The short answer
In a well-run engagement, discovery mostly uses the consultant's time, not yours — a few interviews and access to your numbers. During implementation, plan on a weekly working session of one to two hours with your management team, plus prompt decisions and some follow-through between sessions. The engagement should be designed to give you hours back, and most owners find their weekly hours fall as systems and managers take over work that used to land on them.
- Discovery: a few hours of your time over several weeks.
- Implementation: a weekly session plus decisions within the week.
- The payoff: fewer hours firefighting, more decisions made without you.
Owners who are already working sixty-hour weeks understandably worry that a consultant will add another project to an overloaded calendar. A poorly run engagement can do exactly that: endless meetings, homework assignments and reports to review. A good one works differently. It asks for your time where your authority and knowledge are irreplaceable, and uses the consultant's time for everything else.
Your time during discovery
Discovery is the consultant's heaviest phase, and your lightest. The consultant observes the business as it normally runs — floor walks, ride-alongs, time in the office — and interviews key people. From you, it typically needs:
- An initial conversation about the business, its history and your goals.
- Access to the numbers, which your bookkeeper or CPA can often provide.
- A short interview or two as findings take shape.
- Introductions to your managers so they know the consultant is there with your support.
You should be able to run your business normally throughout. In fact, it's important that you do; the consultant needs to see normal days, not a staged version.
Your time at the findings stage
When discovery ends, you'll spend a few focused hours reviewing what was found, what each problem costs and the proposed plan. This is one of the most important meetings of the engagement, because it's where priorities are agreed and success is defined. Give it your full attention and bring any co-owner or partner who shares major decisions.
Your time during implementation
The weekly working session
This is the core commitment: a regular session, usually one to two hours, with the consultant and your key managers. Progress is reviewed against the numbers, decisions are made, obstacles are cleared and next steps are assigned. Protect it. Consistency matters more than length.
Decisions between sessions
Implementation moves at the speed of your decisions. Some recommendations — a price change, a role change, a new policy — need your approval. Deciding within the week keeps momentum; delays stall the whole plan.
Leading the change
Your team watches how you treat the work. A few minutes here and there — mentioning the new process in a crew meeting, asking a manager about their scorecard number, backing a new routine when it's tested — makes a disproportionate difference.
A realistic weekly picture
| Phase | Owner time per week (typical) | What it's used for |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | A few hours in total across the phase | Initial conversation, interviews, introductions |
| Findings | A few focused hours, once | Reviewing findings, agreeing priorities and measures |
| Implementation | One to two hours, plus decisions | Weekly working session, approvals, leading change |
| Results and release | Declining | Confirming your team runs the new routines |
These are typical patterns, not fixed rules; the exact commitment depends on the scope and on how much your managers can take on.
Your managers' time
Your managers will spend more time than you in some phases, especially implementation. They'll participate in the weekly session, help design new processes, and run new routines. That's deliberate: the people who will operate the business after the consultant leaves need to own the changes. Plan for it by protecting their time too, particularly during the first months of implementation.
How a good engagement gives time back
The point of the work is to reduce the demands on you. As processes are documented, roles clarified and decision rights delegated, questions that used to land on your desk start being answered by your team. A weekly scorecard replaces the constant checking-in. A management meeting replaces dozens of hallway conversations. Owners commonly find that their hours fall during the engagement, not after it — and that the hours they do work shift from firefighting toward the decisions only they can make. We explain the dynamics in breaking the owner bottleneck and working seventy-hour weeks.
Where your hours go — before and after
It helps to look at where an owner's week actually goes. Before an engagement, a typical owner of a growing service business spends a large share of each day on interruptions: answering questions only they can answer, approving small purchases, resolving scheduling conflicts, handling customer escalations, checking on jobs because there's no report that tells them what's happening. Very little of the week goes to pricing strategy, developing managers, winning better customers or planning — the work only an owner can do and the work that grows the business.
The structural changes of an engagement target exactly those interruptions. Documented processes answer the routine questions. Delegated decision rights move small approvals to managers. A weekly scorecard replaces daily check-ins. A management meeting gathers issues into one place instead of a stream of hallway conversations. As each of these takes hold, the owner's week changes shape: fewer hours overall, and far more of them spent on high-value decisions. That shift, more than the hours saved, is what owners usually value most.
Making room for the engagement
If your calendar is genuinely full, start by identifying two or three hours a week you can reclaim. Often it's a recurring meeting that could be shorter, a task a manager could take over, or a daily check-in that could become a weekly one. Many owners find that the first weeks of an engagement pay for their own time by removing one or two of the biggest sources of interruption early.
What happens if you can't give the time?
Be honest before you start. If you genuinely can't commit to a weekly session and prompt decisions, even the best consultant will struggle, and you'll pay for progress that doesn't happen. In that case, start smaller — a focused problem, a lighter scope — or wait until you can commit. Sometimes the first job of an engagement is freeing enough of the owner's time to make the rest of it possible, by fixing the most urgent source of interruptions first.
How we structure the owner's time
In our engagements, discovery mostly uses our time, not yours; we observe your operation working normally. During implementation, plan on a weekly working session with your management team plus the follow-through your managers own. The commitments we ask of you are agreed at the same time as our 2×1 guarantee, so both sides know what partnership means in practice. See how our engagements work.
Frequently asked questions
Will a consultant need me on site with them every day?
No. During discovery, the consultant observes the business running normally and interviews your team. You're needed for key conversations, not constant accompaniment.
Can my operations manager attend sessions instead of me?
Your managers should attend, but the owner should too, at least for the weekly session. Decisions about pricing, roles and priorities need your authority, and your presence signals that the work matters.
What if something urgent comes up on session day?
Occasional rescheduling is normal. Frequent cancellations are a warning sign that the engagement isn't being prioritized, and progress will slow accordingly.
Will the engagement reduce my hours?
That's one of the main goals. As systems and managers take over work that used to depend on you, most owners find their weekly hours fall and shift toward higher-value decisions.
How much time will my employees spend with the consultant?
Front-line staff spend a small amount of time in interviews and ride-alongs during discovery. Managers spend more during implementation, because they'll run the new routines.
Should I expect homework between sessions?
Some follow-through, yes — decisions, approvals and backing your managers as they run new routines. Most of the detailed work between sessions is done by your managers with the consultant's coaching, not by you personally.
What if my busy season hits in the middle of the engagement?
Plan for it at the start. The weekly session can be shortened in peak weeks, and heavier implementation can be scheduled for quieter months so momentum isn't lost.
Is remote work easier on my schedule?
Weekly remote sessions are easy to fit into a busy schedule. On-site time is still important for discovery and key implementation steps, especially for operational problems.
Where to start
The first conversation takes about an hour and costs nothing. Start the free assessment and you'll hear back within one business day. To see the full sequence, read how long business consulting takes and ten habits for getting the most from a consultant.
