Many owners know the moment: you’ve hit a ceiling, and nobody at your dinner table can help you break through it. 54% of small-business owners handle their marketing alone (BrightLocal, 2025). Most are winging the plan underneath it, and they know it. This is the consulting seat: what to sell, what to charge, and a written 90-day plan. The other thirteen services build on this one.
AI drafts the repetitive parts, a specialist reviews everything, and you approve before it ships.
A business audit — what you sell, to whom, at what price, and which of it is actually working.
A written 90-day plan you can hold us to: dated, specific, and the base every other service builds on.
Pricing & offer strategy — the numbers conversation most owners keep putting off.
Quarterly reviews: a specialist sits with you, and the plan gets re-cut when the quarter teaches something.
The best strategy starts with who buys from you and why, before any tactic. Look at your numbers first: what you sell, to whom, at what price, and which of it makes money. Then pick the channels your best customers already use, and stick with them for a full quarter. Write the plan down with dates, or it stays a wish. Evensteer’s consulting starts with that audit and turns it into a written 90-day plan.
You have a strategy if you can name the customer you’re after and the next step you want them to take. Every post, ad and email should serve that. If each week starts with “what should we try now?”, you’re running on tactics. Try writing your plan down with dates and a goal for each month. If you can’t, start there, before you spend more on ads or tools.
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing lead you hire part-time instead of full-time. They set the plan and often manage whoever does the work. Many small businesses need the plan more than the title. Before you hire one, ask who will carry the plan out, because a plan with nobody to run it stays on paper. Evensteer’s written plan is the base every other service builds on.
It depends on how many hours you need, how senior the person is, and whether they only advise or also run the work. Many charge a monthly retainer, and some charge by the project. Before you compare quotes, ask what you’ll have at the end: a written plan with dates, or just meetings. Evensteer publishes no price list, and you get a written scope with a fixed price within 48 hours of your call.
A consultant helps you decide what to do, and an agency does the work. If you already have people who can carry out a plan, a consultant may be all you need. If you don’t, look for help that does both. At Evensteer, the written plan comes first, and every other service builds on it.
Read more: how outsourced and fractional marketing compare, the marketing problems small business owners ask about.
A person replies within one working day. You get a written scope with a fixed price within 48 hours of your call. For scale: a boutique agency runs $24,000 a year. One owner swapped her agency for the middle ground, a specialist plus software. She put her new cost at about $1,900. We work in that middle ground, and everything ships under your name. See our other services for small business, or the problems they fix.