HR consulting for small businesses that don’t have an HR team
Senior, US-based HR consultants who run the whole function or fill the gaps — compliance, handbooks, hiring, and employee relations. Trusted by growing companies since 2011.
Book a free 15-minute consult →Take the free HR risk assessment
What is small business HR consulting? It’s outside HR expertise brought in on a fractional, project, or on-call basis instead of hiring a full-time HR employee. For most companies between 10 and 200 employees, a consultant covers the same ground — multi-state compliance, employee handbooks, payroll oversight, hiring, and employee relations — at a fraction of the cost of a salaried HR manager, and with deeper experience than a first HR hire would bring.
When small businesses call us
Most of our clients reach out at one of four moments. If any of these sound familiar, a consult is worth 15 minutes of your time.
HR has landed on the wrong person
Your CFO, office manager, or you are handling HR on top of a real job. It works until it doesn’t — usually the first time someone files a complaint or you hire across state lines.
You’re growing across state lines
Multi-state employment means multi-state law: leave entitlements, pay transparency, final-paycheck rules, and required postings all change at the border.
Something has come up
A termination that needs to be handled cleanly, a workplace investigation, or a classification question you don’t want to answer on your own.
You’re building the foundation
Post-funding, leaving a PEO, or making a first HR hire — and you want the handbook, policies, and systems built right before you scale headcount.
What a small business HR consultant actually does
Every engagement is led by a senior, US-based practitioner. No chatbot, no ticket queue, no junior learning on your dime.
Compliance & policy
Employee handbooks, single-policy drafting, multi-state compliance review, required postings, and monitoring the law changes that affect you.
Hiring & recruiting
Job descriptions, compensation benchmarking, sourcing, screening, and full-cycle recruiting when a search has stalled.
Employee relations
Investigations, performance management, terminations, and the difficult conversations you want documented correctly.
HR operations & systems
Payroll oversight, HRIS selection and implementation, onboarding workflows, and cleaning up the files you inherited.
Ways to work with us
Start with a single project or keep us on retainer. Pricing is published — no discovery call required to find out what it costs.
How engagements start
- A free 15-minute consult. You tell us what’s on your plate. We tell you straight whether we’re the right fit — including when we’re not.
- A scoped recommendation. We propose the specific support you need, at published pricing, before any paid work begins.
- A senior consultant starts. Usually within a week. You work with an experienced practitioner, not an account manager.
- You scale it up or down. Add hours during a hiring push, pull back when things settle. No annual lock-in.
Why companies choose Jumpstart HR
Senior, US-based practitioners
Every engagement is led by someone who does this work daily and has handled your situation before.
Backed by independent research
Our research arm publishes vendor-neutral HR technology intelligence, so our advice on tools isn’t sold to us by vendors.
Published pricing
Most of what we do has a price on the website. You can budget before you ever talk to us.
Operating since 2011
Fifteen years supporting small businesses, startups, nonprofits, and stretched enterprise HR teams.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a small business HR consultant cost?
Ours range from $299/month for on-call guidance to $3,600/month for 20 hours, up to $6,400/month for 40 hours. Project work like an employee handbook or HR audit is priced individually and published on our site. For comparison, a full-time HR manager in most US markets runs well over $90,000 a year before benefits.
When should a small business hire an HR consultant instead of an HR employee?
Generally when you need senior expertise more than you need forty hours a week of HR work. Companies under roughly 75 employees often can’t justify a full-time senior HR hire but genuinely need senior-level judgment on compliance and employee relations. A consultant gives you the expertise without the salary.
Do you work with companies outside Maryland?
Yes. We’re headquartered in Columbia, Maryland and support clients across the United States, including multi-state employers. Multi-state compliance is one of the most common reasons companies come to us.
Can you work alongside our existing HR person?
Frequently. Many clients have one HR generalist who is stretched thin. We plug in for leave administration, investigations, recruiting overflow, or specialist projects so your person isn’t the bottleneck.
What is the difference between HR consulting and a PEO?
A PEO becomes a co-employer of your staff and bundles payroll and benefits, often with long contracts and less flexibility. An HR consultant advises and executes without taking on co-employment, so you keep control of your employment relationship and your vendor choices. Many of our clients come to us when leaving a PEO.
Not sure what you need yet?
Take the free HR risk assessment for a prioritized read on your gaps, or book 15 minutes and we’ll tell you straight.