Advisory Service

Sometimes the owner needs someone in their corner.

Everyone around you has a stake in the answer. That’s the problem.

A standing relationship with the person who actually has to make the call, for the decisions that don’t fit inside a project and don’t have anyone else to test them against.

The part nobody warns you about

Being the only one who can decide is a job on its own

Everyone around you has a stake in what you choose. Your team needs you confident, your lender needs you optimistic, your family needs you home, and your vendors need you agreeable. None of them can be the person you think out loud with, and the ones who could be usually work for you, which is not the same thing.

So owners end up making the biggest calls of their working life with nobody to test the thinking against, and the failure mode isn’t bad judgment. It’s unexamined judgment: a decision that sounded right at eleven at night and never got looked at again in daylight.

What the seat is

A standing relationship with the person who has to make the call

Counsel for the owner

This is the one service that isn’t organized around a problem. It’s organized around you, and it runs on a standing basis rather than a defined scope with an end date. The work is whatever is actually in front of you that week: a decision you’re circling, a conversation you’re dreading, a number that doesn’t feel right, a person you can’t work out.

Roland leads these directly. That matters here more than anywhere else on this site, because the value is in having the same person across the table long enough to know your business and to say the unwelcome thing without having to soften it first.

Being clear

What this isn’t

It isn’t therapy
Carrying a business is heavy and we’re not going to pretend otherwise, but this is business counsel. If what you need is a professional who does the other thing, that’s a good idea and it isn’t us.
It isn’t a board seat
We don’t take a governance role, we don’t vote, and we don’t hold a position in your company. You keep every decision. We just make sure it got examined before you made it.
It isn’t agreement
You’re not paying for somebody to tell you your plan is good. If we think you’re about to make an expensive mistake we’ll say so, and we’ll keep saying so for as long as we think it’s true.
It isn’t the licensed professions
We’re not your attorney, your accountant or your investment adviser, and we don’t act like any of them. When the answer to what you’re asking belongs to one of those, we say which one and why.
That depends on what you’re carrying, and it’s one of the things the engagement letter sets out before anything starts. Some owners want a fixed rhythm, others want the standing right to call when something lands.
Yes, and owners often do. The standing seat is about you, and a defined project is about a problem, so they answer different questions and they don’t overlap.
The engagement letter sets out how information is handled before any substantial work begins. It’s a fair question to ask us directly before you sign anything, and you should ask it.
The other five

If this isn’t the one

All advisory services
Business Diagnostic & Strategy AssessmentWhere most people start Business Launch & Development AdvisoryBefore the doors open Business Stabilization & Operational ImprovementWhen it’s already tight Special Situations & Strategic ProjectsOne defined problem Cannabis Retail AdvisoryOur named practice

If you’ve been making these calls alone, you don’t have to.

One conversation to find out whether a standing relationship is the right shape for what you need.

Start a conversation About Roland

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.