Internal Staff or Our Team - What Does Implementation Really Cost

Decision Guide / Hypothetical Example

Finding the opportunity is only the beginning.

A business may complete an assessment and discover a meaningful Opportunity Number. It may identify several qualified opportunities, funding pathways, partnerships, operational improvements, real estate strategies, technology changes, or institutional programs worth pursuing.

Then the next question becomes:

Who is going to do the work?

The client generally has three choices:

1. Implement internally with existing staff.
2. Use a shared model in which internal staff handles selected responsibilities while Cedric Burl & Company coordinates the more specialized work.
3. Engage Cedric Burl & Company to manage or carry out a defined implementation scope through our team and appropriate outside professionals.

None of those choices is automatically right for every organization.

The important point is that internal implementation is not free.

The Hidden Cost Of “We’Ll Handle It Internally”

When leadership says, “Our staff can do this,” the first question should be:

What work are those employees already being paid to do?

Implementation may require:

• Research
• Application preparation
• Document gathering
• Data organization
• Vendor outreach
• Professional coordination
• Follow-up
• Scheduling
• Proposal review
• Deadline tracking
• Meeting preparation
• Funding documentation
• Partnership outreach
• Property research
• Program development
• Technology implementation
• Reporting
• Status tracking

Those responsibilities do not disappear simply because they are assigned internally.

The organization is still paying for the labor.

And when existing employees take on additional project work, their normal responsibilities may slow down or move to someone else.

The Internal Execution Cost

We refer to this as the Execution Cost.

It is the real organizational cost of moving the strategy from recommendation to completion.

For internal implementation, that cost can include:

• Employee wages or salary attributable to the project
• Payroll taxes and benefits
• Management and supervision time
• Overtime when applicable
• Time spent learning unfamiliar processes
• Time spent locating resources and contacts
• Rework caused by unfamiliarity
• Meetings and internal coordination
• Work displaced from the employee's normal responsibilities
• Delays caused by competing priorities
• The financial impact of missed or expired opportunities

The purpose is not to make internal staff look inefficient.

In many organizations, the staff is already doing exactly what they were hired to do.

The problem is capacity.

A new strategic initiative becomes an additional job placed on top of an existing job.

An Illustrative Comparison

Assume a hypothetical company has identified several high-priority opportunities after an assessment.

The company decides to implement internally.

Three employees are assigned to the project for approximately 10 hours each per week over 12 weeks.

For illustration only, assume the company's actual fully allocated internal cost for those employees averages:

Employee A: $40 per hour
Employee B: $55 per hour
Employee C: $75 per hour

That is 120 project hours for each employee.

Illustrative internal labor cost:

Employee A: $4,800
Employee B: $6,600
Employee C: $9,000

Subtotal: $20,400

Now assume an executive or manager spends three hours per week supervising, reviewing, resolving problems, and keeping the project moving at an internal cost of $100 per hour.

Management cost over 12 weeks: $3,600

The illustrative internal execution cost is already approximately $24,000 before considering overtime, outside professionals, software, travel, displaced work, or the cost of delay.

These figures are purely illustrative. Every organization should use its own actual compensation, benefit, overhead, and time assumptions.

The point is simple:

The comparison is not a $15,000 outside implementation fee versus zero.

If, in a hypothetical situation, Cedric Burl & Company proposed a $15,000 defined implementation scope, the organization should compare that amount against the actual cost, capacity, timing, and risk of executing internally.

The Cost Of Delay

There is another cost that is harder to see on a payroll report.

Time.

Some opportunities have:

• Application deadlines
• Funding cycles
• Budget windows
• Procurement schedules
• Legislative or program periods
• Property timelines
• Investor or lender timing
• Partnership windows
• Contract renewal dates
• Seasonal or market timing

If nobody owns execution, an identified opportunity can sit in a report for months.

A $2 million Opportunity Number does not create value simply because the opportunities were identified.

Value begins when qualified opportunities are pursued on time and in the proper sequence.

A missed deadline may mean waiting for another cycle.

In some situations, that may be weeks.

In others, it may be a year or longer.

This is why the Cost of Delay belongs in the implementation decision.

Three Implementation Paths

Option 1 — Internal Implementation

The client keeps execution inside the organization.

This may make sense when:

• Staff has available capacity
• The team already understands the process
• Internal relationships are strong
• The work fits existing job responsibilities
• Deadlines can be managed
• Leadership has confidence in internal execution

Cedric Burl & Company may provide the strategy and implementation roadmap while the organization handles execution.

Option 2 — Shared Implementation

Responsibilities are divided.

For example, the client may handle:

• Internal documents
• Financial records
• Executive approvals
• Staff interviews
• Internal operational changes

Cedric Burl & Company may handle or coordinate:

• Opportunity tracking
• Research
• External outreach
• Professional coordination
• Vendor evaluation
• Documentation organization
• Project follow-up
• Deadline management
• Implementation reporting

This can reduce the burden on staff while keeping internal leadership directly involved.

