Advisory Services

Six ways in. One method.

You don’t have to know which one you need before you call.

Business advisory for owners who have more opportunity than structure. Six practices, one published method, and the same limits on all of them.

Most people arrive knowing something is wrong without being able to name it, and that’s a normal place to start. You don’t need to pick the right one of these before you call, because the first conversation is partly about working out which one this actually is.

The six below are the shapes the work usually takes. They aren’t products, and they don’t come with a fixed price or a set number of hours, because the honest answer to “what will this cost” depends on what we find in the first few weeks. What they do have in common is a method, and that method is the same one every time.

Five of them are industry-agnostic. The sixth is cannabis retail, which is named because it’s where our most expensive experience sits, not because it’s what the firm is.

The six

What we do, in plain terms

How the work runs
Business Diagnostic & Strategy AssessmentLet’s figure out what’s really going on. The starting point for most people, and the one that decides whether anything else is worth doing.Where most people start Business Launch & Development AdvisoryBefore you open, make sure you’re ready. The decisions made before opening are the ones that are hardest to undo afterwards, which is why this is a separate practice.Before the doors open Business Stabilization & Operational ImprovementThe business is open. Now something isn’t working. Revenue can look fine while the underlying position gets worse every month, and this is the work of finding out which one you’re in.When it’s already tight Owner & Executive AdvisorySometimes the owner needs someone in their corner. Not a project with an end date but a standing relationship, for the person who has to make the call either way.The ongoing seat Special Situations & Strategic ProjectsOne problem. One objective. A clear plan. For when you already know what the problem is and need it handled rather than diagnosed.One defined problem Cannabis Retail AdvisoryA license gives you permission. Permission doesn’t mean you know how. The same method, applied in the industry where we learned it the hard way and at our own expense.Our named practice
What they share

Whichever one you come in through, the work runs the same way and you see the same thing at the end of it.

Every engagement goes through six stages, from the first conversation to the point where the work is finished and handed over, and inside those stages there are thirteen steps that happen in order. We publish all of it because a client should be able to see where they are without asking, and because a firm that won’t show you its process is asking you to take the process on faith.

Nothing starts on a handshake. Before any work begins you get a written proposal setting out what we’re doing, what we’re not doing, what it costs, and how it ends. If we can’t write that down clearly, the engagement isn’t ready to start, and that’s a problem to solve before you’re paying for it rather than after.

And where a job belongs to a licensed professional, it goes to one. That’s what the professional network is for: eleven disciplines, people we’d put in front of our own business, coordinated by us so you’re not the one managing four firms who don’t talk to each other.

6
Stages
From first conversation to handover, published in full.
13
Steps
In order, inside those stages, so you always know where you are.
11
Disciplines
In the professional network, coordinated rather than handed off.
Limits

The same limits apply to all six

We are not a law firm, an accounting firm, or an investment adviser
We don’t practice law, file your taxes, audit your books, or advise on securities, and nothing on this site is legal, tax, accounting or investment advice. When a question belongs to one of those professions, our job is to say so early and get the right person in the room.
We don’t take a position in your business
No equity, no stake in your license, no ownership interest as a condition of the work. You keep what you built, and our interest in the outcome is the same one any advisor should have: doing the job well enough that you’d call us again.
We tell you what we actually think
Including when the honest answer is that the deal is bad, the timing is wrong, or you shouldn’t do this at all. Paying someone to agree with you is expensive in a way that doesn’t show up until later, and it’s the thing this firm exists because of.

On the professional network, one thing is worth saying plainly rather than leaving to be assumed. We choose professionals because we know they can help solve your problem, the same way they help us solve ours. There is no membership fee to join the network. Referral, affiliate, origination or other compensation arrangements may exist depending on the professional category and the engagement, but compensation does not buy access to RCAG clients and does not determine who we recommend.

Start with a conversation and we’ll work it out together. Most engagements begin as a diagnostic anyway, because the thing an owner is experiencing and the thing actually causing it are often two different problems.
It depends on what the work turns out to be, and anyone who quotes you a number before understanding the situation is guessing. What we will commit to is that you get it in writing, before work starts, with the scope and the limits set out next to the price.
No. Five of the six are industry-agnostic and the firm is being built as a general advisory practice. Cannabis retail is one named practice inside it.
Both, depending on what the job is. We do the advisory work, and where a matter is regulated professional work we bring in someone licensed to do it and stay in the room to coordinate rather than dropping you a name and leaving.

Not sure which one this is?

That’s the normal place to start. Tell us what’s going on and we’ll tell you straight whether we’re the right people for it.

Start a conversation See how the work runs

Scope, deliverables and timing are determined by the problem RCAG is being asked to solve. Every engagement is defined in writing before work begins.

Roland Conner Advisory Group LLC provides business advisory and consulting services. RCAG does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Submitting information through this website does not create a consulting or advisory relationship.