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Strategic Advisory for Founder-Led Service Firms

Professional services firms face a fundamental challenge: how do you build equity value in a business where the primary asset walks out the door every night? Most founders solve this by staying small and profitable. The sophisticated ones figure out how to build leverage—adding partners, developing repeatable methodologies, creating intellectual property, transitioning client relationships from personal to institutional. These aren't accounting questions. They're business model questions with profound financial implications.

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We work with professional services firms across law, consulting, marketing, engineering, and advisory practices. We understand that a litigation boutique has different economics than a transactional practice, that a creative agency scales differently than a management consultancy, and that what works for a solo practitioner doesn't work for a 20-person firm.

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Strategic Advisory for Professional Services Firms

• Partnership compensation structures—equity vs. profit sharing vs. salary

• Transition planning from founder-led to partner-led operations

• Client concentration analysis and relationship diversification strategy

• Pricing models—hourly vs. value-based vs. retainer economics

• Profitability by client and service line, not just firm-wide

• Tax strategy for professional service entity structures

• Associate leverage models and talent investment ROI

• Exit planning and practice valuation strategies

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The strategic question most firm founders avoid: Are you building a practice or building a business? A practice generates income while you run it. A business creates equity value that exists independent of you. The financial structures that optimize for one actively undermine the other.

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Different service models require different approaches. Litigation and project work create lumpy revenue requiring sophisticated cash flow management. Retainer-based advisory models optimize for recurring revenue and client lifetime value. High-leverage firms with multiple associates need different compensation structures than partner-only boutiques. Knowledge-based firms should think about IP development and methodology licensing.

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The firms we advise are asking the hard questions: How do we add a partner without destroying economics for existing owners? Should we transition to value-based pricing or does hourly billing still make sense? Is our client concentration sustainable or are we building a house of cards? What does this firm look like in five years if we execute well?

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​If you're ready to work with advisors who understand that professional services firms require fundamentally different financial thinking than product businesses, let's talk.