For independent consultants and small firms

Get more value from every hour.

You sell expertise. Too much of your week goes to the process around it: proposals, notes, formatting, follow-ups. We build AI into how you already work, in your voice and your methods, so the process gets faster and your best thinking gets more of your time.

Proposals in a day. Interview notes to insight by the afternoon. Your expertise where it counts.

Book a 30-minute call Try the free Margin Calculator

Margin Calculator™: about four minutes, with an estimate of the hours and dollars you could get back.

Sound familiar?

"I bill for 30 hours and work 50."

"Every proposal starts from a blank page."

"My interview notes pile up for a week."

"AI drafts sound like everyone else."

"I can't take another client without working nights."

"I pay for three AI tools and I'm not sure any are worth it."

Your expertise isn't the bottleneck. The process around it is, and that part is fixable.

Fully booked already? The same systems give you room to raise your rates, choose your clients, or simply breathe.

Who it's for

Built for people who sell what they know.

Independent practices and small firms that bill by the hour, on retainer, or by the project. If your value is your judgment and your time is your inventory, Margin is for you.

Grant writersDevelopment consultantsStrategy and planning consultantsBoard and governance consultantsEvaluatorsFacilitatorsFractional executivesCommunications consultantsHR and leadership coaches

Wherever you're starting from

This isn't cookie cutter.

Everybody is at a different stage of understanding and using these tools. We want to be useful wherever you're at.

Already doing a lot

Optimize what you have.

You're using plenty of tools, but they aren't optimized. We tune them, reduce cost, and make sure your systems are connected so you get the most out of every one.

Just getting started

Figure out the remote.

Not sure where to begin? We get you AI-enabled, introduce the right tools, and start saving you time right away.

Either way, the goal is the same: maximize the margin on every hour you have.

Margin is time. You decide how to spend it.

When the process work shrinks, the hours you get back are yours. Whether you bill hourly or on retainer, there are four ways to use them, and most consultants use a mix.

More value per hour

Deliver deeper work in the same hours your clients already pay for.

Lower cost to clients

Pass some of the savings on, and win work you used to lose on price.

Higher profit

The same fee for fewer hours. Your rate effectively goes up.

Your weeks back

Fewer nights and weekends, with the same quality of work.

Same expertise. More of it in every hour.

What we build

Systems that work the way you do.

Skills, projects, and automations built into the AI tools you already use, trained on your methods and your voice. You stay the expert. The process around your expertise gets faster.

Proposal in a Day

Before

Every proposal starts from scratch and takes two or three evenings.

After

A discovery call or a voice memo becomes a draft proposal in your format, pricing, and voice, ready to review.

Notes to Insight

Before

Interview and meeting notes pile up until you find a free afternoon.

After

Transcripts become themes, quotes, and decisions you can use the same day.

Your Method Library

Before

Your best past work is buried in folders, so you rewrite it.

After

Your frameworks, templates, and past deliverables organized so every draft starts from your best thinking.

Your Voice Kit

Before

AI drafts sound generic, so you rewrite them line by line.

After

A style guide and real examples the AI follows, so drafts sound like you and stay on message.

Client Workspaces

Before

Client material is mixed together across chats and folders.

After

A separate, confidential workspace for each client, with clear rules for what goes where.

Admin on Autopilot

Before

Scheduling, status updates, time tracking, and invoices eat your Fridays.

After

Updates and follow-ups drafted for you, time logged from your calendar, invoices ready to send.

Built to keep AI costs low

Reusable skills and projects instead of long one-off chats, on the right plan for how much you use. You stop paying for wasted AI usage.

Estimate your hours back

The Margin Build

Map. Build. Tune.

One fixed-price engagement, about four weeks, then 30 days of tuning on real client work. You leave with systems you own and know how to run.

Week 1

Map

The Margin Map™

A short self-guided intake and a review of your past work, mapped into where your hours actually go.

Weeks 2 to 3

Build

Your systems

Your voice kit, method library, client workspaces, and the workflows that save you the most time, built in the tools you already use.

Week 4 + 30 days

Tune

Real client work

You use it on live projects. We adjust what isn't working and show you how to keep it running on your own.

Optional

Grow

As you change

More workflows, a custom tool, or a quarterly tune-up as your practice and the AI tools evolve.

Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Gemini, plus the email, calendar, and document tools you already use.

See 20 ideas

AI handles the process. You bring the expertise.

Automate

Scheduling, time tracking, formatting, file naming, status updates, reminders.

Assist

First drafts, research summaries, interview synthesis, slide outlines. You edit and decide.

Protect

Your judgment, client relationships, facilitation, recommendations, and anything confidential you choose to keep out. You draw this line.

What it looks like in practice

Three practices. Three kinds of margin.

Every consultant loses time somewhere different. Here's how the work typically plays out.

Grant writer · Solo

Every proposal started from scratch.

Eight nonprofit clients, most on monthly retainers. Each funder wanted the same story in a different shape, and spring deadlines stacked up.

What the Margin Map™ showed

Close to half of proposal time went to reshaping program descriptions for each funder and chasing budgets and attachments from clients.

What changed

A content library for each client, a drafting workflow that follows each funder's guidelines in the client's voice, and a tracker that requests missing documents on its own.

