Service
A business plan consultant, not a document factory
Most founders do not need someone to type a plan. They need someone to test the assumptions behind it, then write the version that survives scrutiny.
- One consultant from scoping call to final file
- Assumptions challenged before they are written down
- No account managers, no handoffs, no template library
- English-language work only, delivered remotely
The difference between a writer and a consultant
A writer takes your inputs and produces prose. A consultant asks whether the inputs are right before committing them to a document that a bank will read.
In practice that means the first conversation is not about formatting. It is about the money. How much is being raised, what it buys, what happens if the revenue arrives late, and what the founder is personally risking. If those answers are thin, no amount of good writing fixes the plan.
I have one rule for engagements: the numbers get tested before the narrative gets polished. It is easier to change an assumption in week one than to defend it in a credit committee.
Where consultants add value — and where they do not
| Situation | Consultant helps | Consultant does not help |
|---|---|---|
| Funding amount is unclear | Sizing the ask against use of funds and repayment capacity | Inventing a number the bank will like |
| Market is unfamiliar | Structured competitor and segment research | Producing market data that does not exist |
| Numbers are inconsistent | Rebuilding the model so revenue, costs and cash reconcile | Making a weak business look strong |
| Deadline is tight | Sequencing work around the submission date | Compressing a four-week job into four days |
| Idea is early | Telling you a feasibility study comes first | Writing a confident plan around unknowns |
How an engagement runs
1. Scoping call (30 minutes, free). We establish the funding purpose, the reader, the deadline and the inputs you already hold. No writing happens in this call.
2. Written scope and quote. Deliverables, inputs required, timeline, revision rounds, price and currency. Nothing starts on a verbal estimate.
3. Advance payment. Standard plans in full; larger scopes staged in writing with the first stage paid up front.
4. Research and drafting. I work through the market, the operating model and the financials, and send a draft for review rather than waiting until the end.
5. Review and two revision rounds. You mark up the draft; I revise within the agreed scope.
6. Final delivery. Plan and model files, in the formats agreed in the scope.
What I ask before quoting
- Who reads this document, and what decision are they making?
- What is the funding amount, and what is it spent on?
- What evidence exists today — quotes, leases, contracts, historical accounts?
- What is the deadline, and is it fixed?
- Is the entity already registered, and in which jurisdiction?
The answers determine whether this is a two-week plan, a staged feasibility-then-plan engagement, or a conversation about doing something smaller first.
Working remotely, without pretending otherwise
Saudi Arabia is roughly two hours behind Pakistan, so Gulf business hours fall in my afternoon. Calls are scheduled in that overlap. Documents are exchanged by email, and questions are answered within one working day.
There is no Jeddah office and I do not imply one. Some founders care about that; most care about whether the document is any good. I would rather lose the ones who care about a fake address than mislead them.
What I will not do
- Guarantee a loan, an approval or an investor meeting.
- Inflate projections to make a marginal business look fundable.
- Present sample documents as client work.
- Take an Arabic-language engagement and machine-translate it.
- Submit applications on your behalf.
Is a consultant worth the fee?
A plan that costs a few thousand dollars is expensive if it is a formality and cheap if it unlocks a loan or shortens a funding round. The honest answer depends on what the document is for.
If you are writing for your own clarity, the guides on this site are probably enough. If the document goes to a credit committee or an investor, the cost of getting the assumptions wrong is usually larger than the cost of the engagement.
How to judge a consultant before hiring
Ask four questions, and judge the answers rather than the credentials:
| Question | A good answer | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes the document? | The person you are speaking to | "Our team" with no names |
| What happens if the numbers do not work? | An honest conversation before writing | A promise that the numbers can be "adjusted" |
| Can I see a full document? | A labelled sample, complete | Screenshots of covers only |
| What is not included? | A clear list | Everything is included, always |
The fourth question is the most revealing. Anyone who cannot describe the boundaries of their service either has not thought about it or is avoiding the subject.
What a review engagement looks like
Not every founder needs a full build. A review is a smaller piece of work:
- You send the draft plan and the model.
- I read both against the funding question and the reader.
- You receive a written mark-up: structural gaps, unsupported claims, inconsistencies between plan and model, and a prioritised list of fixes.
- An optional call to walk through the priorities.
It suits founders who have written a decent draft and want a second pair of eyes before submission, and it is usually a fraction of the cost of a rebuild.
The limits of the relationship
I am not the founder's representative in front of a lender, and I do not negotiate terms. The document is the deliverable. Founders who expect a consultant to advocate for them in a credit committee are buying something I do not sell.
What I can do is make sure that when the founder walks into that room, the document does not let them down.