Business plan consultants: what they charge

By Tom Hill, Editor. Updated November 12, 2026.

What firms that publish prices charge

These are the business plan firms we found that put a price on their own site, plus one priced only in a broker’s review, with the date on each price page.

Starting prices from each firm’s own page, except SMB Business Plans. “From” prices are floors. Wise and Butler each state more than one floor, and both are shown.

Treat these as floors. Quality Business Plan’s $500 buys a 16-page plan for loans up to $100,000, with a 12-month profit and loss forecast⁴.

At Coleman, the price climbs with the size of the raise. Its tiers go from $1,250 to $2,500, $5,000 and then from $12,500 for project finance². Two routes cost nothing; they are in the free advisers section below.

Most consultants don’t publish a price

We checked 20 US business plan firms found in Google results, local listings, G2 and AI chat answers. 11 publish no price at all¹².

Our count of each firm’s own site¹². BPlanWriter shows market bands but no price of its own.

The firms that rank highest for “business plan consultants” mostly keep prices off their sites. Cayenne Consulting says, “We don’t have pre-set prices for our work”¹³. OGScapital’s order form says the price “depends on assignment complexity”¹⁴. LivePlan’s consulting service gives “a flat quote” after a free consultation¹⁵.

A quote from one of these firms can still be fair. Use the published lists above as a yardstick: if a quote for a bank plan is far above the $500 to $3,000 range, ask what the extra pays for. Our method page says how we found and checked these firms.

Prices by who will read the plan

You need a paid consultant mainly when a lender, investor or visa officer will read the plan and you can’t build or defend the numbers yourself. Otherwise, start with a free adviser.

Tiers the firm labels for that reader, from sources 1 to 10, except two entry prices with no reader label: Coleman’s $1,250 and Butler’s $1,995. Without SMB Business Plans (priced only in a review), the median is $1,950 (7 firms). Below 5 firms we don’t give a median¹².

The SBA’s rules for lenders ask a start-up for projections with their assumptions, not a bought plan¹⁸. Our main cost page sets out what each SBA loan type asks for.

Visa plans carry more weight. For a new E-2 business, the State Department’s checklist asks for “Financial projections for next 5 years, supported by a thorough business plan”¹⁹. An EB-5 petition filed before the ten jobs exist needs a “comprehensive business plan”, and USCIS says the plan “must be credible”²⁰.

If only you will read the plan, there’s little reason to hire a consultant. Butler names “internal use” as a plan type but gives no price for it⁹, and no firm we checked prices one. Our main cost page ranks the cheaper routes.

Hourly or fixed fee

Most firms that publish prices charge a fixed fee. Business Plan Firm says “we never bill hourly”¹, and Coleman says “There is no hourly meter”². Business Plan Advisors works on “an hourly consulting basis” but publishes no rate¹⁶.

Wise Business Plans gives the one hourly claim with hours attached, under a heading on freelance writers: “Business plan writers range from $79 to $149 an hour. Most projects will take a minimum of 20-30 hours”⁸. That works out to at least $1,580 to $4,470 a plan, a range that takes in the $1,972.50 lender median above. It is still a seller’s claim about the market, and Wise gives no source.

Our only hourly sample is a writer search, not a consultant search: the first page of an Upwork search for “business plan writer”, saved during our vending machine research, has a median of $32.50 an hour (10 profiles; the 3 US-based ones charge $30, $35 and $35)¹⁷. Our business plan writer cost page has the marketplace detail.

We found no rate for general business consultants with a stated method behind it. Plan Writers’ blog says hourly revision rates “can run $75–$300 per hour”²⁷, and LivePlan’s consulting page says “$500–$2,000 on a marketplace” for a freelancer and “$5,000–$15,000” for a consulting firm¹⁵. Neither gives a source.

A fixed fee with a written scope suits a first plan, because you know the total before work starts, and a plan specialist’s published fee is easier to compare than a generalist’s hourly rate. Hourly suits a review of a draft you already have. ProjectionHub sells a fixed-price alternative: a $150 one-to-one call with an SBA expert³.

