Not every challenge fits a scoped project. Sometimes what an organisation needs is a senior advisor it can call on — without writing a brief, running a procurement, or committing to a piece of work first.
Advisory Hours is a block of time purchased at an agreed rate and drawn on however is most useful to you. There is no scoping stage and no proposal. You start with a question, not a project.
Chief executives and executive directors of not-for-profits who have nobody internally to pressure-test a decision with, and whose board is the wrong audience for a half-formed thought.
Social enterprise founders carrying both the commercial and the mission side of a decision, with no senior peer who understands both.
Boards and chairs who want an independent read on something before it becomes a formal agenda item.
Organisations between engagements that do not currently need a project but do need occasional access to the thinking.
The advisory market is built around projects, because projects are how advisory firms make money. That structure serves the firm better than it serves the client. It means the smallest thing you can buy is often far larger than the thing you actually need, and the friction of commissioning it means most small questions simply go unasked.
A great deal of value sits in those unasked questions. A decision reconsidered before it is taken is worth more than a review of it afterwards, and it costs a fraction as much.
Advisory Hours exists to remove the friction. The commitment is small, the trigger is a phone call, and nothing has to be justified as a project first.
You buy a block. Three package sizes, at a rate that improves with the size of the block.
You draw on it as you need it. A call, a document review, a session with your leadership team, or a conversation before a board meeting. You decide what it gets used for.
You get a monthly statement of hours used and the balance remaining, as standard. No reconciliation surprises at the end.
It is the same person, every time. There is no delivery team behind the sales conversation. The advisor you meet is the advisor you get.
| Hours | Validity | |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 10 hrs | 3 months |
| Standard | 20 hrs | 3 months |
| Partner | 40 hrs | 6 months |
The rate improves with the size of the block. Current rates on request.
Need more continuity than a block of hours? A longer arrangement, such as one day a week, is possible on request.
Advisory Hours is not a retainer for delivery work. If what you need is a piece of work produced, a scoped engagement is better suited. See the full range of services →
Anything that benefits from a second read. Pressure-testing a decision before you take it to the board. Reviewing a funding submission or a strategy draft. Working through a stakeholder relationship that has stopped functioning. Preparing for a difficult conversation. Thinking out loud about what comes next with someone who has no stake in the answer.
Time is drawn down in 30-minute increments, so a short call does not cost you a full hour. The point of the arrangement is that asking a small question stays cheap enough to be worth doing.
Each package has a validity period — three months for the Starter and Standard packages, six months for the Partner package. Unused hours lapse at the end of it. The validity period exists to keep the arrangement active rather than to catch anyone out, so if something has genuinely got in the way, raise it before the period closes rather than after.
Most requests are scheduled within two working days. If something is genuinely urgent — a board paper due, a decision that cannot wait — call rather than email, and it will be worked out.
That can happen when it is necessary. A question raised in an advisory hour turns out to be larger than an hour, and the sensible next step is a scoping review or a full engagement. There is no obligation either way, and hours already purchased are not wasted if that happens.
If you have been carrying a decision around for a few weeks without anyone useful to test it against, that is exactly what this is for.
Start a conversation or call +61 475 923 987