Option 3 — Cedric Burl & Company Implementation

For a defined scope, Cedric Burl & Company can remain involved after assessment and strategy to help move the approved plan forward.

Our team may:

• Build the implementation plan
• Assign and track action items
• Conduct research
• Prepare working materials
• Coordinate requested outreach
• Organize documents and information
• Manage follow-up
• Coordinate outside professionals
• Track deadlines
• Review progress
• Identify blockers
• Maintain status reporting
• Escalate decisions requiring client approval

Where regulated or specialized work is required, appropriately qualified professionals perform that work.

The client does not need to build a new internal department simply to pursue a temporary or specialized initiative.

What The Client Is Paying For

Implementation fees are not simply payment for someone to perform tasks.

The client is paying for an organized execution structure around the approved strategy.

That can include:

• Capacity
• Project ownership
• Research
• Coordination
• Follow-up
• Documentation
• Deadline management
• Accountability
• Professional-resource coordination
• Visibility into what has been completed and what remains outstanding

Implementation pricing depends on the actual scope.

A limited 30-day implementation assignment is different from a six-month institutional project involving multiple opportunities and professionals.

Cedric Burl & Company may price implementation as a defined project, a phased engagement, or ongoing strategic advisory depending on the work required.

The scope and fee are established before implementation begins.

How To Make The Decision

Before deciding who should execute, leadership should compare:

1. What work must actually be completed?
2. How many hours will internal implementation require?
3. What is the real internal cost of those hours?
4. What existing responsibilities will be displaced?
5. Does the internal team already know how to perform the work?
6. Who will manage the project?
7. Who will track deadlines?
8. What happens if the work is delayed?
9. What opportunities could expire while the organization is learning or waiting?
10. What would Cedric Burl & Company's implementation scope cost?
11. Which responsibilities should remain internal regardless of who manages implementation?

Then compare the options.

Do not compare our fee against zero.

Compare it against the actual Execution Cost and the Cost of Delay.

The Opportunity Number And Execution Belong Together

This is why the Opportunity Number is only one part of the assessment.

Suppose the assessment identifies:

Opportunity Universe: $3.2 million
Qualified Opportunity Range: $1.4 million
Priority Opportunity Pipeline: $650,000

Those numbers are not guarantees of money or results.

They represent the scale of screened potential opportunity surrounding the organization at that point in time.

The next question is operational:

What has to happen for the organization to pursue the $650,000 priority pipeline?

If implementation requires 400 hours of work over six months, leadership should know that before deciding to assign the work internally.

If the company does not have the capacity, it should know what an outside implementation option would cost.

That creates a more complete business decision.

Assessment tells you what exists.

Growth Strategy tells you what deserves attention.

Implementation determines whether the opportunity actually gets pursued.

A Simple Implementation Economics View

For appropriate engagements, our analysis can help frame four numbers:

1. Opportunity Number — What is the potential opportunity environment?
2. Priority Opportunity Pipeline — What deserves action now?
3. Internal Execution Cost — What would it realistically cost the organization to implement with its own people?
4. Outside Implementation Cost — What would it cost to have Cedric Burl & Company manage an agreed implementation scope?

A fifth factor should always be considered:

Cost of Delay — What may be lost or postponed if execution does not happen on time?

The lowest stated fee is not automatically the lowest total cost.

And the outside implementation option is not automatically the right answer.

The purpose of the comparison is to let leadership make the decision with visibility.

What A Cedric Burl & Company Implementation Engagement May Cost

Implementation is scoped separately because the workload can vary significantly.

Depending on the project, implementation may fall within our existing project-based engagement range of approximately $5,000–$25,000+ or ongoing strategic advisory range of approximately $2,500–$10,000+ per month.

Large, multi-party, institutional, real estate, or extended implementation assignments may exceed those ranges.

The client receives the proposed responsibilities, scope, fee, payment structure, and known third-party expenses before work begins.

The client may also choose to implement only selected priorities rather than the entire opportunity pipeline.

The Decision Should Be Economic, Not Emotional

Some owners initially react to an implementation proposal by thinking:

“My employees are already on payroll. They can do it.”

That may be correct.

But being on payroll does not mean their time has no cost.

The real question is whether assigning the work internally is the best use of that time and whether the organization has the capacity to execute before the opportunity changes or expires.

The purpose of our work is not to persuade every client to outsource implementation.

It is to make sure the client understands the economics of the choice.

Start with the opportunity.

Measure the work required.

Calculate the Execution Cost.

Consider the Cost of Delay.

Then decide who should implement.

Cedric Burl & Company
Strategic Growth & Opportunity Intelligence
Powered by the AGI Method™
Assessment | Growth Strategy | Implementation

This hypothetical example is provided for educational purposes. Dollar amounts are illustrative and are not a quote, guarantee, valuation, funding commitment, or projection of results. Actual opportunity, internal cost, implementation scope, timing, professional fees, and outcomes vary by organization and engagement.