The Coffee-Break Consultancy: How to Stop Giving Away Your Best Thinking

Every SME owner has a version of this week. A supplier asks for a quick view on a pricing page. A former colleague wants twenty minutes about their new venture. A long email arrives with a simple question that somehow needs a full strategic teardown. You answer because you are helpful, because you know your stuff, and because saying no feels awkward. Then you look at your actual work and wonder where the day went.

This is not a rant about being nice. Being generous with knowledge is one of the best things about running a small business. The problem is when the same answers keep leaving your head for free, in the same shape, to the same sort of person, and never turn into anything you can build on. That is not generosity any more. It is an unpaid product line.

The invisible invoice

Start with a week of honest tracking. Not a grand system. A note on your phone or a scrap of paper is fine. Every time someone asks for advice, write down three things: the question in plain English, who asked, and how long it actually took. Include the follow-up emails. Include the thinking-in-the-shower time if it was genuinely for them.

At the end of the week, group the notes. You are looking for repeats, not one-offs. Is there a question that keeps coming back in different clothes? Something like: how do I price this? Should I hire a freelancer or an agency? Is this lease worth signing? How do I make my website sound less generic? What should I spend on marketing first?

The repeat is the signal. It means you have a useful answer, a recognisable audience, and a proven demand for the thinking. That is the raw material for a small paid offer.

What the free stuff is really costing

It is tempting to measure the cost only in hours. That matters, but it is not the whole story. Free advice given at scale quietly sets expectations. It tells people that your best thinking is available on tap, in any format, at any length, with no boundary. That can make the paid work harder to sell because the free version already feels like the norm.

It can also blur your positioning. If you are known as the person who will always give a quick answer, you may be remembered as helpful but not as someone with a defined service. Helpful is good. Helpful and bookable is better.

None of this means you should start charging your mates for a pint-sized opinion. It means deciding where the line sits. A quick factual answer can stay free. A proper look at someone's numbers, plans or options is a different thing. That is the bit worth packaging.

Pick the answer with a buyer

Choose the repeated question with the clearest buyer and the clearest outcome. Do not pick the broadest topic. Pick the one where someone is already stuck and already asking. A good first offer solves a specific, recognisable problem in a short space of time.

For example, instead of packaging 'marketing advice', package a 'Second Opinion Session' for a small business that has a campaign plan and wants a fresh pair of eyes before spending money. Instead of 'business coaching', package a 'Pricing Sanity Check' for a founder who has a spreadsheet and a nagging feeling their margins are wrong.

Give it a name, a clear who-it-is-for sentence, and a simple list of what happens. Something like: a 45-minute call, a one-page summary of the main recommendations, and one follow-up email for clarifications. That is enough for a first version. You are not building a course. You are productising the conversation you already keep having.

Pricing the first version

Price it so it feels real but not terrifying. A useful starting point is to work out what the session genuinely costs you: the call, the preparation, the write-up, the admin, and a sensible margin. Then look at what your market will bear. For many UK SMEs, a first small offer might sit somewhere between £150 and £350, depending on the sector and the depth. The exact number matters less than the principle: it should be paid, it should be clear, and it should be easy to buy.

Resist the urge to launch it at £20 to 'test the water'. That does not test the offer; it tests whether people will take a bargain. A modest but proper price tells everyone this is a real service. If you want a launch offer, make it a time-limited rate for the first few clients or include a useful extra, not a permanent discount that undercuts the value.

The awkward bit: saying 'this is chargeable'

The conversation does not need to be a confrontation. It needs to be clear and a bit boring. Try something like: 'Happy to answer the quick factual bits as always. For the part that needs me to look at your numbers properly, I've started running a paid Second Opinion Session. It's a 45-minute call plus a short written summary, and it's [price]. I can send you the link if it's useful.'

That is it. No apology. No long justification. No sudden formality. You are not withdrawing warmth; you are drawing a line around a specific piece of work. For existing clients, check whether the question falls inside their current scope. For friends, you can offer a discount, but do not make the default free unless you genuinely want to. Saying 'I'd normally charge for this bit' is allowed.

Make it easy to say yes

Once the offer exists, do not hide it. Put a simple booking link in your email signature. Keep a one-page description you can paste into replies. Take payment upfront so the admin does not become a second job. And when someone books, do the session properly: listen, give the answer, write the summary, and end on time.

The first few sessions will teach you more than another month of wondering. If nobody buys, that is data too. Ask a couple of the people who said no what would have made it easier. Maybe the wording was vague. Maybe the price was wrong. Maybe they were never going to pay and just wanted a chat. All of that is useful.

The aim is not to monetise every conversation. It is to stop giving away your strongest, most repeated thinking in a format that never compounds. Keep the quick kindness. Package the proper help. Your future self, and your diary, will thank you.