Business advisory services: what they include and how they work.

The three get sold interchangeably, and the difference decides whether you get what you need.

Consulting delivers a defined project and hands over a deliverable.

Coaching develops your own ability, largely by asking rather than telling.

Advisory sits between: directive like consulting, but ongoing and applied to the whole business rather than one project.

If the engagement ends with a document, you bought consulting.

If it ends with a business that runs differently, you bought advisory.

This is where owners lose money.

A low monthly fee often means the model is leveraged so heavily that you are really buying content with a group call bolted on.

That can be fine — as long as you know which one you are buying.

The tells of genuine advisory: It starts with a diagnosis of your specific business, not a standard curriculum.

The advisor has operated a company, not only taught.

Scope and outcome are defined in numbers before you pay.

You can name the person responsible for your account and reach them.

There are references you are allowed to call.

Ongoing advisory typically runs $1,500–$10,000 per month for one-to-one work, or $500–$2,500 per month in a structured group programme.

What moves the number is the advisor's operating experience and the scope — not the count of hours.

The right way to judge it is against the constraint: what is the problem costing you per month, and does the fee comfortably fit inside that gap?