Frequently Asked Questions
- What kinds of business consulting services does Aepiphanni provide?
- I need to raise capital to start or grow my business. Can you help with this?
- What types of businesses do you work with?
- What do small business consultants do?
- How do I know I need a small business strategy consultant?
- Why would I bother working with a small business strategy consultant when I can write a business plan or grow my business myself?
- How do I know what I need a small business strategy consultant to address?
- How does Aepiphanni charge for services?
- How can someone who does not know my business come into it and tell me how to run the business?
- What would Aepiphanni’s role be?
- What other consulting industry standards are there in place that might guide me on how to choose a consultant?
- What unique benefits can Aepiphanni Business Consulting provide?
- My business does not seem to be financially able to support a major small business consulting engagement. Can you still help?
- How do we get started?
We do one thing for our clients: We help them create extraordinary futures for their businesses. Our primary services are strategic planning and operations management. Additionally, we have a number of related services, enabling us to provide our clients with a full suite of planning and implementation services to help small business owners build extraordinary businesses.
Yes. We provide performance-based consulting and equity trades. Additionally, we work with several lending and venture capital institutions that work with small businesses. We can work with you to develop a loan package that will be appealing to potential lenders through careful analysis of your business, your industry, your market and your niche.
We work with businesses that are great at what they do, but want to increase their productivity or grow beyond a small shop. Clients we target are in the professional, software, web design, IT industries, healthcare services and creative and design services.
Small Business Strategy Consultants are professionals who help business owners and organizational leaders define and achieve their goals, with the ultimate purpose of making the business more organized and profitable. At Aepiphanni, our goal is not only to advise, but also to work along side you to help you and your business grow.
- You are beginning to have questions about your business that you cannot answer.
- You find yourself unable to achieve your goals on your own.
- You feel like you are being run by your business or like you are at the end of your rope.
- You want to find a way to become more efficient but aren’t sure how to do it.
- You’ve identified some opportunities that you are missing and could use some assistance in getting them done.
- You need to address some organizational concerns but don’t have the time or manpower to do so.
- You just need a third party or another set of eyes to assist with decision making.
- You have an idea that you would like to develop, but are unsure about how to start or proceed.
- You need someone to come into your business for a short time to work with you and your team to address some ongoing internal concerns or interests.
Often, a small business consultant will see and address things that you may not have had the chance to do. Many people are hesitant to invest the money up front in anything in which they cannot see the immediate return, such as marketing or public relations. However, those who have taken the plunge have succeeded in ways that are far beyond where they could have gotten alone.
We will do a complete, in-depth business assessment, which will identify some areas of concern. The assessment will help to identify and prioritize areas in the organization that we will need to address.
Your investment will be performance-based. Our goal is to get you into business and keep you there. Therefore, we charge what you can afford, throughout the engagement.
Several options you have include
- By the project: Commonly used for projects such as business plans and websites within a specific scope.
- Hourly: This is typical for advisory or coaching projects. Most often, there will be a retainer. Hourly rates are broken down in ten minute increments by Professional Service fees (the work that we have specifically been trained to do) and Administrative fees (work such as typing, mailing, etc).
- Budgetary Retainer: This allows you to predetermine the amount of weekly, bi-weekly or monthly investment you would like to make in your project. This is most appropriate for larger/longer projects. The actual amount of work is tracked and submitted to ensure that you are receiving what you expected.
Click here for more information on our performance-based pricing structure.
No one knows as much about your small business as you do. We don’t pretend to know more about your unique product or service than you do. What we do is observe and analyze how you do what you do to help you do what you do better and help your employees become more productive.
There are a number of ways we can work together. Our role as small business consultants could be any of the following:
- We can do the work.
- We can lead the work with a team of your own or a team of consultants for larger projects.
- We can mentor and advise you on how you might want to handle a certain situation.
- We can educate you by teaching you how to do something, such as a marketing or financial strategy.
- We can work within the organization, for a short time, to provide internal analysis of particular functions in the organization.
- We can act as facilitators by helping you get through a meeting or discussion while ensuring that all of the objectives have been met within the timeframe set up.
- We can manage your project and ensure that your project comes in on time and within budget.
- We can provide recommendations in a list of things that you can do to achieve your goals.
If you go to the articles section in Aepiphanni.com, there is a document there from the Institute of Management Consultants called “How to Hire a Management Consultant”, along with the IMC Code of Ethics. These should be excellent resources. If you chose a firm other than Aepiphanni Business Consulting, I suggest you take the time to make sure that the consultant you do engage does meet all of the criteria.
Aepiphanni Business Consulting is a small business strategy consulting firm with a strong desire, the right training and a commitment to use our God-given capacity to help small business owners grow their businesses from struggling to those that are extraordinary businesses. Through ongoing training and education in small business entrepreneurial innovation, management, strategy, organizational design, website and internet services and training we are positioned to help people turn their passions into successful businesses.
Yes. Helping you is our primary mission. We are certain that we can work something out to meet your needs. If we can’t help you get financially able, we haven’t done our job.
Contact us so that we can learn about your business, your expertise and your challenges. We will design a customized work plan to show you how we can help you grow your business. With your approval, we will begin the engagement.
Click here to go to our small business consulting contact page!
Complimentary Business Strategy Session