What kinds of businesses do you work with?

The reason stage beats industry is that year one problems are structural rather than technical. A bakery and a bookkeeping practice both need to decide who they serve and who they do not, both need to be findable when somebody looks for what they do, both need a way to get paid that does not create work, and both need to know what a customer is worth before spending anything to acquire one. Those are the same problems. What differs is vocabulary, and vocabulary is learnable in a conversation.

There is a practical qualification worth naming. This works best for businesses that sell to a defined customer rather than to everybody, and where somebody can actually be found searching for what you do. A local service business, a practice, a shop, a specialised product. It works less well for businesses whose growth depends entirely on a channel I do not work in, or where the customer base is so narrow that no digital discovery happens at all and every sale comes from an existing relationship.

The other requirement is the owner staying involved. This is not a service that takes the whole problem away and reports back quarterly. Decisions about positioning, pricing, and who you serve cannot be delegated, because getting them right depends on information only you hold. If what you want is somebody to hand it all to, that is a legitimate thing to want and there are firms built for it.

If you are unsure whether your business fits, the fastest way to find out is to describe it in three sentences and ask. The answer arrives quickly and is sometimes no, which is a more useful outcome than a discovery process designed to end in yes.

The other thing worth knowing is what makes an engagement work regardless of category, which is having somebody who can decide. Businesses with several partners who each want a different direction spend the engagement negotiating internally rather than progressing, and that is a poor use of a first year. Establishing who makes the call before starting is worth more than any amount of matching by industry.