Business Consultant Brisbane
Independent business analysis and improvement for Brisbane owners turning over $1.5M and above.
Brisbane has around 146,000 registered businesses inside a $225 billion economy, a labour force of 850,000, and a decade of construction ahead of it. A rising city hides a lot of ordinary business problems, and the most common one is a business that looks successful and does not pay its owner properly.
Who I am
I am Sarah Colgate. I am based on the Gold Coast and I work across Brisbane, which is about an hour down the M1 and a drive I make regularly.
I am not going to pretend to be a Brisbane local. What I will tell you is that I have spent more than 25 years running businesses in South East Queensland, built and exited several of them, and came out the other side of a management buyout in 2022. I am Deputy President of the Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce and a Board Director of the Gold Coast Waterways Authority.
The reason that matters to you is simple. I have made payroll on a bad month. I have had a landlord come back with a number I could not absorb. I have sat in the meeting where I asked for help and did not get it. When you describe your situation, I am not hearing it for the first time.
Who I work with
Established Brisbane businesses turning over $1.5M or more. Owners past the survival stage, dealing with the harder problem, which is that the business works and the money is not showing up.
The patterns I see most in Brisbane:
Businesses riding the construction decade. Trades, suppliers, engineering, fit-out, professional services attached to development. There is a lot of work in this city and a lot of thin margin underneath it. Growth on poor margin is the fastest way to run out of cash, because every new job funds itself out of your bank account before it pays you back.
Professional services firms. Legal, accounting, consulting, allied health, agencies. Usually the same story. Revenue per person has been flat for three years, the founder is still the top biller, and nobody has priced properly since 2021.
Multi-site and multi-division businesses. You know the total. You do not know the split. Nearly every business I look at that runs more than one division has one line quietly eating the profit the others make.
Owners planning an exit. Margin and structure are what a buyer pays for. Fixing them 18 months before a sale is worth far more than fixing them during due diligence.
What I actually do
I start with a Business Analysis. It is a structured diagnostic of the whole business built on three sources of evidence: your numbers, a 273-question review of how the business runs, and market research interviews I conduct personally with six of your customers and six of your suppliers.
It takes about six weeks and roughly eight hours of your time. You finish with a report of 120 pages or more that quantifies where your profit is leaking and what each fix is worth in dollars, plus a 90-minute session where I walk you through it.
For businesses above $1M it carries a 10 to 1 guarantee. If it does not identify at least $60,000 in profit currently leaking out of your business, based on your own numbers, you do not pay for it.
If the report supports ongoing work, I coach weekly at $3,000 to $4,400 a month, with unlimited access to me between sessions. If it does not support it, I will say so.
How I work in Brisbane
Honestly, a mix. The questionnaire is online. The twelve market research calls I make myself, by phone, wherever your customers and suppliers happen to be. The 90-minute interpretation I would rather do in person, and for Brisbane clients that means I come to you.
Ongoing coaching runs weekly and most of it is by video, because a weekly hour that actually happens beats a monthly in-person session that keeps getting moved. If you want more face to face than that, say so at the start and we will build it in.
I take a small number of clients at a time, and I work across Brisbane, from the CBD out to Eagle Farm, Milton, Springwood and Northgate.
What it costs
Business Analysis: $6,000. Six weeks. 10 to 1 guarantee for businesses above $1M.
Ongoing coaching: $3,000 to $4,400 a month. Weekly contact, unlimited access, a real accountability partner. Only if the analysis supports it.
Both are generally deductible as a business expense. Check it with your accountant.
Who I am not for
If your books are behind, spend the money on a bookkeeper first. I cannot measure numbers that do not exist.
If you already know exactly what is wrong, go and do it. Paying for a diagnosis you do not need is expensive procrastination.
If payroll next month is a real question, you need a restructuring specialist this week, not a six-week process.
And if you want someone to agree that the market is tough and the staff are the problem, you can get that for free.
Start with a conversation
Fifteen minutes. No report, no pitch. We work out whether what I do is the right thing for your business, or whether something else is.
Call me at 0491 729 043, or book a conversation at sarahcolgate.com.au.
Working with business owners across Brisbane and South East Queensland, including the CBD, Fortitude Valley, Milton, Eagle Farm, Northgate, Springwood and Ipswich.