What owners come here for.
Six engagements, one standard. Each begins with the value of the company established on paper, is run personally by the two principals who sign the engagement letter, and ends with a decision the owner can defend to a partner, a spouse and a buyer’s counsel. The first of the six carries no fee.
01 · Most common
Undecided
“I don’t know if I want to sell yet.”
Value the company. Pressure-test the strategic plan. Review the asset base held outside the business. Check whether the key people are actually under contract. Establish a keep-or-sell timeline.
- Business valuation, and what drives the number up or down
- Strategic plan reviewed against what a buyer would pay for
- Assets held outside the operating company, and how they are treated
- Key-person contracts, or the absence of them
- A written keep-or-sell timeline you can act on or ignore
Deciding to keep the company is a legitimate outcome, and a common one.
02 · Sell-side
Exit
“I’m ready, and nobody can find out.”
Preparation of the company for sale, valuation analysis, writing the offering memorandum, sourcing interested parties, creating a controlled auction rather than a single-buyer negotiation, and negotiating terms and conditions through due diligence to a completed transaction.
- Preparation of the company and its financial record for sale
- Valuation analysis and the defensible basis behind it
- The confidential offering memorandum and the blind teaser
- Buyer universe development, strategic and financial
- A controlled auction managed to a deadline
- Terms, conditions and diligence through to close
Price is one term among several, and the others frequently matter more to the outcome.
03 · Buy-side
Growth
“The fastest way forward is to buy someone.”
Identification and initial contact of targets, preliminary due diligence to determine whether the acquisition is appropriate at all, negotiating business terms, and working the process to a completed transaction.
- Target identification against a stated acquisition thesis
- Initial, discreet contact with owners who are not for sale
- Preliminary diligence, before anyone is emotionally committed
- Business terms, structure and financing
- Process management through to a completed transaction
Preliminary diligence frequently ends in a recommendation not to proceed, which is a cheaper outcome than discovering the same thing after closing.
04 · Structure
Equity
“The cap table was built for a company half this size.”
Financing needs, estate plan integration, shareholders agreements, dividends, employment contracts, recapitalization and valuation.
- Recapitalization and the liquidity it creates without a sale
- Shareholders agreements and employment contracts
- Dividend policy and distributions between owners
- Multi-generational estate plan integration
- Valuation as the anchor under all of it
This work usually surfaces around a retirement, a second-generation transition, or a partner’s divorce.
05 · Capital
Corporate Finance
“The bank said no, and it was the wrong question.”
Capital access through commercial banks and through public and private debt and equity markets, including non-traditional sources.
- Senior debt, and the covenant structure underneath it
- Public and private debt and equity markets
- Non-traditional and specialty finance sources
- Refinancing as an alternative to a sale
- Capital structure matched to where the company is going
Several mandates that arrive as a sale are better solved as a refinance or a recapitalization, and we will say so.
06 · Fee-based
Advisory
“I need someone senior in the room for a year.”
Fee-based strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, negotiation and arrangement of management and shareholder buy-outs, sourcing of non-traditional financing, business succession planning, and design of business plans coordinated with the estate plan.
- Strategic planning with the transaction horizon in view
- Management and shareholder buy-outs, negotiated and arranged
- Business succession planning across generations
- Business plans designed alongside the estate plan
- Senior counsel, retained, without a transaction attached
Scoped in writing before it starts, so the fee is known before the work is.
07 · Operating
AI implementation and strategy
“Everyone says AI. Nobody has told us which tools, or where to start.”
Independent guidance on choosing, integrating and adopting the AI tools and services that lower overhead and grow revenue, from principals who have done it in businesses of their own. Documented to the standard a buyer’s diligence will one day expect.
- Assessment and a scored AI roadmap
- Independent tool selection, no vendor commissions
- Guided integration, rollout, training and usage policy
- Monthly measurement against a day-one baseline
What sits underneath
Twelve capabilities every engagement draws on.
The six practice areas are assembled from these. They are not separate products, they are not sold individually, and they are not billed separately.
Before you call
Questions about the practice.
The Undecided practice. It covers a business valuation, a review of the strategic plan against what a buyer would actually pay for, treatment of assets held outside the operating company, key-person contracts, and a written keep-or-sell timeline. Deciding to keep the company is a legitimate outcome.
Yes. The Growth practice is buy-side: target identification against a stated acquisition thesis, discreet first contact with owners who are not for sale, preliminary diligence, business terms, financing and process management through to close.
Often, yes. The Corporate Finance practice covers senior debt, public and private debt and equity markets, and non-traditional or specialty finance. Several mandates that arrive as a sale are better solved as a refinance or a recapitalization.
Advisory engagements are fee-based and scoped in writing before they start. Sell-side and buy-side mandates are quoted per engagement. The first conversation, including an Opinion of Value, carries no fee.
The first conversation is a valuation.
It costs nothing and carries no obligation. You leave with a range for what the company is worth today and a specific list of what is holding that number down.