The hard part

Trusting the first drafts. She edited every line for the first month, then less as the voice kit improved.

Proposal time cut roughly in halfRoom for two more retainer clientsA spring without weekends at the desk

Strategy and planning firm · 2 partners

Discovery ate the budget.

Two partners facilitating strategic plans for nonprofits and associations, priced by the project. Interviews and surveys ran so long that the planning itself got squeezed.

What the Margin Map™ showed

Each engagement had 15 to 25 stakeholder interviews, and synthesis took about a week per project.

What changed

Interviews recorded and transcribed with consent, then coded into themes and quotes using the partners' own framework. Retreat agendas and plan drafts start from templates in their language.

The hard part

Deciding what stays human. They kept the final read of every interview and every recommendation.

Synthesis in 2 days, not 5More time in the room with clientsThe same fee, a better margin

Board development consultant · Solo

The retainer hours kept creeping.

A governance specialist on retainer with five boards. Meeting prep, assessments, and follow-up notes filled hours she couldn't bill for.

What the Margin Map™ showed

Board assessment reports, onboarding packets, and meeting summaries took about 12 hours a month per client.

What changed

An assessment-to-report workflow, onboarding kits built from each organization's own documents, and a prep and follow-up assistant for every board.

The hard part

Confidentiality. Each board got its own workspace, and sensitive personnel matters stay out of AI entirely.

About 6 hours a month back per clientRoom for a sixth boardMore time coaching board chairs

Illustrative examples based on patterns common to independent consulting practices. They are not specific client results. See 20 more places AI creates margin in a consulting practice.

Book a 30-minute call Try the free Margin Calculator

Not generic AI

Your work, not AI slop.

Clients hire you for your thinking. Everything we build is designed to protect that.

Sounds like you

Built from your past work, frameworks, and style, with a review step so nothing goes out that you wouldn't sign.

Stays confidential

Separate workspaces for each client, AI services that don't train on your data, and written rules for what never goes in.

Costs less to run

The right plan and reusable setups, so you get better results while spending less on AI tools.

Free Margin Calculator™

How many hours could you get back?

Estimate the hours you could get back each week, then see what that time is worth over a year at your hourly rate, whether you bill hourly or on retainer. About four minutes, and you'll see exactly how fast the work pays for itself.

Calculate my margin

Priced to pay for itself.

One fixed price for the Margin Build, scaled to the size of your practice. You know the full cost up front, and the math is simple.

The math for a solo consultant

Get back 5 hours a week at $150 an hour, and that's $750 a week. The build pays for itself in about 7 weeks.

Over a year, that's about 230 hours, worth about $34,500. Your rate and hours will differ, so the Margin Calculator™ runs the numbers for you.

Solo or duo

1 to 2 people

$5,000

About 4 weeks, plus 30 days of tuning

Margin Map™ of your practice
Voice kit and method library
Client workspaces
3 workflows built and running

Small firm

3 to 5 people

$9,500

About $1,900 to $3,200 per person

About 5 weeks, plus 30 days of tuning

Everything in Solo or duo
Shared library and voice standards for the team
5 workflows built and running
Team training session

Growing firm

6 to 12 people

$16,500

About $1,375 to $2,750 per person

About 6 weeks, plus 30 days of tuning

Everything in Small firm
Team standards and AI use policy
8 workflows built and running
Training for every role

Need another workflow later? Add one any time for $1,500. More than 12 people? Let's talk.

Our goal: the build should pay for itself within your first quarter. If your numbers say it won't, we'll tell you on the first call.

We don't exist unless we create value.

That's the standard we hold ourselves to with every practice we work with.

We measure first.

We time a few of your real workflows at the start and again after 30 days, so you see the change in your own numbers.

We don't overpromise.

No hours-saved guarantees before we know how you work. We tell you what we find, including what isn't worth changing.

What we build is yours.

Every workflow, template, and prompt belongs to your practice, whether or not you keep working with us.

Lead a network of consultants?

Associations, collectives, and firms can bring the Margin Build to their members as a group.

See the partner program →

Know a consultant who's stretched thin?

Refer them and earn 10% of the engagement.

How referrals work →

Fair questions

Will AI replace my expertise?

No. Clients hire you for judgment, relationships, and experience. We take on the process around that work, and you decide where the line sits.

How do you avoid generic AI writing?

We build from your own past work, frameworks, and style, and set up review steps so nothing goes out that doesn't sound like you.

Is my clients' information safe?

Each client gets a separate workspace, we use AI services that don't train on your data, and we write down what never goes into AI. We work under a confidentiality agreement.

Which AI tools do I need?

Usually the one you already pay for: Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini. If a different plan would save you money or work better, we'll tell you.

Do I have to be technical?

No. If you can use email and a shared folder, you can use what we build. We train you on it and leave written instructions.

Should I tell clients I use AI?

We'll help you decide, and write a short, honest statement about how you use AI and protect their information. Many clients see it as a plus.

How much of my time will it take?

About 90 minutes at kickoff, a few short check-ins, and normal client work during the tuning month.

Do I have to change how I bill?

No. Hourly, retainer, or project, you decide whether the time goes to more clients, lower prices, higher margin, or your own life.

Find more margin — book a call