each depth gives you.

What you get CornerstoneGrowthSenior PartnershipFractional CSO
How often we work A half-day each monthA full day each monthA full day every fortnightAbout two days a week, embedded
Work between sessions Analysis and prep each timeStrategy work preparedOngoing through the monthContinuous, the seat is filled
What you walk away holding A written direction and a rolling 90-day planYour strategy and key decisions in writingStrategy, numbers and board work kept currentThe whole strategy agenda: plans, models, board work
Your numbers Where they bear on a decisionWorked into the decisionsA proper review every monthOwned and driven
The big decisions Thought through togetherPressure-tested as they ariseIn the room as they happenDriven by your CSO
Your team and board One-to-one with youOne-to-one with youWith leadership and board when it countsA member of your leadership
Who owns the strategy YouYouYou, with support alongsideYour CSO, answering to you
Minimum term 3 months3 months6 months12 months

Every agreement has one monthly rate, a minimum term and an exit clause.

See these in practice on the Results page.

On a phone, scroll the table sideways to see all four depths.

Sari Zack, business coach and advisor, in a light blue shirt.

Not sure which one's yours?

That's what the coffee and the Health Check are for. You don't have to self-diagnose. You tell me where you're taking the business, I tell you what's standing in the way, and the right depth becomes clear from that conversation. The choice stays yours.

Let's grab a coffee
A workshop for your team

The Strategy Showdown

One business. One direction. One day.

When a business has a clear direction, tested and shared across every part of it, everything gets easier. Getting there is a skill. This is where you learn it.

It's a full-day workshop, run privately for your leadership team. You work through one company, not yours, at a real crossroads, and practise the two things that hold a strategy together: putting a direction into plain words, and testing it hard enough to trust it. Then you turn it on your own business before the day ends.

What your team leaves with: The Strategy Line (declare, test, realign, own) as a method you keep. A working booklet to run it on your own business. A shared, plain-language answer to where the business is going.

Let's grab a coffee