[Home](https://stoneforgegroup.com/) · Business Growth Sarasota

Sarasota · Bradenton · Lakewood Ranch · Venice · North Port

# Business consulting in Sarasota, when working harder stopped working.

Stoneforge is a Sarasota business consulting firm working with owner-led services businesses from $1–20M. Two fractional leadership seats – revenue and finance – and a set of free instruments you can run on your own business before you speak to anybody.

Sarasota, Florida · [(941) 231-1971](tel:+19412311971) · [Talk to Us](https://stoneforgegroup.com/contact/)

01 The shape of it

You built something good and it works. It pays people. From the outside you have made it. And somewhere along the way it stopped feeling like that – the phone buzzes on a Sunday and your stomach drops, you are writing quotes late at night because nobody else can, and the money no longer matches the effort.

That is not failure and it is not a marketing problem. It is a stage, and the reason the usual fixes bounce off it is that the real cause is almost never the one you would name first – and it is different in every business.

02 What people call this

## Business consulting, business advice, or a seat in the business?

Owners whose business has stalled usually start by searching for a **business consultant in Sarasota**, or a business advisor, or a business coach. Those are the words to hand, and the need behind them is real enough: something has stopped working, and the person who built it has run out of road on their own.

**[Business strategy](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#business-strategy) is squarely what the two seats do together.** Revenue and finance read against each other is where most strategy questions actually get settled – what to price, what to fund, what to stop, and what the business will be worth. We do not advertise it as a separate line, because it is not a separate piece of work.

The difference is not the scope. It is that the strategy gets built and then run inside the business on a standing rhythm – two fractional executive seats, a Fractional Revenue Leader (Fractional CRO) and a Fractional Financial Leader (Fractional CFO), with four partnerships on each side – rather than studied, written up and handed over.

If what you want is an outside read and a written report, a consultant is genuinely the cheaper answer, and we will say so in the first conversation rather than after it.

03 Find out where you actually are

Start with something free rather than a conversation. [The Anatomy of a Well-Run Business](https://stoneforgegroup.com/anatomy-of-a-well-run-business/) runs eleven areas and eighty-one specifics across the whole business and ranks where the attention belongs. [The 30-second test](https://stoneforgegroup.com/where-its-stuck/) sorts whether the block is the selling or the numbers. Or take [one of the two scorecards](https://stoneforgegroup.com/scorecards/) directly.

None of them ask for an email and none of them save what you answer. There are also five [one-page instruments](https://stoneforgegroup.com/tools/) for specific situations, and [a plain-language glossary](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/) of the forty-odd terms owners actually meet.

04 The two seats

[A fractional CRO in Sarasota](https://stoneforgegroup.com/fractional-cro-sarasota/) – revenue strategy, the system that runs it, and the team that delivers it. From $3,000 a month.

[A fractional CFO in Sarasota](https://stoneforgegroup.com/fractional-cfo-sarasota/) – cash flow, margin, pricing and the read on what is ahead. From $2,500 to $10,000+ a month.

**Cash Flow.** The money actually moving in and out of the business over a period, as distinct from profit. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#cash-flow)

Both run on a standing rhythm rather than as a one-off project, and both are on a thirty-day notice. Some businesses need one seat, some need both, and some need neither – [what we do](https://stoneforgegroup.com/what-we-do/) sets out the difference.

05 What it costs

## Four partnerships on each side, on thirty-day notice.

Each seat runs as four partnerships rather than one price, and both use the same four names because they describe the same four stages of a business – the revenue seat and the financial seat are priced separately. The one that fits follows from where the business actually is, not from a package – and either seat can be scoped on its own or together.

### The revenue seat

Revenue Bedrock $3,000 – $4,000 Work is won on the owner's instinct and relationships

Revenue Cornerstone $4,500 – $6,000 A team sells, but every deal still routes through the owner

Revenue Keystone $7,000 – $9,000 Several people or service lines win work

Revenue Capstone From $12,000 Revenue has to be provably transferable

[What each one solves, and how we partner →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/fractional-cro/#partnerships)

### The financial seat

Financial Bedrock $2,500 – $3,000 $1M – $2.5M revenue

Financial Cornerstone $4,000 – $5,000 $2.5M – $5M revenue

Financial Keystone $6,500 – $8,000 $5M – $10M revenue

Financial Capstone From $10,000 $10M+, or a major transaction

[The decisions each one covers →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/financial-leadership/#partnerships)

06 Owners here, in their own words

“This is my first Business Coach and I am very happy we met. Kristina and James have been very helpful in direction of our business and understanding our financials. Also they have been instrumental in preparing myself for winding down my hours from 60 hrs to and a start of 50 hrs with further reduction of hrs coming. Highly recommend! Thank you Stoneforge”

**Bob Friedman · Owner, Ace Electric, Sarasota**

“Two months later, Kristina and James have helped me to institute protocols allowing me to see where my time is being wasted, how I can leverage technology and people to do the jobs that I should not be doing, and how to set up my marketing to reach the people that can help me grow my business. If this is what they have accomplished in just two months, I am excited to see where I am in one year!”

**Peter Pike · Owner, Pike Law Firm, Bradenton**

The rest are on [the proof page](https://stoneforgegroup.com/proof/), in the clients' own words.

07 Questions owners ask

## Why has growth flattened when we are working harder than ever?

Because the plateau is a stage rather than a failure, and pushing harder from the front is what holds it in place. The business has matured, every decision still routes back through the owner, and the owner is standing out in front of it taking every hit first – which means the business cannot move past them.

The full answer, on video and in plain text, is at why has my business plateaued.

## Is our problem the selling or the numbers?

Those are the two seats, and they fail differently. Revenue problems look like deals stalling, growth flattening, and winning work depending on the owner. Financial problems look like profit on paper and tight cash, pricing set by guesswork, and decisions made without a clear read.

Plenty of businesses have some of both. The 30-second test sorts it quickly and costs nothing.

## Do we need a consultant, a coach, or something else?

A consultant produces a recommendation and leaves. A coach develops the person. What we do is take a seat in the business on a standing rhythm and stay in it – doing the work with you rather than to you.

Whether that is the right shape depends on the business. It is a fair thing to test in a first conversation, and we will tell you plainly if it is not.

## What size business does this suit?

Owner-led services businesses roughly between $1M and $20M in revenue, where the work is considered and high-value, the relationships matter, and the owner is still the one holding it together.

Below about $1M the honest answer is usually something simpler and cheaper than us.

## What does a business consultant do, and is this the same thing?

A consultant typically studies a problem, produces a recommendation and leaves. What happens next is yours.

This is a different arrangement. Both seats here are held on a standing rhythm inside the business – the work is done with you rather than handed to you, and the person doing it is accountable for whether it actually moves. If a report and a recommendation is what you want, a consultant is genuinely the cheaper answer and we will say so.

## How much does this cost?

The revenue seat runs from $3,000 to $12,000+ a month, in four partnerships sized to the business. The financial seat runs from $2,500 to $10,000+ a month, in four partnerships matched to the decisions ahead. Both are on a thirty-day notice, with no long contract.

You will get a plain number in the first conversation, once we have both seen what the work actually is.

There are eleven of these answered in full, on video and in plain text, in [the question library](https://stoneforgegroup.com/questions/).

08 When you want to talk

Fifty minutes on your business, with James or Kristina, ending in a plain read on what we would look at first and whether this is the right fit. If it is not, we will point you to someone better suited.

[Talk to Us](https://stoneforgegroup.com/contact/) Sarasota, Florida · [(941) 231-1971](tel:+19412311971)