Defined-scope projects you can hand us and get back fast, with one fixed fee quoted up front. Operator-grade and independent, built for the lower-middle-market deals bigger firms pass on. Whether you are buying, selling, borrowing, or just deciding, we prove the numbers and tell you what they mean.
Each is fixed-fee and scoped up front. Every one is real work, done by an operator and a CPA, not a junior with a template.
A buyer’s-eye read of your books, owner-dependency, and customer concentration, ending in a plain punch list of what a buyer will find and what to fix. Run the exam on yourself before the buyer does, while you still have the leverage and the time. The two deal-killers are time and surprise, and this removes both.
A fast, pre-offer screen that flags the deal-breakers before you spend on a full review. Screening several targets at once, or deciding whether to go to market at all? Start here. You get a clear read on the handful of things that would kill or reprice the deal.
Three sides to every deal. Two of them get covered.
A full buy-side engagement combines both disciplines below, the financial read and the operational read, so a buyer knows exactly what they are getting before they wire. On the sell side, the financial read is your Quality of Earnings, run before you list. Take one discipline or both. Most reviews at this deal size do one and skip the other; we do both.
The numbers read, led by Ryan (CPA). We tie the earnings to the bank, test every add-back against three gates, peg net working capital, and pressure-test whether the number holds. The question it answers: are the earnings real and repeatable? Buy-side or sell-side.
The full QoE page →The non-financial read, led by Jared. Customer-reference and concentration calls, the people and operating picture, and what breaks in the first hundred days. The question it answers: will the earnings hold once the owner is gone? It is the part most reviews at this size skip, and the one acquirers cannot run themselves without tipping off the target.
It also covers the process read: whether the money-making motion is written down or lives in someone’s head, which systems the business actually uses versus which ones it pays for, where a single person is the only one who can perform a step, and what each step costs. That is how inefficiency stops being a complaint and becomes a number you can recover before a sale, or ask credit for during one.
A model that holds up in the room, built by operators, not a template with your logo on it. For a capital raise, a lender package, an acquisition, or a board. The assumptions are real because we have lived them.
The fastest, cheapest door-opener, and the quiet deal-killer if you get it wrong. We nail the working-capital picture and the peg so you know the number before you sign, not 90 days after the wire clears.
Every one of these is real work, done by the two people you hire, not handed to a junior. And because we have actually run businesses, we do not just grade the numbers; we tell you which problems are fixable, which move the price, and which kill the deal. When it makes sense, the same people can stay on to run what you built. One firm, from first look to the long haul.
Deal services are fixed-fee, with a deposit to start and the balance at delivery. One number, quoted up front after a short scoping call. The scopes, smallest to largest:
Final fee depends on the complexity of the books and the deal. Tell us the situation and we send a scoped number, usually within one business day. No meter running, no surprises. Embedded work, if you grow into it, is a separate monthly engagement.
This is the same routing we use on a first call. It runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask for the fee range at the end.
QoEs start at $7,500. Everything is fixed-fee and quoted as one number before any work begins.
Tell us what is in front of you. We will tell you which of these fits, what it costs, and how fast we can run it.
Send us the deal Find your scope first“Consistent knowledge in the finance and scaling of our company. We have three complex divisions, and his ability to navigate and create factual strategies has been a great help.”
Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations
Verbatim client review.