What would a full business analysis actually cost if you hired a human consultant? Adjust the inputs and find out, with a transparent formula and published UK rates.
Total hours are computed as a sum of six stage estimates, then multiplied by an industry complexity factor and an analysis depth factor. Cost is then hours times the chosen hourly rate, times the analyses-per-year frequency.
Formula:
hours = (sum of stage hours) × industry_multiplier × depth_multiplier
cost = hours × hourly_rate × frequency_per_year
Per-stage base hours (medium site, standard depth):
| Stage | Formula |
|---|---|
| Read & structured note-taking on each page | 0.05 hr × pages |
| External company research (search, news, reviews) | 0.75 hr fixed |
| Technology stack identification | 0.33 hr fixed |
| Customer journey mapping | 0.75 hr + 0.01 hr × pages |
| Digital maturity scoring & write-up | 1.0 hr fixed |
| 3-phase automation roadmap with ROI framing | 1.5 hr fixed |
Industry multipliers (applied to total hours):
| Industry | Multiplier | Why |
|---|---|---|
| General, hospitality | 1.0x | Baseline |
| E-commerce, SaaS, professional services | 1.1x | Slightly more integration surface |
| Manufacturing | 1.2x | Operational complexity |
| Healthcare, legal | 1.3x | Regulatory considerations |
| Financial services | 1.4x | Compliance and audit overhead |
Depth multipliers:
| Depth | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Quick scan (high level) | 0.7x |
| Standard diagnostic | 1.0x |
| Deep audit (with stakeholder interviews) | 1.5x |
Hourly rate ranges (UK, 2024):
| Tier | Hourly rate | Source basis |
|---|---|---|
| Junior independent | £100 | Glassdoor UK consultant entry-level salary, annualised |
| Mid independent | £175 | Payscale UK independent consultant median, IPSE freelance survey |
| Senior independent | £250 | Payscale UK senior consultant, IPSE upper quartile |
| Boutique agency | £350 | UK boutique strategy agency published rate cards |
| Big Four firm | £500 | Public sector procurement disclosures (lower end of Big Four bands of £400 to £1,000+) |
Sources: Glassdoor UK consultant salary data; Payscale UK 2024 freelance and consultant rate data; IPSE (Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) freelance pay survey; UK Government Digital Marketplace published consultant day rates; public Big Four engagement disclosures.
Currency conversion uses approximate fixed rates: 1 GBP = 1.27 USD = 1.17 EUR. Rates updated periodically and not pulled from a live FX feed.
What this calculator does NOT include: client kickoff meetings, scope-change negotiations, revision cycles, travel, expenses, VAT, project management overhead. Real engagements typically add 20% to 50% on top for these. The figure here is the focused analysis time only, which is the part that maps directly onto what the free AI tool automates.
The free AI Business Analyzer at bespokeworks.ai/instant-analysis compresses a real consulting workflow into about five minutes. The natural question every founder asks is: okay, but what was the actual cost of doing this the old way?
We could not find a single honest, sourced answer to that question on the internet. So we built one. The calculator above is the same back-of-envelope model we use internally when scoping fixed-fee engagements, exposed publicly so you can plug in your own numbers and check our maths. It is deliberately not a sales pitch. If your real-world quote is lower than this estimate, the consultant is good value. If it is higher, you have a benchmark to push back with.
The calculator is also useful in its own right. Use it to:
The point of the calculator is not to argue that humans are obsolete. It is to make visible which parts of the work are mechanical, and which parts genuinely need judgement. The free AI Business Analyzer automates the mechanical layer. A senior strategy conversation still adds value on top.
If you spend the £500 to £2,500 you would have spent on a manual baseline analysis on a half-day strategy session instead, you almost certainly come out ahead. That is the trade the free tool unlocks.
A full business analysis covering website audit, market research, technology detection, customer journey mapping, digital maturity scoring, and a prioritised automation roadmap typically takes a human consultant between 4 and 9 hours of focused work. At UK independent consultant rates of £100 to £250 per hour, that translates to roughly £400 to £2,250 per business. Big Four consulting firms charge significantly more, often £400 to £1,000+ per hour.
They are based on running this exact workflow manually before automating it, and are deliberately on the conservative side. Real engagements often run longer due to client meetings, scope changes, and revisions. The calculator omits those overheads on purpose so the comparison is apples-to-apples with what the AI tool actually automates.
Glassdoor UK consultant salary data, Payscale UK 2024 freelance and consultant rate data, the IPSE freelance pay survey, and UK Government Digital Marketplace published day rates. Big Four rates come from public sector engagement disclosures and are at the lower end of the typical Big Four band. Full breakdown is in the methodology section above.
Yes. The calculator and methodology are free to reference, link to, and quote. If you are writing an article on consulting costs, automation ROI, or free business tools, you are welcome to cite the figures here. Please link back to bespokeworks.ai/tools/business-analysis-cost-calculator.
Yes. The BespokeWorks Instant Business Analyzer runs the same six-stage analysis automatically in roughly five minutes. Free, no signup, no credit card. Read the full methodology in the case study.
The free AI Business Analyzer runs the same six-stage workflow in about five minutes. No signup wall, no credit card.