No spin. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you.

Advisory is senior judgment on a cadence: we sit above the business, pressure-test the plan and the numbers, and give you a straight answer when it counts. That fits when you have a capable team and want experienced eyes on the big calls. Embedded is both partners in the seats, doing the work with your team, building the operating rhythm, the bench, and the systems. That is the flagship. Tell us the situation and we will say which one it actually needs.

Sometimes. Most engagements are a fixed fee or a monthly retainer. On some deals we take part of our fee as a minority stake, always disclosed in writing, and only in deals we recommended.

Roughly $500K to $5M of EBITDA, plus the good Main Street businesses below that range. On the deal side that means lower-middle-market transactions, buy-side or sell-side. If you fall outside it and we are not the right fit, we will tell you and point you somewhere better.

It depends on the scope, and we count in business days from Day 1: the later of the last critical item on our request list and cleared payment, never from signing. A Red-Flag Screen takes about 5 business days; Light runs 10 to 15 business days, Core 10 to 20, and Full 15 to 25. A rush, at an added fee, delivers inside 10 business days. Incomplete records are the most common reason a timeline slips. If you are on a shorter clock, say so up front and we will tell you honestly whether we can hit it.

Deal services are fixed-fee, quoted as one fee in writing after a short scoping call. Light reviews start at $10,000, Core at $15,000 and Full at $25,000, sell-side or buy-side. A Red-Flag Screen starts at $5,000 and is credited toward a full engagement. Light and Red-Flag are paid in full at signing; Core and Full are half at signing and half at delivery. No part of the fee moves with the findings or with whether the deal closes. Embedded work is a monthly engagement, scoped to the seats you take.

No. Your CPA keeps the reporting, tax and compliance right. Your broker runs the sale. We do the forward-looking finance, the operating work and the readiness in between, and we work alongside both. Different jobs. We are not brokers or investment bankers.

We work for the party that engages us, and our conclusions do not depend on whether the deal closes. Three rules hold on every engagement: we take no fee from any lender; we take no stake in any deal where we sell the diligence to a third party or a lender; and on any deal we partner on, an independent firm writes the lender’s quality of earnings. On some deals we take part of our fee as a minority stake, always disclosed in writing, and only in deals we recommended. We take no success fee and never work both sides of a transaction. If a number does not hold up it goes in the report, including when that is inconvenient for the party paying us, and we show the add-backs we reject.

No. Most people start with a single, fixed-fee deal service, a quality of earnings or an Exit Readiness Review. If it makes sense to keep us on as your CFO and operating partner afterward, we can. If what you need is bookkeeping or steady-state back-office help, we will point you somewhere better.