01 / The Business Manager

A senior operator. Embedded in your business.

An executive-level role on retainer. The Business Manager assesses your business and you for health, audits for risk, and designs the partnerships, systems, and structures that turn ambition into operations. Weekly engagement. Executive presence when and where it matters.

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The role — defined.

An executive operator functioning at owner level.

The Business Manager is not a project manager, a consultant, or an assistant. It is an executive-level role. A senior operator who looks at your business with the eye of an investor, the discipline of a CFO, and the judgment of a chief of staff.

The work begins with assessment — the business and the owner. Where is the business healthy? Where is it exposed? What risks need to be mitigated, and which can be redesigned out entirely? From that diagnostic, the Business Manager designs the partnerships, solutions, and systems that move your business from operating on momentum to operating with structure.

When authority is delegated, the Business Manager represents you in the contexts where it counts — at banks, in vendor negotiations, in regulator conversations, in cabinet-level meetings. The goal is not to do the work of the business. The goal is to make the business function, sustain, and pay.

What your business gets.

Three pillars of an operational business.

Every Business Manager engagement is organized around three outcomes. Not deliverables, not check-boxes — outcomes you can feel in how the business runs day to day.

01 / Structure

Structural organization.

A business with the right legal entity, the right ownership map, the right contracts in place, and the right governance to make decisions without the owner being a bottleneck. The skeleton has to hold before the body can grow.

02 / Process

Procedural organization.

Documented systems for how work happens — intake, hiring, vendor management, client delivery, financial flow, dispute resolution. The kind of clarity that lets a new team member ramp in days instead of months, and lets you take a week off without the business stalling.

03 / Stability

Financial stability & sustainability.

P&L visibility, cash flow rhythm, reserves you can defend, and the financial structure to invest in growth without exposing the foundation. A business is only as sustainable as the next ninety days — and the ninety after that.

Tiers & investment.

Three tiers, matched to where your business is now.

Each tier is a monthly retainer for the Business Manager role. Three-month minimum across all tiers. Each tier builds on the one before it — every Operations engagement includes the full Foundations scope; every Scale engagement includes the full Operations scope.

Took the Scorecard? Your tier classification maps directly to the recommended retainer level — Founder-Run to Foundations, Manager-Ready to Operations, Owner-Led to Scale. Take the Scorecard if you haven't yet.
Foundations
For Founder-Run businesses.
$3,500
per month · 3-month minimum
Includes
  • Weekly 60-minute Business Manager sessions
  • Initial 8-week intensive: business and owner health assessment
  • Risk audit with prioritized mitigation roadmap
  • Foundational systems design — legal, financial, basic operations
  • Vendor representation when situations arise
  • Between-session access via email for time-sensitive decisions
  • Advisory referrals (CPA, attorney, insurance, banking)
Start with Foundations
Operations
For Manager-Ready businesses.
$5,500
per month · 3-month minimum
Builds on the Foundations scope, plus:
Includes
  • Weekly 90-minute Business Manager sessions
  • Monthly on-site visits and external meeting attendance
  • Formal delegated authority for bank and vendor representation
  • Hiring system design — intake, onboarding, supervision
  • Vendor and contractor management framework
  • Quarterly business review with KPI dashboard
Start with Operations
Scale
For Owner-Led businesses.
$8,500
per month · 3-month minimum
Builds on the Operations scope, plus:
Includes
  • Weekly executive cabinet sessions with the owner
  • Advisory board formation and ongoing coordination
  • Strategic partnership design and outreach
  • Expanded representation across stakeholder contexts — investors, regulators, government, strategic partners
  • Annual planning and scenario design
  • Investor-readiness materials (capability statements, financial packaging)
Start with Scale

All engagements begin with the same discovery call. The tier is set at the end of the call, not at booking.

Cadence & rhythm.

What the first quarter actually looks like.

Engagement is weekly, with a minimum one hour per session. The first eight weeks are intensive by design — this is when the business gets diagnosed and the system gets built. After that, the rhythm settles into sustained partnership.

Week 1

Assessment.

Intake conversation, document review, and a structured deep-dive into the state of the business and the owner. By the end of week one, the Business Manager knows where you stand.

Weeks 2–4

Audit & design.

Risk audit completed. Mitigation priorities ranked. System architecture drafted. First external engagements scheduled — bank visits, vendor meetings, regulator touchpoints if relevant to the tier.

Weeks 5–8

Implementation.

Systems rolled out. Documentation handed over. Advisory or cabinet structure formed if the tier calls for it. By the end of week eight, the business is operating with measurable structural change.

Beyond

Sustained partnership.

Weekly cadence continues, now with quarterly reviews. The Business Manager remains embedded — representing, advising, adjusting. The first quarter installed the system. Everything after is operating it.

Fit & honesty.

Who this serves — and who it doesn't.

A Business Manager retainer is a serious commitment of time, trust, and capital. It works exceptionally well for some businesses and not at all for others. Honest filtering before the call respects everyone's time.

This is for you if:

  • Your business has revenue and you're ready to scale — not pre-launch.
  • You're facing a significant operational, financial, or compliance challenge and have the capital to invest in resolving it.
  • You're prepared to give an outside operator access to your books, your team, and your decisions.
  • You understand that structural change takes weeks of consistent effort, not a single workshop.
  • You want a partner who will represent you with authority, not just give advice from the sidelines.

This is not for you if:

  • You're pre-revenue or still validating whether the business idea works.
  • You're looking for task-level help — bookkeeping, admin, social media, content. A virtual assistant or freelancer serves that need better.
  • You're not yet ready to delegate authority to an external operator.
  • You're aware of legal or compliance issues in the business but not prepared to address them.
  • You're looking for a one-time strategy session rather than ongoing partnership.
Take the next step.

Bring an executive operator into your business.

A discovery call is forty-five minutes. We use it to understand your business, talk through where you are, and decide together which tier — if any — is the right fit. No pitch deck. No pressure.

Book Your Discovery Call
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Conteh & Brown Group
Conteh & Brown Group
The Catalog
Public Sector
About Us
Governance
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Schedule A Project
Conteh & Brown Group
Conteh & Brown Group
The Catalog
Public Sector
About Us
Governance
0
0
Schedule A Project
The Catalog
Public Sector
About Us
Governance
Schedule A Project

Hours

Monday — Friday
9:30am — 4pm

Contact

(804) 388-8117

info@conteh-brown.com

Location

6 N 6th Street
Richmond, VA 23219

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Government Contracting Experts Strategic Consulting for Impact Women-Owned. Results-Driven. Structure. Clarity. Execution. Building Systems That Scale Government Contracting Experts Strategic Consulting for Impact Women-Owned. Results-Driven. Structure. Clarity. Execution. Building Systems That Scale