Opportunity doesn’t equal know-how.
We help business owners figure out what’s really going on, what they may be missing, what needs to happen first, and who they need around them to get it done. Run by someone who has opened the business, carried the debt, and made the calls himself.
The second legal dispensary in New York State, and the first owned by someone the state had convicted of a cannabis offense.
Roland sits on the board of C.A.U.R.D. Inc., which represents them.
The same thirteen steps on every job, with a checklist for each one. Nothing depends on somebody remembering.
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Which one are you?
I need help with my business
Something isn’t working, or something big is coming and you want it handled right. Tell us what’s going on. We start by understanding your situation, not by selling you something.
Start the client process Professional pathwayI want to join the network
You’re an attorney, accountant, lender, compliance specialist, engineer, technologist, or operator who’s good at what you do. We keep a vetted network of independent professionals we bring in when a client needs them.
See the professional networkMost businesses don’t fail because they ran out of opportunity
Advisory Group LLC
New York
They fail because the opportunity showed up faster than the business could handle it. The license comes through before anybody has built the systems to run it. Sales grow before there’s anything in place to keep up. A lender says yes before anyone has read the terms against the numbers that have to pay it back. The opportunity was real every time, it was the know-how to handle it that wasn’t there.
That gap is what we work on. Not the symptom you walk in describing, and not whatever fix is easiest to sell you, but the thing actually causing it and the order it has to get fixed in.
Most owners don’t need one more advisor who knows one thing. They need somebody to work out what’s actually about to break, decide what has to happen first, and then bring in the right people in the right order, fast enough for it to matter. We’re not going to pretend one person knows everything. We work out what the situation calls for, and we say so plainly when the answer belongs with a licensed professional instead of with us.
No one person knows everything
We’re not pretending to be the lawyer, the accountant, the lender, the engineer, the tax professional, or every other specialist your business might need. We keep a network of independent, vetted professionals. You hire them directly, on their terms, and they stay responsible for their own advice. Our job is to work out what your situation actually needs, and keep the order straight.
- Legal
- Accounting
- Tax
- Finance & Capital
- Compliance
- Insurance
- Real Estate
- Architecture & Engineering
- Technology
- HR & Payroll
- Marketing
Professionals apply, we vet them, and we only bring them in when a client’s situation calls for it.
About the networkWhat we actually do
Most jobs start with a diagnostic, because a proposal written before anybody understands the problem is just a guess with a bill on it. If we can’t honestly tell you the goal, the scope, and what success looks like, we’ll propose a diagnostic instead of a solution.
If you have one question rather than a whole project, there’s a shorter Strategic Consultation.
All advisory servicesUnderstand it before you diagnose it. Diagnose it before you fix it.
Every job runs the same way, whether it’s a two-week diagnostic or a year of standing advice. The order exists to stop the most common mistake in this business, which is jumping straight from opportunity to solution.
Read it as a table
| Stage | What we still don’t know | What it costs to undo |
|---|---|---|
| Understand | Almost nothing is confirmed yet | Nothing is committed. Walking away costs nothing. |
| Diagnose | We have your version, but we haven’t checked it | Only time spent so far |
| Prioritize | We know the likely cause and we can show why | A direction is forming. Changing it is still cheap. |
| Organize | The goal and the order of work are set | Specialists are being hired and scope is in writing |
| Execute | Not much left that would change the plan | Work is underway. Backing out means undoing it. |
| Measure | We compare the result to where you started | The money and the months are already spent |
Under those six stages there’s a longer internal checklist we run on every client, prospect, referral, and opportunity, with a template at each step. It exists so nothing depends on somebody remembering what comes next. See how RCAG works.
Built by someone who found the flaws the hard way
The second legal dispensary in New York State, and the first owned by someone the state had convicted of a cannabis offense. The governor came to the opening.
A transitional housing program in the Bronx for men coming home, started after roughly fifteen years running businesses in New York City.
Interim Government Affairs Officer at the group representing more than 280 licensed New York dispensaries.
What happened after the opening is the reason this firm exists. Roland had been running businesses for fifteen years, but cannabis was a new industry and there were things in it he didn’t know he didn’t know. Nobody worked out what rushing the opening was going to cost against the loan that had to be paid back, nobody negotiated the big contracts before they got signed, and nobody in the room had the job of saying wait a minute.
None of that is unusual, it’s the ordinary stuff, and you can survive all of it as long as somebody is watching for it.
We don’t accept your diagnosis just because you’re willing to pay for it.
Non-negotiable one of ten
The rules we won’t break to win the work
These come straight from our internal standard. We publish them because a firm that won’t say its limits out loud doesn’t have any.
Tell us what’s going on
It starts with a questionnaire, not a sales call. You’re not expected to diagnose your own business. If you don’t know an answer, saying so is a useful answer.