What the quote should include

From each firm’s own page. “Not stated” means the page doesn’t say.

The numbers are a big part of what you pay for. At ProjectionHub the projections are $750 of its $2,500 plan bundle, or 30%³. If you can write the words yourself, buying only the projections is the cheaper split. The $400 Quality Business Plan package covers 12 months only, so check the years before you compare⁴.

Guarantees and red flags

1. An “SBA Approval Guarantee” that covers one part. ProjectionHub’s says, “If we can’t get you approved, we refund you the SBA Concierge portion 100%”. That is the $1,750 concierge part of its $3,500 bundle, not the plan or the projections³.
2. Delivery guarantees aren’t approval guarantees. Quality Business Plan guarantees delivery in “7 days or less”⁴, which says nothing about the loan.
3. We found no firm that promises funding. Business Plan Firm says “we never charge a success fee” and that it “cannot independently verify your numbers”¹. Coleman says one of its case studies “does not promise the same financing outcome for another business”².
4. Three floors from one firm. Wise gives $1,850, $1,950 and $2,000 as starting prices on three of its pages^6,7,8. Get a written quote, not the blog figure.
5. A plan included free by a broker or lender. Someone is still being paid, so ask who (next section).

Free business plan consultants

Free help exists, mostly as coaching. America’s SBDC has nearly 1,000 local centers offering no-cost business consulting²¹. SCORE mentors give advice at no cost, including on business planning, by email, phone and video²².

The SBDCs say where their help stops. California’s says it “will not negotiate on your behalf, write your business plan, or act as an employee of your business”²³. Pennsylvania’s says the same²⁴, and Florida’s says its consultant can walk you through writing one but can’t write it²⁵. Expect it to take time: Penn State’s SBDC says a comprehensive plan “generally takes from six months to a year”²⁶. None of the SBDC pages we read says how long you wait for a first meeting.

Two other routes cost nothing. Coleman does a basic plan free for veterans, service members, Guard and Reserve members and Gold Star families². GoSBA Loans, one SBA loan broker, builds “your SBA business plan and financial projections” at “no cost to you”. The lender pays the broker a referral fee after the loan closes, disclosed on SBA Form 159¹¹.

Lenders can charge for this work too. Under the SBA’s SOP 50 10 8.1, packaging includes “preparing a business plan, cash flow projections”. A lender may charge a flat fee of up to $2,500 per loan without documenting the work, and above that needs SBA Form 159. The lender also “must advise the Applicant in writing” that it is “not required to obtain or pay for unwanted services”¹⁸. So before you pay a consultant for an SBA plan, ask your lender what it charges for packaging and whether you need both.

Consultant or writer?

For what a $100, $1,000 or $5,000 writer package contains, see Business plan writer cost.

Finding and vetting one

For free help, America’s SBDC locator finds your nearest center²¹. Firms in Google’s local listings vary: Business Plans USA in Irvine publishes no price, while Butler Consultants starts from $1,995^12,9. Location can still matter: Coleman’s Dallas page says there is “no Dallas markup”³⁰, but Butler lists your business’s location among the things that set how much research, and so cost, a plan needs⁹.

Before you hire one:

• Ask for a sample financial model from a past plan for the same kind of loan, raise or visa.
• Ask who will do the work, and whether they have written plans for your loan type or visa.
• Ask for a reference from a client whose plan went to a lender or investor.
• Read the guarantee wording (see Guarantees and red flags above).

If the plan is mainly for you

If you’re thinking of a consultant only to work your numbers out for yourself, before you decide whether to borrow or raise, the free SBDC and SCORE advisers above cost nothing. If you want a guided path instead, Draper costs far less than a consultant. We make it, so weigh that. Draper Start is US$25 a month and Draper Scale US$200 a month²⁸. Tom Hill, Draper’s Growth Lead, describes Draper as about 50 workshops that take you through every step of starting a business²⁹.