This page collects the questions partners ask most before engaging ProfessionalServices.ca. The short answers are above; the sections below add context on the four topics that come up in nearly every first conversation: cost, regulation, timing and trust.
Frequently asked questions
How much do your engagements cost?
We don't publish prices. Each engagement is scoped after a complimentary, confidential consultation, and the fee is set out in a written proposal. GST/HST is added by province (GST and QST in Quebec).
Do we have to sign a long contract?
Each engagement has a defined scope and length, and the proposal states how either side can end it. You see those terms before you agree to anything.
How long before we see results?
Intake improvements can show up within weeks because they affect enquiries you already receive. Visibility and referral work compound over several quarters. We agree a baseline so progress is measurable either way.
We tried a marketing agency before and it didn't work. Why would this be different?
Often the agency produced activity, such as posts or ads, without fixing intake or measurement, so nobody could tell what worked. We start with your numbers and intake, size plans to partner time, and report against a baseline.
Do you understand our profession's advertising rules?
We work inside them, but we don't interpret them. Law societies, engineering regulators and CPA bodies each publish their own rules, and you confirm compliance. Our areas page links each regulator.
Do you give legal, engineering or accounting advice?
No. We are business and marketing advisers. Professional and regulatory questions go to your regulator or your own counsel.
Who owns the website, profiles and accounts?
Your firm should own its domain, website, business profiles and analytics accounts in its own name. We work with access you grant, and the proposal confirms ownership of materials in writing.
Will you see confidential client information?
We work from fee, time and enquiry summaries rather than client files, and can work with coded client names. Confidentiality terms are written into the proposal.
Do you work with sole practitioners?
Sometimes. Sole practitioners with full calendars usually benefit most from intake and referral work rather than broad visibility campaigns. The consultation will tell us whether we can help.
Do you meet in person?
Yes, or by video call, whichever you prefer; phone, text and email work too. That flexibility tends to suit partners who spend much of the week in court, on site or with clients.
Will you write our articles and practice-area pages?
We plan, brief and edit them. A licensed professional at your firm writes or approves the substance, because accuracy and accountability rest with the firm.
How do you report progress?
With a short monthly summary against the agreed baseline: enquiries by source, conversion at each intake stage, referral activity and visibility for chosen specialties. If something isn't working, the report says so.
Can you promise more clients?
No. Nobody can honestly promise that. We can promise a clear plan, honest measurement and steady follow-through.
On cost and commitment
We don't publish a rate card. Engagements are scoped individually because a firm of two partners and a firm of twenty need different work. You receive the scope, fee and terms in a written proposal after a complimentary, confidential consultation with a senior partner, and you decide from there. The engagements page explains what makes an engagement larger or smaller and which of SAZ.ca's three engagement types fits common situations.
One practical tip: before any first conversation, with us or anyone else, pull three numbers. How many new-client enquiries did the firm receive last month? How many became clients? Where did your last ten new clients come from? If you can't answer, that gap is itself useful information, and it usually points to client intake as the place to start.
On professional rules
This is the question we respect most. Professional regulators set rules on advertising, client endorsements, designations, referral arrangements and confidentiality, and those rules differ between professions and provinces. We don't summarise or interpret them. We build plans that assume your compliance review and send you to the regulator directly. The areas page links the law society, engineering regulator and CPA body for every province and territory.
In practice, this means every content piece is written or approved by a licensed professional at your firm, every referral arrangement is checked against your rules before it starts, and every AI routine keeps a named professional accountable.
On timing
Different work moves at different speeds:
- Intake affects enquiries you already receive, so changes can show up quickly.
- Visibility compounds over months; a realistic horizon is closer to a year.
- Referrals move at the pace of relationships, usually measured in quarters.
- Strategy shows its effect in what the firm chooses to do over the following year.
The results page shows how these timelines played out in our HVAC work, presented as results from our HVAC work rather than professional-services examples.
On ownership and access
Your firm should own everything that represents it online: the domain name, the website, business profiles, analytics and any advertising accounts. Register them in the firm's name, with a partner or office manager holding the main login. When we work on them, we use access you grant and can revoke.
This matters more than it sounds. Firms that let a past supplier register their domain or profiles sometimes discover, years later, that they can't change their own website without that supplier's help. If you are unsure who controls your accounts today, that is worth checking this week, whether or not you ever work with us.
On working with several partners
Partnerships make decisions differently from owner-managed companies. Growth plans that only the managing partner believes in rarely survive the first disagreement. We interview partners individually, show everyone the same numbers, and aim for a short written set of choices the partnership has actually agreed. Where partners disagree, that disagreement is surfaced and resolved early rather than left to undermine the plan later.
On trust
Partners who have been disappointed by an agency usually describe the same pattern: activity reports full of impressions and posts, no clear link to new clients, and a contract that was hard to leave. We try to be the opposite: numbers first, written scope, honest monthly reporting, and plans that fit the hours partners actually have.
If your question isn't answered here, or you would rather talk it through than read about it, the contact page explains how to reach us. We usually reply within one business day.