Every post we have published for founders of boutique professional services firms.
I was on the road for a good part of the last few months and saw an interesting trend: CEOs who know they are underpriced for their value are uncomfortable (at best) to increase their prices.
There's an irony that every professional services owner eventually faces: we built our businesses by providing expertise to clients who need specialized knowledge, yet when it comes to growing our...
Most professional services firms grow through founder-led selling, squeezing business development in between management meetings and client deadlines.
The founders were exhausted. They had built a respected professional services firm through talent and relentless effort, yet the business refused to scale. Revenue grew, but not enough.
A simple, repeatable plan to pick wins, launch pilots and measure impact You don’t need a lab or a giant budget to start.
Prime numbers are a crystallizing way to categorize heuristics for scaling businesses, and professional services in particular: Simple definition.
Most firms track business development like they’re reading the scoreboard after the game. Website traffic. Proposal counts. Win rates.
Three years ago, Collective 54 hosted its first annual event for founders of boutique professional services firms.
How to shift internal mindsets and client expectations to transition from hourly billing to outcome pricing.
How much of your hesitation around AI is about real risk—and how much is about uncertainty? Lately, I’ve had a lot of conversations with other founders about privacy and IP in the age of AI.
When Greg Alexander asked me to be one of many irregular bloggers for the Collective 54 community, I embraced my role as the entrepreneur in a smaller company.
CEO’s are putting a lot of pressure on their organizations to “adopt artificial intelligence.” Often it stems from a board mandate.
There’s a truism that’s never changed throughout my career– a satisfied client is the best business strategy of all .
When growth hides fragility When a business crosses $5 million in revenue, founders often relax. Sales feel steady. The team’s expanding. The future looks predictable.
Many consulting firms depend on the founder or a few charismatic partners to bring in new business. That approach works until it doesn’t.
Achieve Efficiency. Drive Performance. Empower People. Operational excellence isn’t just about technology—it’s about aligning people, processes, and purpose.
Every professional services firm thinks it has what the market wants: expertise, experience, and a strong track record. But in 2026, that is the baseline.
Data shows that slow movement in the sales process kills deals - which means saving time in your sales process is an extremely high priority.
When Growth Pulls You Away from Your Clients As boutique firms grow, founders face a familiar tension: You want to stay close to clients — the very people who built your firm’s reputation — yet...
When an acquirer buys your professional services firm, they’re not buying your history, they’re buying your future.
When I started Newpoint Advisors, I thought scaling a professional services firm would be a straight line — a predictable path where each win stacked neatly on top of the last.
The mission of Collective 54 is to help us founders grow, scale, and exit their boutique professional services firm.
Are you still building your consulting practice on the traditional pyramid model while your competitors race toward AI-powered transformation? Here's a wake-up call: the consulting industry has...
At the start of 2025, I made a simple New Year’s resolution: complete a marathon. Up until then, most of my training had been for baseball or CrossFit. Strength mattered more than endurance.
There are two conversations happening in your business. The first is public: growth, new clients, visible momentum. The second happens in private, at 11pm, in your office.