Your Deal Source Case Stories

GRIND LAP SERVICES, INC.

Frank Ross, President

Client Challenge:

Even a precision grinding, lapping and honing company that has been an industry leader for over 40 years can benefit from an outside perspective. That was what led President Frank Ross to look for a CFO Consultant to help bring some fresh insight to their company’s growth.

Project Work:

Your Deal Source connected Grind Lap to a seasoned CFO, who not only brought that outside perspective, but also brought years of diverse experience that helped Frank and Grind Lap make some very challenging but necessary decisions that ultimately proved very lucrative. As Frank put it:

“We struggled internally about whether we should adjust our pricing, as we weren’t sure how the market would react. The trusted advisor we found at Your Deal Source came in with an outside perspective of the market as a whole and gave us the confidence we needed to make those changes. And he was right.”

Value Provided:

“A lot of single-shingle consultants may work at one company and think they know everything. What I found with the vetted consultant I met through Your Deal Source was someone who worked at different companies, and different sized companies. So he’d seen a lot along the way and brought all of that experience to the table.”

GLADIATOR CAPITAL GROUP

Max Edwards, Principal

Client Challenge:

Gladiator is a group of highly experienced, investment-oriented individuals that buy and sell companies. They invest in companies in transportation, construction, manufacturing, and other service businesses. After a few transactions, they wanted to bring in expert to do a deeper dive into the financials of the firms they were considering for investment. They turned to Your Deal Source and found Sal Burd.

Project Work:

Sal consulted with Gladiator and added his expertise to evaluating investment opportunities, reviewing financial statements, helping raise capital, and creating an overall CFO strategy for their portfolio companies.

“Sal is direct. He’s very efficient and doesn’t pull any punches. We really fell in love with his style and how he conducts himself.”

Sal went above and beyond and provided us with a costing report, some suggestions on what we need to do for pricing to improve profitability in the portfolio businesses.

Value Provided:

“Hiring Sal freed up my time. So that’s huge. He’s taken things off my plate and he’s elevated our analysis. His work allowed Gladiator to make proper decisions, make hard decisions. Using numbers to back up our decisions provides real value. He also gives us credibility in the marketplace. By teaming up with Sal, using his name as our advisor in financial performance and reporting, and utilizing his experience and expertise really gives our team a boost and credibility.”
Max Edwards, Principal, Gladiator Capital Group

Making a Grand Exit from Your Life’s Work – A Your Deal Source Success Story

The advantages to Your Deal Source membership extend beyond the online marketplace and into the “real world” whenever we hold live, in-person events. Unlike typical happy-hour style networking gatherings, the events hosted by Your Deal Source allow the same vetted C-Level consultants to interact with business owners looking for quality resources.

Since October of last year, we held several insightful lunch and learn events featuring a lineup of great speakers and allowed for some face to face interactions as well.

Below is a story highlighting a typical successful meeting that took place, with names omitted to allow this story to be shared publicly.

An exit strategy is a gratifying step in the lifecycle of a small business owner’s journey. However, without the right support and knowledge, sale of equity can also be downright terrifying. A President of a family-owned printing business made it known, through a few casual conversations, that she had reached the point in her life where she wanted to begin the process of transitioning ownership to younger family members.

While this small business had a competent and experienced accounting staff, they did not have the specific expertise required to complete transition of ownership to new family members. So even though she knew what she wanted to achieve, there was much they didn’t know.

What is the market value of the company?

Could she simply “sell” the business to her kids?

How would they pay for it?

What are the tax implications of such a transaction?

What are the legal pitfalls to avoid?

This business owner was excited to have met one of Your Deal Source’s fractional CFO members, who asked all the right questions upon hearing her plans. And more importantly, had some answers of his own.

The YDS Trusted Advisor is currently working with the Business Owner Member on a transition plan that will help her achieve her real goal: Retiring with peace of mind at a time when she’s ready to take it easy, not take on more legal and financial stress.

The benefits of becoming a member of Your Deal Source as a Business Owner is clear: When you need a specific set of skills to manage a once-in-a-lifetime event, or attack every-day problems, our pool of vetted Trusted Advisors is likely to provide the expertise you need, when you need it.